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American Morning

Interview With Stephen Viscusi

Aired December 15, 2003 - 09:53   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Stephen Viscusi is an author and host of a nationally syndicated radio show called "On The Job." He joins us this morning to talk about the challenges of someone who's deciding to make a major career change.
You look at those pictures. That's a pretty major career change for going from the urban city in Detroit to really a beautiful location. And you can imagine, too, people would say, Ooh, I want to do that. What do you advise them to do first if that's something that appeals to them?

STEPHEN VISCUSI, RADIO HOST, "ON THE JOB": Well, it's very tempting. But you want to be sure your dream job doesn't turn into a nightmare job. And to do that today you really have to be practical. It's not a single decision. You have to base it on what your family's needs are, what your needs are, in addition to the reality of the economy and what your investment might be.

O'BRIEN: Give me the check list of what someone, let's say I should go through about myself and my family before I make a decision like this.

VISCUSI: First of all, is it really practical? Is it the right time to make the change? is it definitely for you? Or is it just something that's in your mind?

And also, is the business that you're interested in creating, if it is a business, is it something that has an asset to it? For instance the ranch has real estate. So that value will be there as opposed to a restaurant. But if it doesn't take off, might not be there six months from now or even a year from now.

O'BRIEN: There are investment advisers who said don't do this. We heard even though they were financially well off they had to go ahead and borrow money to pay to buy the ranch.

Would you say that the first step is to sort of do a short-term, you know, take a vacation at a ranch, spend three months, spend six months, apprentice with someone else?

(CROSSTALK)

VISCUSI: Not only apprentice, but go to a school, take a course, really examine what it's like to be in a new career, whatever that career might be. And be cognizant that it's important, the money part is important, but what you want to do and being happy is also equally as important. O'BRIEN: At the same time the reality is depending on what age you are you can do whatever you need to have to do with the money. If they put all their money into this ranch -- and my understanding is in the eight years since he quit his job and the week they spent in buying this ranch, the ranch has doubled in value. It's now worth several million dollars.

But he's not a young guy. I mean, that's got to be a concern.

VISCUSI: Age is very important. And also remember, this happened seven years ago when the economy was stronger. Today, you really think twice before you do something like this. You really do it slowly and you do it in small steps before you do anything quite that grand today.

O'BRIEN: You see if it's your dream tomorrow, and the next day and the next day. Because you got to do, you got to do it.

VISCUSI: That's right.

O'BRIEN: Stephen Viscusi, nice to have you. Thanks so much for weighing in on all this for us. We certainly appreciate it.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired December 15, 2003 - 09:53   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Stephen Viscusi is an author and host of a nationally syndicated radio show called "On The Job." He joins us this morning to talk about the challenges of someone who's deciding to make a major career change.
You look at those pictures. That's a pretty major career change for going from the urban city in Detroit to really a beautiful location. And you can imagine, too, people would say, Ooh, I want to do that. What do you advise them to do first if that's something that appeals to them?

STEPHEN VISCUSI, RADIO HOST, "ON THE JOB": Well, it's very tempting. But you want to be sure your dream job doesn't turn into a nightmare job. And to do that today you really have to be practical. It's not a single decision. You have to base it on what your family's needs are, what your needs are, in addition to the reality of the economy and what your investment might be.

O'BRIEN: Give me the check list of what someone, let's say I should go through about myself and my family before I make a decision like this.

VISCUSI: First of all, is it really practical? Is it the right time to make the change? is it definitely for you? Or is it just something that's in your mind?

And also, is the business that you're interested in creating, if it is a business, is it something that has an asset to it? For instance the ranch has real estate. So that value will be there as opposed to a restaurant. But if it doesn't take off, might not be there six months from now or even a year from now.

O'BRIEN: There are investment advisers who said don't do this. We heard even though they were financially well off they had to go ahead and borrow money to pay to buy the ranch.

Would you say that the first step is to sort of do a short-term, you know, take a vacation at a ranch, spend three months, spend six months, apprentice with someone else?

(CROSSTALK)

VISCUSI: Not only apprentice, but go to a school, take a course, really examine what it's like to be in a new career, whatever that career might be. And be cognizant that it's important, the money part is important, but what you want to do and being happy is also equally as important. O'BRIEN: At the same time the reality is depending on what age you are you can do whatever you need to have to do with the money. If they put all their money into this ranch -- and my understanding is in the eight years since he quit his job and the week they spent in buying this ranch, the ranch has doubled in value. It's now worth several million dollars.

But he's not a young guy. I mean, that's got to be a concern.

VISCUSI: Age is very important. And also remember, this happened seven years ago when the economy was stronger. Today, you really think twice before you do something like this. You really do it slowly and you do it in small steps before you do anything quite that grand today.

O'BRIEN: You see if it's your dream tomorrow, and the next day and the next day. Because you got to do, you got to do it.

VISCUSI: That's right.

O'BRIEN: Stephen Viscusi, nice to have you. Thanks so much for weighing in on all this for us. We certainly appreciate it.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com