Most people give up too soon; on careers, on dreams, on relationships, on themselves. For each of us lies the searing core question: "how can we accomplish anything without risk?" John Mellencamp offers a rebuttal: "When you're not afraid to lose, you can challenge anything."

As we inventory cohorts we've known and those with whom we work, they more or less bifurcate into two columns: processors or creators. This observation is not intended as a judgmental proclamation but instead, a way of life in any organization. We need both, of course, and while a "processor" can evolve to become a "creator," the converse is highly unlikely. In recent times the gap seems to be widening and the differences between the two becomes more pronounced. Illusion is an anodyne. We may fool ourselves into believing there's automatically some big reward at the end of the game, but this is our life, and it's today.

Processors share common pathways to their careers. They view their job as a means to an end; a second home, retirement, a jumping-off point. They take comfort in a fixed compensation arrangement. Processors generally see risk as something to be avoided. They are valuable members of an organization, but approach their role with symmetry within a time frame of specific tasks and hours. Much of a processor's personal satisfaction comes from off-time; life beyond the job. These qualities are not negative but instead, core instincts that span an occupational life and which rose from orientation to work handed us by people, genetics, and behaviors long ago.

Creators view their job as an end in itself, sometimes to extremes, occasionally to the detriment of those around them. It happens this way with creators based on love for what they do, and the joy of oneness with their role. Typically, their compensation is a risk-reward proposition based on simple meritocracy. They inherently take risks, fail periodically then try again. They view their weekly commitment as a composite of activities, challenges, and outcomes, with no real metric measurement in time or effort. Much of creators' satisfaction comes directly from complete immersion in their role and the ideas and results that result. Like the "processor" these qualities are neither good nor bad but instead the way they've grown into their career identity.

Around 20 percent of people engaged in careers fall into the realm of creators, with the balance working as processors. The two camps transcend common stereotypes such as "IQ," family generation, or socioeconomic history. If a processor becomes obsessed with a new direction, idea, or mentorship at the right moment, they enter the passage from traditional career protocol, assimilating those of "creators" as they transition from one to the other. The mystic transference defies simple analysis beyond management's awareness of these distinctly different groups. It can't be switched-on, ordered, or manipulated; we're either one of the other.

Often a poignant sense of the one-way flow of time engulfs us; the offhand decisions, the slight impulsive mistakes that can swell and become our fate.

Watching our children transformed into young adults, seeing people we've mentored and disciplined emerge as acclaimed talent in their field, all seem the work of a master illusionist who could just as easily if he chose, reverse the trick and change it all back to where it began. But those days and years are gone.

Smashing victory or disappointment, we hold the future in our own two hands. Processor or Creator the future is now, our day is today.