My name is Nicholas Lore. I was born July 12th, 1944, on a mountaintop in Tennessee, like my childhood hero Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier, in a little village with dirt roads that turned to mud when the perfect blue Appalachian skies cried on the men who, along with ny father, made atomic bombs.
When I was a boy, my friends and I would watch the men in dark suits walk to the train station for the ride into Philadelphia. We were, in our blessed state, Tarzans of the jungle pretending to see the "civilized" world for the first time from our hidden vantage point at the edge of the bamboo grove. The men seemed to drag enormous, invisible weights along with them as if they were sucked toward the city by some mysterious, invisible magnet. We imagined they were zombies answering the call of the Voodoo master. We did not have to stretch our imaginations very far. They did look a little like zombies. They had lost the joy of living.
Later on I lived in Greenwich Village during the days when The Village was the center of the explosion of creativity that became The Sixties. My great passion was inquiring into unexplored possibilities: how could people live their lives creatively, fully self expressed and fulfilled, without giving up their sense of wonder and play. I studied psychology, Eastern philosophy, anthropology and literature, and participated in the 60's full tilt. My friends became rock stars, explorers, painters, writers, and scientists who had found their means of self expression. I watched them grow in mastery as the years went by. Some gained worldwide renown. I still had no idea what to do with my life. Work was just a way to make a living.
I got married at the age of 27. I thought, my God, I had better start acting like a responsible adult and settle down. A man offered me the job of Plant Manager of his factory, mainly because I was honest and his previous manager wasn't. My final management job was running a solar energy and conservation company on the coast of Maine. I became restless and bored with it just as I had with every previous job. I had recently been commended for excellence by The White House, had written and been responsible for the passage of legislation that saved thousands of beautiful historic houses from destruction, had invented a technology that saved countless barrels of oil each winter. My office looked out on the breathtakingly beautiful harbor at Rockport, Maine, where lobster boats and foghorns greeted the new day. Yet I had trouble getting through the workday. Even with my extensive background in psychology, I had difficulty understanding why my workday should leave so much to be desired.
Many of my friends faced the same problem: somehow our working lives had not lived up to our dreams. I looked all over New England to find a career expert who could guide me through the process of choosing a more fulfilling direction. I was shocked to find that career counseling methods were extremely primitive, the technological equivalent of 16th century surgery. I was very fortunate that a fellow member of my local boat club, R. Buckminster Fuller, became a mentor to me. Through his coaching, I dedicated my life to creating powerful and effective career coaching methods that would allow anyone to choose a career direction that would fit them so well they would be able to wake up in the morning with enthusiasm for the workday ahead. In 1981, I founded Rockport Institute, and coined the term "career coaching". Our philosophy is that, with dedication and hard work, anyone can choose and change to a career that fits them like a custom made suit.
As the Director of Rockport Institute, I have had the opportunity to serve as personal career consultant to several national and global leaders, CEOs of Fortune 500 companies, senior policy makers of three presidential administrations, and people in nearly every field of endeavor.
President Clinton was kind enough to commend my work. He wrote: "I am heartened by your efforts to empower people to lead productive and fulfilling lives... As you well understand, knowing one's own gifts and talents is a powerful tool for finding work that is challenging and rewarding...The success of this information revolution will ultimately depend on the dedication and commitment of individuals who, like you, care deeply about helping people reach their creative and productive potential. (Your career coaching programs represent) the kind of effort our country needs in order to meet the demands of a global economy."
In the distant past I have been: a corporate CEO, an entrepreneur, plant manager of a manufacturing company, researcher in psychology, blues musician, well driller, and paperboy.
I live by a lake, in the midst of woods, fields, and flower gardens with my wonderful wife, Mitra.