一个偶然的机会Glenn Street走进了体育吉祥物行业，然而他却被这一充满激情的事业深深吸引。
Street现在是位于加拿大南部城市卡尔加里的Street Character公司的总裁，他的公司为加拿大、美国以及其他地区数以百计的职业体育代表队和大学体育代表队提供吉祥物的服饰。他把自己的事业看作是“一个非常有回报的训练”，他还补充道，“我学到了很多关于市场、销售、谈判、商业法律、合同法规以及其他的知识。”
　　Street的职业方向发生改变，是在1984年卡尔加里牛仔节期间。当时扮演节日吉祥物的那个人住院了，Street被他们的委员会主席紧急召去扮演那个吉祥物应急。
“他们发现85磅重的吉祥物服装导致他的胸腔凹陷，以至于医生们不得不摘除他的一根肋骨，因为这根肋骨压迫到了他的心脏，”Street回忆起他们主席是这么告诉他的，然后主席马上接着说，“那么，你这周末想穿那套服装么？”
“当时我还年轻，也很愚蠢，就答应了，”Street说。
然而冒了这样的风险不仅帮助Street发现并开了一家公司投身于这个正处于萌芽期的行业，同时也让他认识到自己能够把对两种似乎互不相干的事物——商业和吉祥物——的热情结合起来，并使其成为一种为他带来丰厚回报的职业。
　　事业融合在行动当中
　　还有成千上万的人成功地把他们的兴趣融合为一体，找到了让他们有成就感的职业。比如：
　　•在Deena Hoagland的儿子中风之前，他是一个很喜欢水的游泳健将。于是，这位临床医学专家Hoagland带着她的儿子来到附近的一家海洋动物训练中心，让儿子和海豚一起游泳。如今很多年过去了，她成为了岛屿海豚养护公司的执行主管——这是一家利用海豚来帮助有特别需要的儿童进行治疗的非营利机构。
　　•Lee Goff的职业重心发生了几次转变。他原先大学时候的专业是海洋生物学，但是几经辗转，他获得了昆虫学的硕士学位。作为一名昆虫学家，有一天Goff从他的旅店到一公里以外的地方参加一个会议，去听取一个关于螨类的报告。但当他到达那里的时候，却发现这个报告已经被取消了，他不想又大老远地跑回旅店，于是他去参加了关于法医昆虫学的一个讨论——也就是昆虫在犯罪现场调查中的使用。“那已经是25年前的事情了，”Goff说，现在他是夏威夷Chaminade大学法医昆虫学项目的主席，并且时常会被邀请成为像”CSI”（犯罪现场调查）这样的电视连续剧的顾问。
　　Hoagland认为，“开拓新路和另辟蹊径都是很困难的，因为你有时候会很孤单无助，而且也需要很相信自己，必须具有坚韧不拔的品质和足够的耐心。但是任何事情都是有可能的。”
　　将你的兴趣融入到事业当中
　　你想成为下一个Street, Hoagland或者Goff吗？这并没有你想象的那么难，特别是在你听取了这些成功地将自己的兴趣融入到事业当中的人所提供的建议之后：
　　•忘掉那些唱反调的人：“如果你对你的梦想充满激情，就不要期望别人非得理解，”Street指出。
　　•尽管不一定能够成功，还是应该果断地采取行动：那些成功地将两种互相矛盾的兴趣融合到某一份事业当中的人，他们通常都是非常乐于果断地采取行动——尽管不知道后果到底会是怎样。从表面上看，他们的成功似乎纯粹是运气好，但是这的的确确是冒险的结果。“我们不知道结果会怎样，”Goff说，“所以我们得去弄清楚。”
　　•想想你的资产，而不是你的债务：“你的各种兴趣有时候对于那些不相关的职业有好处，”S&S Power公司的一名设计师Kent Senko说。Seko发现了一种方法来利用他的建筑学背景从事过山车的设计。你的独特爱好“给你的工作一种其他在这个领域或者期望进入这个领域的人所不具有的视角。”他说。
　　•准备接受牺牲：“做好努力工作的准备，特别是刚刚起步的时候，”Street说。“如果你努力去做，你会发现就像电影里那样，奇迹真的会发生。”

Fuse Different Interests into an Incredible Career
Glenn Street entered the sports mascot industry by happenstance, but he got hooked by passion.
Street, now president of Calgary-based Street Characters, which supplies mascot costumes for hundreds of professional and college sports teams in the US, Canada and elsewhere, used to work in commercial real estate. He considers this career "a great 'paid' education," adding, "I learned a great deal about marketing, sales, negotiating, business law, contract law and other things."
Street's career direction changed when he was called into emergency service as a mascot during the 1984 Calgary Stampede. His committee chair asked him to substitute for the usual mascot, who was in the hospital.
"They figure the weight of the costume (85 pounds) has caused his rib cage to compress, and so they've had to remove one of his ribs, because it was pressing against his heart," Street remembers the chair telling him -- followed quickly by, "So, do you want to wear the costume this weekend?"
"Being young and foolish, I agreed," says Street.
Taking this risk not only helped Street spot a budding industry and grow a company to serve it, but it also showed him he could combine two seemingly divergent passions -- business and mascots -- into a rewarding career.
Career Fusion in Action
Thousands of others have combined their interests to find fulfilling careers. For example:
•Before Deena Hoagland's son suffered a stroke, he was a good swimmer who loved the water. So Hoagland, a therapist, took her son to a nearby marine mammal education facility to swim with the dolphins. Now, years later, she's executive director of Island Dolphin Care, a nonprofit that offers dolphin-assisted therapy to children with special needs.
•Lee Goff career focus changed several times. His original undergraduate major was marine biology, but he wound up getting a master's degree in entomology. As an entomologist, one day Goff walked a mile from his hotel to a conference to attend a presentation on mites. When he got there and found out the talk was canceled, he didn't feel like traipsing all the way back to the hotel. So he went to a different session on forensic entomology -- the use of insects in crime scene investigation. "That was over 25 years ago now," says Goff, who today is chair of the forensic sciences program at Chaminade University in Hawaii and occasionally consults for television shows like "CSI."
According to Hoagland, "trailblazing -- cutting a new path -- is difficult, lonely at times and takes believing in yourself, tenacity and a great deal of patience. But anything is possible."
Fuse Your Interests into a Career
Would you like to be the next Street, Hoagland or Goff? It's not as outlandish as you may think, especially if you listen to the advice of those who've successfully combined interests into their work before:
•Ignore the Naysayers: "If you're passionate about your dream, don't expect others to understand it," says Street.
•Take Action Despite Uncertainty: If one theme is common to people who have melded two seemingly conflicting interests into a career, it's that they've been willing to jump without knowing where -- or even if -- they'd land. On the surface, their successes may look like pure chance, but it's really a result of taking chances. "We can't tell what will happen," Goff says. "So find out."
•Think About Your Assets, Not Liabilities: "Your diverse interests can oftentimes be beneficial to the seemingly unrelated career," says Kent Seko, a designer for S&S Power. Seko found a way to turn his architecture background into a career designing roller coasters. Your unique interests "give a perspective to a job that others in that field of work or those desiring to be in that field of work may not have," he says.
•Accept Sacrifice: "Be prepared to work hard, especially during the early years," says Street. "if you build it, they will come' only works in the movies."
　　编辑：高文轲