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What Color Is Your Parachute?

7 memorable lines from What Color Is Your Parachute? by Richard Nelson Bolles, each with the idea behind it.

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Lines labelled “HourLife takeaway” are our wording of the book’s ideas and may paraphrase it. Only lines in quotation marks are the author’s own words, with where they appear. Check the book for exact wording before you quote it. Spot an error?

A better job search starts with self-inventory, not job boards.

What Color Is Your Parachute? Richard Nelson Bolles HourLife takeaway

The book asks you to map what you bring before asking the market to answer for you.

Skills become portable when you can name the problem they solve.

What Color Is Your Parachute? Richard Nelson Bolles HourLife takeaway

Transferable skills need evidence, not adjectives.

Informational interviews turn a fantasy career into observable work.

What Color Is Your Parachute? Richard Nelson Bolles HourLife takeaway

People inside the field can show the real shape of the week.

The flower exercise is a constraint tool: it narrows the search without shrinking ambition.

What Color Is Your Parachute? Richard Nelson Bolles HourLife takeaway

Preferences help you avoid generic applications.

Networking works better when it is research before asking.

What Color Is Your Parachute? Richard Nelson Bolles HourLife takeaway

Curiosity opens doors that cold persuasion cannot.

A career change is a campaign of small experiments.

What Color Is Your Parachute? Richard Nelson Bolles HourLife takeaway

Each conversation can update the map.

Work conditions matter because talent performs differently in different rooms.

What Color Is Your Parachute? Richard Nelson Bolles HourLife takeaway

Fit includes pace, autonomy, values, and people.

Keep this going in the app.

HourLife turns these ideas into a daily system — goals, habits, focus, and reflection in one private place.