If you had to build a 150-story building, how would you go about doing it?

How many gas stations are there in the United States?

Why are manhole covers round?

How would you design a coffee machine for an automobile?

In my book Behind Gold Doors-Nine Crucial Elements to Achieve Good-Enough Contentment I discuss how to achieve what I term "good-enough" contentment in your life. The book is a story about Ty, who seemed to have it all, then one day it all changed. At the end of his rope, Ty had a chance encounter with a quirky old woman who brought him on a journey to discover the nine crucial elements of good-enough contentment and helped him put a plan in place to fill his contentment gaps. His outlook on life changed forever as a result of him thinking through each of the contentment areas, re-aligning his expectations to think in terms of good-enough, and creating a prioritized plan to work towards good-enough contentment. If you haven't read the book yet I recommend you pick it up :-).

A colleague and I were doing some interviewing of upcoming college graduates at a university campus.
Most of them were very prepared, looked presentable, asked great questions, and seemingly did their research. There was one, though, who stood out from the rest, and not in a good way.

Out of the gates I knew this was going to be an interesting interview. He showed up ten minutes late for his interview time. He looked literally as if he had awakened ten minutes before the interview. He had on an old sweatshirt, jeans, and sandals and hadn’t bothered to brush his hair.

The Scenario: 
Adam, an individual contributor, just finished project-managing another successful project at his company, Conset.

After the project ship party, Adam’s manager asked him to take on a people-leadership role.

Adam was very reluctant to take on a people-leadership role. He just wanted to keep delivering great projects as an individual contributor and didn’t feel comfortable taking on the cultivation of followers.

Adam finally relented, feeling the pressure to fit into the mold of “You must aspire to be a people-leader.”

Six months into the job, Adam was the most unhappy he’d ever been at Conset. He couldn’t spend time delivering great projects like he loved. He was mired down in management meetings, addressing people issues, and trying to craft the vision for his organization.

Adam’s followers grew increasingly disgruntled with Adam’s leadership style and began leaving for other jobs inside and outside of Conset.

Nine months after taking the job, Adam had had enough and left Conset; taking a project manager job at a competitor.