By Dave DeWitte

Jennifer Zach is an Ely-based life coach who works mainly with women who are interested in starting new careers or opening a business.

Now, Zach is also an author who deserves credit for attacking the uncertainty that lurks within so many people who are thinking about chasing their entrepreneurial dreams.

“Let Your Light Shine,” published this spring, is a little golden book of inspiration for the would-be entrepreneur or career-changer. For the many people who’ve been told they’re crazy to think about quitting that solid job that never brought fulfillment, it’s a raft of hope.

The book is formatted with a leading quote on each page from contemporary and historical figures revered for their wisdom, from Abraham Lincoln to Lao Tzu.

Beneath each quote, Zach offers perspectives and encouragement on pursuing personal dreams and fulfillment. “Faith” is a word that comes up often, as in the faith it takes to overcome the fear of entering the unknown, taking risks, trying something new ….

“Reason and faith go hand in hand; one is not much good without the other,” Zach writes beneath a famous quote from poet John Donne. “Find balance between the two. What you may lack in your own self, find in another.”

Jennifer Zach of Zach Coaching at the meeting room of the Shop Next Door in Cedar Rapids, where she began providing group career coaching sessions called Passion Driven Professionals last summer. (Dave DeWitte/The Gazette)

Passion is the other word that comes up most often. The career classes Zach teaches are called Passion-Driven Professionals.
“Through passion, natural born gifts and talents are put into action,” Zach writes.

“When we act, we are driven to achieve goals we had previously only dreamed about. It is that spark of passion that leads to handy inventions, cures for diseases and unfathomable opportunities.”

While the book is all about chasing dreams, Zach advises her readers to “live expectantly, but also to live responsibly.”
She recommends small, strategic steps on a journey of learning and discovery.

Books filled with affirmations and inspirational quotes are so numerous they make up a genre all their own.

But “Let Your Light Shine” is more closely focused on the emotional and spiritual needs of the entrepreneur, and an easier read than most.

At around 100 pages of lightly spaced text, it’s a book that easily could be digested in an hour or two.

Most of the people who buy this book will keep it close, like a good friend, and look to it for an answer when they need a whiff of inspiration to shake them out of their doldrums.

In the true spirit of overcoming naysayers, Zach self-published this book (under the publisher name of CreateSpace). The not-so-original title could complicate your search for “Let Your Light Shine,” but you can find it in paperback.

For more about Zach, go to www.zachcoaching.com.