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Let me tell you about a resource that convinced me to walk away from a business generating $950,000 annually.
It’s 2015. I’m running a successful practice I built from scratch. On paper, I’m crushing it. In reality? I’m drowning in employee drama, administrative nonsense, and the soul-crushing realization that I hate what I’m doing despite being objectively good at it.
But you can’t just say that out loud when you own a successful business. People think you’re insane. “You’ve made it!” they say. “This is what everyone wants!”
Except I didn’t want it. Not anymore.
That’s when I picked up Dan Miller’s “48 Days to the Work You Love”—and it gave me both the blueprint and the courage to reinvent my career completely. I chose the book. The online course existed, but honestly, I didn’t think I needed it. The book was enough for me.
Looking back now? I wonder if I would have made the transition even smoother with the course’s deeper dive and additional support. Here’s what you need to know about both options.
What This System Actually Does
“48 Days to the Work You Love” is a structured 48-day process that forces you to confront uncomfortable truths about your career. It’s not another generic “follow your dreams” resource. It’s a framework for determining what you truly want versus what you’re “supposed to” like.
The content is available in two formats: as a book (paperback, Kindle, audiobook) or as a comprehensive online course, featuring video lessons, worksheets, community support, and accountability systems.
I went with the book in 2015, and it completely changed my career trajectory. But here’s the thing—when you’re about to alter the entire direction of your professional life, when you’re walking away from something successful to chase something uncertain, maybe the deeper dive the course offers is worth considering.
Why I Needed This (And Why You Might Too)
I owned a business generating nearly a million dollars annually. I managed staff, handled operations, executed technical work—all competently. But I was burning out fast.
The problem wasn’t that I was bad at running a business. The problem was that I was good at it—but I hated it.
What I actually loved? Teaching. Every time I had interns or junior professionals shadowing me, I came alive. Those days energized me. Everything else drained me.
But admitting “I hate my successful business” felt ridiculous. So I kept going, kept pushing, kept telling myself I should be grateful for what I’d built.
Dan Miller’s system permitted me to stop lying to myself. More importantly, it provided me with a framework to determine what I actually wanted—and the courage to pursue it.
How the 48-Day Process Works
Whether you choose the book or the course, Miller structures the content into four phases:
Phase 1: Self-Assessment (Days 1-12) — This phase asks the questions you’ve been avoiding. Who are you beyond your job title? What energizes versus drains you? What would you do even without payment?
The most powerful exercise is the “energy audit”—tracking which activities give you energy versus which deplete you. When I finished this exercise, the pattern was embarrassingly clear: I loved teaching and mentoring. I hated employee management and administrative tasks. That single exercise changed the course of my career.
Phase 2: Skills Identification (Days 13-24) — This isn’t just “what are you good at?” It’s “which skills do you actually want to use?” Because being good at something is a terrible reason to spend the rest of your life doing it.
I discovered I had more decisive leadership and teaching skills than I’d acknowledged. I had been using them to manage a business I didn’t want to run, instead of developing people, which is what I actually loved.
Phase 3: Market Positioning (Days 25-36) — This phase helps you translate what you love into sustainable work. For me, this reframed my entire experience. All those years of practice ownership, team leadership, and operational management? That wasn’t just “business experience”—it was preparation for academic leadership. Miller helped me see my career history as career capital, not sunk cost.
Phase 4: Action Planning (Days 37-48) — This phase transitions the content from reflection to action. Specific next steps. Timeline creation. Accountability systems. By day 48, I had a clear plan: sell my business, position myself for academic roles, and pursue teaching and program leadership.
And here’s the critical part—I actually did it.
The 85% Rule That Changed Everything
Miller claims 85% of finding meaningful work is internal work—understanding yourself before you start optimizing your resume or networking. This completely inverted my approach to career change.
Instead of immediately updating LinkedIn and applying for jobs (the typical panic response), I spent weeks examining what actually energized me, what drained me, and what I’d been ignoring.
The pattern was crystal clear once I stopped avoiding it.
Most career advice tells you to “network more” or “update your LinkedIn.” Miller tells you to understand yourself first—then everything else becomes obvious. That’s the blueprint. And once you have the blueprint, you need the courage to follow it.
Book vs Course: Here’s What You Need to Know
I chose the book in 2015. The course existed, but as a reader, I tend to work through things independently, so the book felt like the right fit. And it was—the book alone gave me everything I needed to walk away from a successful business and build the career I actually wanted.
But here’s what I’ve come to realize: when you’re standing at the edge of a significant career change, when you’re about to walk away from something lucrative and comfortable to chase something that aligns with who you actually are, maybe going deeper isn’t excessive. Perhaps it’s wise.
The Book: What It Offers
The book is the complete 48-day system in written form. You get all the frameworks, exercises, and guidance Miller developed. It’s portable, you can work through it at your own pace, and you own it forever.
The book worked brilliantly for me because I’m disciplined about working through exercises independently. I read it, wrote answers to every exercise by hand, and ultimately gained complete clarity about my next career move. It gave me the blueprint and the courage I needed.
The Online Course: What Makes It Different
Here’s the thing about major life decisions: you don’t get do-overs. When you’re about to alter the entire trajectory of your professional life, when you’re walking away from known success to pursue something that feels right but uncertain, having every possible advantage matters.
The course builds on the duplicate foundational content and provides additional support structures that I didn’t have access to during my transition. Here’s what makes it different:
Video Lessons with Dan Miller — Watch Miller walk through each concept with visual explanations and real examples. Sometimes hearing someone explain a concept out loud, seeing their face, catching the emphasis they put on specific ideas—that hits differently than reading words on a page. If you’re a visual or auditory learner, this depth can make complex ideas click faster and stick longer.
Pre-Formatted Worksheets — Download exercises ready to complete digitally or print. No blank page intimidation. No wondering if you’re doing it “right.” When you’re already dealing with the anxiety of a significant career change, removing even minor friction points helps you stay focused on the actual work of transformation.
Community Forums — This is the part I really wish I’d had—access to other professionals working through the same process at the same time. Observe how individuals in various industries apply these frameworks. Get unstuck when you hit a roadblock. Share insights and learn from others’ breakthroughs. When you’re making a scary decision, knowing you’re not alone in the process matters more than you might think.
Structured Timeline with Reminders — The course follows a 48-day structure, with scheduled content releases and email reminders. Built-in accountability that keeps you moving forward, rather than letting the process drag out indefinitely. I had the discipline to complete the book on my own timeline, but to be honest, there were days when I wanted to quit, especially when the exercises became uncomfortable. External structure might have helped me push through faster.
Lifetime Access — Revisit the content whenever you face new career decisions or transitions. Your career isn’t a one-time decision. The course becomes a valuable resource you can refer to multiple times throughout your professional life as you encounter new challenges and crossroads.
Implementation Support — Get guidance on actually applying the insights, not just understanding them. The community and structured approach help bridge the gap between “I know what I should do” and “I’m actually doing it.” That gap is where most career transitions die. The book got me across it, but I had to build that bridge myself.
Look, the book changed my life. I don’t want to oversell the course just because it exists. But when I think about the stakes—walking away from a $ 950,000 business with no guarantee that the next thing would work—I realize I would have benefited from going deeper. The community support alone, seeing how other professionals interpreted the exercises and applied them to their situations, would have given me additional confidence that I was making the right call.
If you’re about to make a decision that will fundamentally alter your professional trajectory, the extra depth and support might be worth it. This isn’t about buying more stuff. It’s about equipping yourself fully for one of the most important decisions you’ll make in your career.
Explore the online course here
So Which One Should You Choose?
Here’s my honest take after going through this process and watching others do the same:
Choose the book if: You’re self-disciplined about completing exercises independently. You learn well from reading. You prefer working at your own pace without external structure. You’re confident you’ll do the work without accountability. The book will give you everything you need if you actually use it.
Choose the course if: You’re about to make a massive career change and want every possible advantage. You learn better through video than text. You need external accountability to follow through. You want the community support of others going through the same transformation. You’ve historically bought books and never finished them. You want to go as deep as possible before making a life-altering decision.
Consider both if: You want the portability of the book plus the depth and community of the course. You learn best through multiple formats. You’re serious about making a significant career transition, and the investment in both resources is insignificant compared to the stakes of the decision you’re making.
The content is powerful either way. I succeeded with just the book because I’m disciplined and learn well from reading. But would I have had an even smoother transition with the course’s additional depth and community support? Probably. Would the additional investment have been worthwhile given the stakes involved? Absolutely.
The real question isn’t which format is “better”—it’s how much support you want when you’re about to change the entire direction of your professional life.
Who Actually Needs This
This system is perfect if you’ve achieved traditional success but feel hollow. If you’re objectively good at your job and hate it. If you built something successful but soul-crushing. If you want to change fields but can’t figure out how your skills translate. If you keep asking, “Is this it?”
Skip this if you’re happy in your career. If you’re entry-level and still exploring. If you want tactical business training rather than direction setting. If you won’t actually do the exercises regardless of format.
What Happened After I Went Through This Process
The exercises kept pointing to the same conclusion: I didn’t want to be a business owner. I wanted to be an educator. So I acted on it.
2015: Sold my business and began positioning myself for academic roles.
2015-2020: Moved into teaching and program development roles, building accredited programs from scratch.
2020-2024: Became Director of Veterinary Nursing Programs at Purdue University, overseeing programs with 900+ students and managing a $2.5+ million budget.
2024-Present: Serving as Executive Director of Hospital Operations at Iowa State University’s Lloyd Veterinary Medical Center, combining operational leadership with teaching and mentoring.
Every single transition can be traced back to that 2015 realization: I love developing people and working with students. Perhaps I should consider doing that professionally, rather than as a fun part of my job.
Would I have figured this out without Miller’s system? Maybe. But probably after another five miserable years of resenting my own success. This process compressed years of vague dissatisfaction into 48 days of directed clarity.
That’s the real value—regardless of which format you choose.
How to Actually Get Results
Most people buy the book or enroll in the course, feel inspired for a week, and then never make any changes. Don’t be like most people.
Actually do the written exercises. Don’t just think about the questions; consider the answers as well. Write out your answers. There’s something about putting words on paper that forces you past your rehearsed responses into honest self-examination. I wrote my answers by hand in a journal. That physical act of writing made it real in a way that just thinking about it never did.
Give yourself the full 48 days. Don’t rush it. If you try to do it in a weekend, you’ll get surface answers. If you drag it out for six months, you’ll lose momentum. Forty-eight days is the sweet spot. The course structure helps enforce this timeline if you struggle with self-pacing.
Pay special attention to the energy audit. Track what energizes versus drains you over a typical week. The patterns that emerge are usually crystal clear and deeply uncomfortable. That discomfort is the point. You can’t change what you won’t acknowledge.
Take uncomfortable findings seriously. When the exercises keep pointing toward the same conclusion—especially if that conclusion scares you—that’s a signal, not noise. For me, every exercise pointed toward teaching and education. That scared me because it meant walking away from a business I’d built. But the signal was too strong to ignore.
Use the community if you choose the course. Don’t just consume the content in isolation. Engage with others who are going through the same process. Their questions will spark insights you wouldn’t have had on your own. Their breakthroughs will show you what’s possible. This is the advantage I didn’t have—and the one I think would have helped most.
The Bottom Line
If you’re competent at what you do but increasingly miserable doing it, you need this system. If you’ve achieved traditional success but feel hollow, you need this system. If you know something needs to change but can’t articulate what it is, you need this system.
If you’re happy where you are, feel free to skip it. Enjoy your well-aligned life.
But if you’re that mid-career professional who keeps thinking “there has to be more than this,” this might give you the nudge you need to figure out what “more” actually looks like for you.
The book was enough for me. But I’m a disciplined reader who works well independently. If you’re about to alter your entire professional trajectory, if you’re walking away from something successful to chase something that feels right, maybe the deeper dive the course offers is worth considering. When the stakes are this high, going deeper isn’t excessive—it’s preparation.
Just don’t blame me when you end up walking away from something lucrative to chase something meaningful. I’m not responsible for your life choices. I’m just the guy who went through this process first and can confirm: the detour was worth it.
The work you actually love isn’t something you find lying around. It’s something you build, deliberately, from a clear-eyed understanding of what matters to you and disciplined execution toward that vision. This system provides you with the blueprint and the courage to initiate that process.
Whether you do it through the book or the course, what you build with it is up to you
Get “48 Days to the Work You Love” book on Amazon
Explore the 48 Days online course
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Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. If you purchase through these links, I may earn a small commission at no additional cost to you. I only recommend resources I’ve personally used and believe provide genuine value. This system changed my career—that’s why I highly recommend it.