Create your own Job Opportunity

Having trouble finding a job? Not finding a job you want to do? Why not try this on for size? Create your own job opportunity.

What do I mean by that? Let me give you an example of what I did.

As you probably read in this post about Mey Eden and Tami4 (if not you should read it if you have either one or are thinking about either one), I am a big believer in not drinking water in Israel straight from the tap. When we made Aliyah from Passaic, NJ on the very first Nefesh B'Nefesh flight in the summer of 2002, one of the first things I did was ordered Mey Eden spring water.

There was only one problem. I was right off the plane and could hardly dial a cell phone number much less talk in Hebrew well enough to order something as simple as spring water. It wouldn't have been so bad if a live person would have picked up the phone, but the beautiful Hebrew voice system stopped me at Hello. I remember asking my neighbor to help me order the machine and a few bottles of water which she did.

But that got me thinking. I was probably not the only native English speaker that would want the delicacy of spring water and there were probably hundreds of others who would rather speak directly with a native English speaker then in broken grammar school Hebrew. So I called up Mey Eden headquarters and asked to speak with someone in marketing and I made my pitch.

I told them that I would become their Anglo representative to Anglos all over Israel. I will set up a different number with just English voice mail. They would give me a monthly budget and I would run all the advertising campaigns in perfect English and I told that I was sure to become one of the best salesmen the company had ever seen.

Well he went for the pitch, liked what I had to say and invited me to meet with him the very next day at Mey Eden. I was actually a bit excited. Here I was, just a couple of weeks off the plane and I already had an interview with one of the most successful and recognized companies in the country. It was a job opportunity I was excited about and knew I could do well.

So I went to the meeting (took a cab as I didn't know the bus systems yet) and gave again the same pitch. I was meeting with the decision maker and he impressed. He offered me a job on the spot, but then we came to the salary situation. The truth is the starting salary he offered me wasn't bad, but I wanted to make monthly residual commissions on every client I brought them and he was only willing to give me a one time commission on each sale. This was a deal breaker for me as I felt why should I bring in a client who will be bringing you monthly income for several years and only get paid once? I wasn't even asking a lot, but I knew for me to be motivated and to spend the amount of time necessary for it to be a success it would have to have potential to bring in a big and residual income.

He told me to think about it and so I went home and discussed it with my wife and the next day I called him back and turned it down.

But the point of the story is that I knew my strengths. I knew what would motivate me and what I would like to do. I saw a missing opportunity for a company and so I created a position for myself that they didn't know they needed (and which they still need in my opinion).

So here is my challenge to you. There must be someone reading this blog post who is in need of a job. Read my post on Mey Eden vs Tami4 and then pick up the phone and call Tami4. Explain how you feel you can become the Anglo representative of the company and with the market being what it is you are 100% sure you can not only sell their product to Anglos who don't have any solution, but that you can convince a number of people to switch from bottled water to filtered water. Someone out there can do this and get a job from an opportunity they created with a great company with a great company. Will it be you? Why not pick up the phone and find out.

Nachum Kligman is the Founder & Executive Chairman of Qoof Ltd., The Video Commerce Company. He also writes a blog giving advice to Israeli entrepreneurs and business owners at www.israpreneur.com.