When I was around 10 years old, one day my stepfather stayed home from work. He had a bad stomachache the night before and had felt very sick. I remember he had gotten sick at around 8:00 in the evening and had been ill most of the night. His illness continued into the early afternoon that day and I remembered when I went to school, that morning I could hear him moaning from his illness. I remember the atmosphere in the house was just that we thought he was ill with some sort of a serious bug. My mother and
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Every recruiter’s individual style has certain merits. However, there are recruiters who are truly exceptional at what they do. Choosing an exceptional recruiter is even more important in a bad market because the methods he or she uses determines if a candidate will find employment. As the CEO of a recruiting company, I am constantly astonished by the methods many recruiters use. We train our recruiters very carefully to recruit in a certain way and we are always very aware of how they are performing. I have been in the recruiting industry for...
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When I was around 10 years old, one day my stepfather stayed home from work. He had a bad stomachache the night before and had felt very sick. I remember he had gotten sick at around 8:00 in the evening and had been ill most of the night. His illness continued into the early afternoon that day and I remembered when I went to school, that morning I could hear him moaning from his illness. I remember the atmosphere in the house was just that we thought he was ill with some sort of a serious bug. My mother and
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The focus of my career has been researching jobs from employer career pages, job sites, association sites and consolidating these jobs in one place. Through the course of this work I have learned how to track down jobs that few people know about and where applicants are likely to have a good chance of getting hired when they apply. One of the best places to track down jobs which (1) few people know about and (2) you stand good odds of getting an interview if you apply, is association websites. Contents Resources for Searching for Jobs on Association...
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Aristotle loved studying argumentation and the methods of appeal used to convince someone of a given idea. Aristotle believed that people can be persuaded by the following means: Ethos (an appeal to credibility) Pathos (an appeal to emotions) Logos (an appeal to logic) Each of these three methods of appeal is useful for you in your job search. In fact, if you use each of these means of persuasion effectively in your search, you should be very successful in getting a job. Ethos involves convincing someone that you have credibility. Ethos refers...
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Every recruiter’s individual style has certain merits. However, there are recruiters who are truly exceptional at what they do. Choosing an exceptional recruiter is even more important in a bad market because the methods he or she uses determines if...
When I was around 10 years old, one day my stepfather stayed home from work. He had a bad stomachache the night before and had felt very sick. I remember he had gotten sick at around 8:00 in the evening and had been ill most of the night. His illness...
Over the past week I have been witnessing something extremely unusual in my backyard. There is a crow outside, who appears to be ill – he’s not doing well at all. The crow appears to be infected with West Nile Virus. He wanders around appearing...
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I’ve tried to provide you with as much information as possible about mistakes to avoid when you are interviewing. Mastering these elements can ensure your success when interviewing and make you more likely to get the job.
In this article Harrison discusses how your career can see growth if you choose to work with an employer who is marching forward. All employers go through different stages, and when you get in will have a real bearing on what happens to your career over time. The best time to get in is at the beginning of the growth cycle. The employer marching forward will provide you with the most important opportunities and the best overall career. The employers marching forward are easy to spot as they tend to be hiring more and more people. Such employers are excited about the future and the people working with them typically feel the same way. In your search for a job, and in choosing between employers, you need to find an organization that is marching forward or beginning a march.
Focus on what you are doing, not what others around you are doing. There are people to take action towards their goals, and then there people who sit on the sidelines and comment on the first group of people. People who are mostly interested in gossip and watching others usually lack the confidence and determination to take action themselves. The most successful people go account and accomplish things rather than sit back and watch others make things happen.
Everyone has a distinct nature and view of the world; you must understand yours, and choose a lifestyle and work that matches your outlook. Jobs and coworkers who do not match your nature, acting outside of your nature, or trying to be something that you are not will only leave you unhappy. Your nature will likely never change regardless of outside conditioning, so you will achieve your greatest success in a job that you love.
In this article, Harrison explains how the company you keep will inevitably be a major cause of success or failure in your career and life. Wrong associations can be harmful and although you cannot really avoid it all the time, you need to distance yourself from it. Unethical people can repeatedly injure your progress and you need to be aware of and understand the people you deal with, to protect yourself from those who could taint you and drag you down.
Your ability to help people will determine the extent of your success; the more powerful and effective your help, the greater rewards you will receive. One of the rarest and most profound achievements is to follow through on your goals and create a paradigm-shifting idea. The more revolutionary your work, the more people you will affect and the more memorable of a career you will have.
Salesmanship is one of the most important skills you can have in your job hunt. You can use personality as a means of standing out and selling yourself, making sure that it comes through in everything you are doing. By injecting personality into your job search, you will soon notice changes in your life and career. People with personality succeed in sales because they draw attention; employers want to hire people with personalities, and a good personality can be your best job hunting tool.
In this article Harrison discusses the importance of focusing entirely on your employer’s needs in order to succeed in your job and job search. A relationship with an employer is quite similar to any other relationship. In maintaining any relationship, you need to understand the other person’s needs. You need to concentrate more on giving than taking. Likewise, at work, you need to be more focused on your employer’s interests than your own. When you are applying for jobs and interviewing, you need to put yourself in the employer’s shoes. This will take you places and will give you the level of satisfaction you want out of your work relationship.
Here are 21 pieces of career advice no one ever gives you from well-known career advice expert and legal recruiter Harrison Barnes.
People are naturally interested in being the best, or at least better than those around them, at the things in which they are interested. You must develop a sense on nonattachment, in which you are not continually to get something or somewhere; profound results come your way when you renounce attachment and ego. Focus on work for work’s sake, and you will do noticeably better in your chosen profession, and you will focus on the people around you for reasons not pertaining to your ego.
In this article Harrison offers an insight into the working of the subconscious mind in order to get success in one’s career and life. Visualizing the result beforehand is a powerful way to get what you want. According to Harrison, programming the mind through repetition almost tilts the results in your favor. Writing down goals and reading and visualizing them every day will make your dream a reality. Additionally, you can also charge up your mind through meditation and self-hypnosis. By positively influencing the mind, with the help of positive inputs, you can keep your subconscious state happy and harmonious too.
Rely on facts and statistics rather than opinions; when you depend on mere opinions, you inevitably face disastrous consequences. You must understand the difference between facts and opinions, analyze both, and adopt the former while disregarding the latter to make productive decisions.
In this article Harrison discusses the power of commitment. It is important to commit to your career, to a single employer or to anything for that matter. Not being committed to your career can have enormous ramifications. Commitment is key to any form of success. You should not do any sort of job that your heart is not in and that you cannot be committed to. Without a strong commitment you will not have the success you desire.
Many people have a single weakness that they have failed to address, which holds them back in their careers and leads to job hopping. Job hopping indicates that something is wrong with a person’s attitudes and outlook rather than with their employers. Identify and fix the things that are holding you back rather than leaving your position when you should not, and much more success and happiness will come to you.
In this article, Harrison explains the importance of realizing the greater purpose in the work you do. One of the greatest causes of failure in the work world is when your focus diverts from your contribution to the money you are earning. You need to understand the larger purpose for which you have been hired. The money you are paid for your job is generally commensurate with your contribution to something more important, more meaningful, and much larger than yourself. The secret to success then will be having a higher purpose to your work and being energized by your work which would ultimately bring more and better work and lead to more money.
In this article, Harrison explains how important it is to love the work you are doing. Being good in the work at hand is one thing, being truly passionate about it is another. Harrison believes that your performance level will significantly rise if you love your work. Being genuinely happy about the work you do inspires you to work more and work better. People who work primarily for money are generally those who work less, contribute less, and are not interested in long-term relationships with their work or their employers. In contrast to them, are those who harbor a heartfelt passion about their work deep inside them, which helps them reach great heights in any discipline. So it’s only natural that you gain advancement and a true feeling of fulfillment when you really love your work.
In this article, Harrison explains the secret behind successful people and the biggest difference between them and those who fail to grow. Most people fail to succeed because they constantly evaluate the rewards they get rather than direct their efforts towards solid constructive work. Successful people on the other hand, are always focused on their work, concentrated on their contributions, and dedicated towards generating value. Unlike others, they do not think about the rewards and are highly passionate about the work they are doing. This characteristic Harrison believes, is what leads to a person’s growth and success.
In this article Harrison discusses the importance of showing up on time. When you do not show up on time people are let down and they get upset. Their confidence in you is eroded. Not showing up on time conveys that you do not respect others and their needs. You should never show up late for anything. When you show up on time you send the message that you respect others and their time. It also sends the message you take others’ needs as seriously as your own. Being on time sends the message you will play by the rules, do what is expected of you, and do your best to get along with others and look out for their needs. You always need to be on time.
In this article Harrison explains why it is important to stay away from the social side of the office. If you are spending time with negative people inside the company, the implication is you may share their opinions as well. This can create huge problems for you. You need to realize guilt by association can hurt you. You are at work to make a living. You can choose to get involved in the social side of the office and watch your career stall. None of this is to say you can’t be friendly with your co-workers. However, you should not participate in the social network of the office too much. The social side of the office can be fun but more often than not, it can cause you far more problems than it is worth.
In this article Harrison discusses the need to do everything in your power to achieve what you want. Most people never try as hard as they can. Trying your hardest is about coming up against your limits and pushing through. This is how you achieve your dreams and this is how you live the life you want. The people who succeed in life and reach their full potential are the people who push all the way through their limits. Develop the habit of pushing yourself and always doing your best. People who always do their best are sought out by others, and everyone wants these people to work with them, and for them. By not trying your best you choose to live an average life and have average results. So try your hardest and do the absolute best you can with everything.
You need to stay focused on your work – and only your work – in order to achieve the results that you want. Bring passion to your work, and surround yourself with similarly passionate colleagues. Your coworkers may resent you without this passion. Employers care about how much you care about them and what you can do for them rather than how much money you hope to make. When you offer employers a tremendous value, you will be compensated accordingly.
In this article Harrison discusses the role of self-motivation and self management. Self-motivated and self managed people always perform well. In contrast people who are forced to follow massive amounts of procedures and rules can never perform. It is important that our rituals and sense of responsibility is internal, and something we learn to do naturally–not something we only do when it is imposed on us by people on the outside. The best people in every job are self- managed and responsible individuals. Also, the more self-managed people there are working for an organization, the stronger the organization generally is. Instead of creating problems in the workplace, you should seek out responsibilities, and ritualize your work routine. These responsibilities will drive you forward in your daily work, in your career, and in your life.
When faced with difficult times, you must develop the ability to transcend the trouble around you instead of giving up or assuming that nothing can be done about your situation. Keep your wits about you and take charge of the situation, and you will find yourself on track for constant improvement and career success.
The most successful people in the world have found new ways of expressing themselves professionally. To be continually successful, it is vital for you to reinvent yourself and find new, fresh approaches to the world. Settling into a single way of doing things is dangerous as it makes you predicable, and therefore easier to replicate and ultimately replace.
See yourself as you actually are, then confront this self so that you can grow and evolve. When you see yourself as you truly are, you will probably find that you are standing in the way of your own success. Once you identify them, confront the parts of yourself that are limiting your success. Once you accomplish this you will no longer stand in the way of your own progress, but rather stand to achieve your goals.
In this article Harrison explains how you can ensure success in your career by externalizing your opponents. Your job is like a game; if you work hard, play by the rules of the company and are seen as part of the team you will be viewed as a valuable player for the company. The most significant part of any game is the presence of an opponent. Don’t look for an opponent among your co-workers. Never speak negatively of your team members. Instead, concentrate on the external opponents. External opponents bring you and the team closer as you work towards a common goal. In order for you and your company to succeed it is important to have an external opponent. Harrison advises people to consistently work hard and not participate in the politics. This is a sure way to score big in your career.
Repeat work is always more valuable to you than one-offs, however well-paid they may be. Companies succeed or fail depending on their ability to generate repeat business. Repeat work grants you more options and control over your life and actions. Even work with a lower salary, which might not initially seem appealing, can be beneficial if it promises repeat jobs.
In this article, Harrison explains the importance of making an effort in your job which is way above what is expected of you. When you have been given certain responsibilities, it means that someone is dependent on you for certain things. When you fulfill these duties far more efficiently, put in a lot more time and effort, and even stay back on weekends and holidays to complete or do extra work, your employers get the message that you are sharing their burden of pressures with them and begin to place tremendous trust in you. This is what paves the path to your promotion and growth in the company. Harrison believes that you need to develop the correct attitude and possess an extraordinary work ethic to thrive in the job you do.
In this article Harrison discusses the importance of keeping one’s job secured, and how external factors affect job security. It is crucial for job seekers to choose the right kind of job, the right kind of organization, and to have the perfect pay-package for enjoying job security to the fullest. Professionals in high positions in an organization are more prone to getting chucked off rather than those in lesser positions. The complexity of an organization also plays a crucial role in hampering or promoting a sense of job security among different workers in an organization. Competitiveness in an industry is also a harbinger of increasing insecurity in jobs, as there is constant push-and-pull with regards to resources.
Ignoring obstacles and setbacks will take you extremely far in life. The quality of your life will depend on how you deal with life’s inevitable setbacks and the intimidation of others. Develop an unconquerable spirit that disregards life’s setbacks, and you will experience massive success. Get up on time, and keep persisting when other people quit in order to achieve your goals
In this article Harrison discusses that there is incredible power which is available out there that we only need to capture in order to achieve what we want in the world. Everything we need and could possibly want is already around us. There is power in existence all around us that is available if we are not limited by our own minds. Anything you believe is possible. It is your beliefs about the way things are that shapes reality. There are forces out there which you can utilize to do and become virtually anything you want to be. There is far more potential in the world, in you, and around you than you realize. Capture it now.
In this article Harrison talks about the role of communication in getting a job and keeping it. Harrison believes that communicating our value is something we all must do to get jobs and also to keep our jobs. One of the biggest mistakes people make when interviewing for jobs (or in their current jobs) is failing to communicate their value frequently and in detail. The company you work for, or want to work for, cannot possibly know the multitude of ways in which you can contribute. You need to make the people around you aware of who you are and what you can do.
In this article Harrison discusses the importance of being well informed to be able to succeed in any job. Information is the key to survival in any company or organization that one joins and wants to remain part of. Getting access to information when you start a job and using that information intelligently is crucial to survival in any job. When you are interviewing for a job, it is extremely important that you understand exactly what the job is. An employer will never hire someone for a job who does not take the time to understand what the job is. Good listeners always end up doing the best and getting ahead.
In this article Harrison discusses that your ability to create productive work can bring you success in your career. The opportunity to work is an important part of your existence. Work is a path to mental and economic stability; it brings happiness and purpose in our lives. When you create work you always have something to do and you are always adding value. Truly stellar performers have the ability to consistently create work that the company values. You need to create work in your job; at the same time you need to stay away from people who are critical of the act of work. Work is healthy for you. Your identity and life, for the most part, revolve around work. Harrison firmly believes that cherishing your work and creating more work will change your career and life for better.
In this article Harrison talks about the difference between people who survive in recessions, and those who end up being cut. When a recession is at hand, or when an industry is experiencing a contraction, companies very quickly become interested in saving as much money as possible. They look around to see who is working hard and adding value and who is not. In your job, you need to ensure that you are providing as much value as possible. People who do not put in extra effort, or who cause lots of waste in the company, may find they are out of a job when a recession or restructuring hits.
In this article Harrison discusses the importance of listening to, and understanding the other side’s point of view. Harrison feels that a lot of the economic crisis in the country is because people fail to understand one another. The biggest problems why businesses fail is that people want things to be in a certain way and are afraid to listen to what needs to be done to change this. People often assume they know what someone else needs or what they are entitled to. People do this without having any information whatsoever about where the other person is coming from. This never works. Harrison concludes that the most important thing you can often do to keep a job, get a job, and more is take the time to listen and ensure you understand the other person’s point of view.
In this article, Harrison explains the importance of credibility in your career and in your life. The most important question that you should ask yourself is whether you can be trusted. Fortunes can fall and be rebuilt, but once you lose your credibility, you have lost a great deal. Dishonest individuals may rise rapidly to the top, but they almost always come crashing down. To be dishonest in any way does not pay off at all. People lose their faith, are fearful, and will practically never again believe a dishonest person. A person’s reputation is his/her most valuable asset. It is extremely fragile and should be protected at all costs. You need to have an explicitly honest approach, never fail to make others aware of the truth, and never cut corners. Hence, Harrison states that one of the hallmarks of the most successful individuals is their credibility.
In business, innovation comes from the freedom to operate; stagnation and failure result when a government attempts to legislate business. Limiting peoples’ ability to make a certain amount of money undermines business in an incredible way. Similarly, you need to associate with businesses and groups where freedom of movement will allow both you ant the company to expand. When you have more constraints placed on your movement, you face greater problems and eventually the loss of your job.
In this article Harrison discusses the importance of adding value to any job. Companies want to surround themselves with people who work hard and are out to give more than they take. Your task in every job is to add as much value as you can to your employer. You need to understand that if you do not add value, you may not have a job. The primary purpose of any business, job, industry, or service is to add value in greater proportion than the cost of what you are hired for. This is what the entire business world is about. In your job, you are selling your skills and your employer is trying to make money from your skills.
While Athens prioritized culture and intellectualism, the people of Sparta devoted themselves to simplicity and discipline. You need to approach your job search as a Spartan, not an Athenian; don’t retreat from the negative aspects of your life and current job, but rather make them work for you and remain focused on your success.
In this article Harrison discusses the importance of the need to be connected with others at work. People need to feel connected to others around them. Everyone needs a group to belong to. Life is more enjoyable when we are connected to others. If you look around, you will see the many ways you are trying to connect with others in your life and how much you need this connection. To be successful—and happy in your career–it is important that you work with those you feel you can connect with. Because the need to be connected with people is so important, you should understand that one of the main needs most people have from work is to connect with others. We all require connection. You need to ensure you have this connection with others in your work.
If your boss gets mad at you or if you get a poor review, you should consider yourself blessed. While few people are willing to work hard to better themselves and overcome criticism, those who do are the strongest and must successful. A demanding boss raises the bar, and forces you to become better and stronger in order to clear it. You must seek out, rather than avoid, people who challenge you and force you to become greater than you currently are.
There are advantages to both time economy jobs and productivity economy jobs. Time economy jobs pay you for your time spent on a project regardless of your productivity, while productivity economy jobs pay you a fixed amount for a given task. Success in the former depends on your ability to look busy and deliver the level of productivity expected of you, while the success in the latter depends on doing as much work as possible. Determine which of these two types of jobs most suits you, and focus on that type of work.
In this article Harrison discusses the importance of putting your efforts in the right direction. The most important decision you can make is deciding where you are going to put your effort. If you choose the right field for your efforts, you will frequently be richly rewarded (even if you do not have a lot of skill in the field). When you identify something that the market wants, and provide it, then you can frequently do quite well—even if you are not particularly skilled. It is just a question of being at the right place at the right time and taking action. In your career, very little is more important than where you choose to focus your effort. Nothing is more important than working somewhere with opportunity and where you are being carried away by the wind of a positive economic current.
It is important to have a career that makes you happy, rather than pursuing a career simply because you or others think that you should. Life too short not to be doing the things that you really want to do with your life. If you do not yet know the kind of work that makes you genuinely happy, you need to go and find it.
People naturally want others to be interested in them, and offering this interest is one of the most beneficial things you can do. The more that you display interest in others, the more that they will in turn display interest in you and want to help you. When in interviews, build rapport with your potential employer by demonstrating a genuine interest in the person and his or her organization; everyone loves to have other people interested in them, and like to hire such people.
In order to make substantive changes in your life, you must start with dissatisfaction in your current position, and leverage that tension to your advantage. Tension and dissatisfaction will push you forward, as they are the drivers of most of our everyday actions. By constantly creating pressure in your life, you motivate yourself to make necessary changes and bring yourself closer to your goals. Implement dissatisfaction in a way that empowers you to go in the direction you want.
Focus on what you are doing, not what others around you are doing. There are people to take action towards their goals, and then there people who sit on the sidelines and comment on the first group of people. People who are mostly interested in gossip and watching others usually lack the confidence and determination to take action themselves. The most successful people go account and accomplish things rather than sit back and watch others make things happen.
No organization or person will succeed for long without a strategy; be part of a company with a strategic objective. Furthermore, you must develop your own overall strategic objectives for you life and career. Create daily to-do lists that will bring you closer to your goals; such tools keep you focused and enable you to accomplish far more than those without a strategy.
In this article Harrison discusses the importance of focusing entirely on your employer’s needs in order to succeed in your job and job search. A relationship with an employer is quite similar to any other relationship. In maintaining any relationship, you need to understand the other person’s needs. You need to concentrate more on giving than taking. Likewise, at work, you need to be more focused on your employer’s interests than your own. When you are applying for jobs and interviewing, you need to put yourself in the employer’s shoes. This will take you places and will give you the level of satisfaction you want out of your work relationship.
Employers sometimes ask in the course of an interview about other interview you may have had, and how you handle this question can determine your success. You must convince your current interviewing employer that their position is your first choice before divulging any information about other interviews, and be careful how you justify your other interview to your prospective employer. You must convince your current interviewing employer that you consider their position to be your best fit, and would most help you meet your career goals of upward mobility.
When a company can no longer survive, all of its jobs disappear; a good manager’s job, then, is to ensure the company’s survival. As a good manager, you need to truly be on the side of the company and dedicated to its continuance; the more the company succeeds, the more you will grow along with it. Good managers care about what happens to their organization, but the best managers focus continually on the organization’s progress and best interests.
In this article Harrison discusses the importance of concentrating on your work and not getting distracted. The true value of the best executives comes from their ability to concentrate and get things done. If you can concentrate for a long period of time on a single issue, you will improve the quality of the work that you do. The qualitative aspects of your work are incredibly important because they end up determining your outcome. Good companies and employers value people who are organized and think through issues when they are working on something. You need to concentrate. You need to give everything you are doing your full attention. You need to work hard and be focused.
If you have considerable experience in something, then you can go much farther in this field than in one in which you do not have experience. Experience in a given line of work will always give you an edge over those who lack it because you better able to notice all of the intricacies associated with the work. You gain more when you confine your work and efforts to that in which you are most experienced.
You are rewarded in direct proportion to the value that you deliver, meaning that you have to deliver in order to reach your full potential. You will provide more value to others when you are focused on giving. People who under-deliver view their jobs as being primarily about them, while those who over-deliver see their jobs as being about others. Strive to develop a reputation for delivering rather than under-delivering.
In this article Harrison discusses the reasons why the best executives are so highly paid. According to him the main reason for this is that exceptional executives are rare. A top executive has to make numerous decisions and calculations whilst taking every factor into account each day. There are very few people who have the capacity to organize people, increase productivity and profitability, all while facing criticism and driving a company forward. The survival and prosperity of a company depends on having people who can give good orders – and have them carried out by others. Those who can lead groups typically are the highest paid people inside corporations and groups. The highest paid executives are able to implement and get things done; the lowest paid typically are not able to do this.
You can become whatever you want depending on your state of mind. You can reach as high as you want, as long as you are personally convinced that you can achieve your goal. Don’t listen to people who tell you that you are incapable of certain results; belief in yourself is the only way to obtain your full potential.
Being unconscious of our surroundings causes us to miss out on many opportunities. We fail to notice many things immediately around us simply because we are not expecting them, and thus involuntarily tune out many potentially great opportunities. You must bring conscious awareness to the thousands of unconscious decisions you make in your business and personal lives. The more notice you take of the things around you, the greater your consciousness and potential for success.
When people are aware of others’ expectations, they usually perform in accordance with them. Outside expectations can lead to either your success or your destruction; surrounding yourself with low expectations can, in turn, lead you to under-perform and further distance you from your career goals. When you surround yourself with people with high expectations, however, you will rise to levels you may not have thought previously possible.
In this article Harrison discusses the role of selflessness and integrity in work. Harrison believes that when you stop thinking about yourself in business and concentrate on the needs of others, you begin to do well. It is one of the most important keys to success. In business you should never focus on just yourself. Doing a good job should always be your priority.
In business, innovation comes from the freedom to operate; stagnation and failure result when a government attempts to legislate business. Limiting peoples’ ability to make a certain amount of money undermines business in an incredible way. Similarly, you need to associate with businesses and groups where freedom of movement will allow both you ant the company to expand. When you have more constraints placed on your movement, you face greater problems and eventually the loss of your job.
In this article Harrison discusses the importance of focusing all your energies on creating value for others. When your focus is on getting rewards and not adding value, you will find success eluding you. You need to create value by solving people’s problems to the very best of your ability. You will grow in your career if you solve people’s problems with dedication. You are owed nothing by anyone until you create value. People will seek you out as long as you create outstanding value for them. Once you start expecting something without creating value, the end is often near. Focusing on the rewards diverts your energy from what generates rewards in the first place. When you create value for others and focus on the work you are doing, the rewards come naturally.
In this article Harrison discusses that in order to really advance in your career and life you need to improve the quality of your work. The more you stress quality in your job, the more you will continuously improve. The better the quality of your work, the more you will be valued by your employer. When you do the best work you can your co-workers also respect you more and you have employment security. When looking at employers, you should also concentrate on working for those whose quality is getting better and better. The better the quality of the product the business is producing, the more opportunities they are likely to have in the future for you. The better the quality of your work, the more opportunities you are also likely to have in the future. Make quality your first priority.
In this article Harrison explains how you can use every single negative thing that happens to you as fuel to drive you forward. Negative things keep happening in life. Your reaction in such circumstances is the key to whether you succeed or fail. Do not allow something negative to push you down. The success of most individuals is largely based on how they handle setbacks. Use negative experiences to change your life and rechannel your experiences into something more positive. Experience the pain and then use this pain to fire you up to do better in the future. The best lessons we get from life are from the bad things that happen to us. If something bad happens, channel this energy into something positive. This will change your life and your career.
Good leadership is crucial to the success of any company, and the quality of leadership in your workplace helps determine your own success. Organizations with good leadership thrive, while organizations with poor leadership suffer and can negatively impact your career. When evaluating potential employers, be sure to select companies with strong leadership.
Never try to be someone who you are not, or something that does not match your natural gifts and skills. Embrace your skills, whatever they are, rather than rejecting what you are good at and setting yourself up for unhappiness. Find your true gift, and run with it.
You cannot afford to be associated with positions in which people implant negative thoughts and ideas in your mind. Negative information, rumors, and so forth can spread like a cancer and destroy your life; positive energy is the exact opposite and works to improve everything. Be on the side that is growing and productive, not the side that is bringing you down; doing so will do much to smooth your career path.
The quality of your life is not determined by your job, city, or lifestyle, but rather by the filters through which you experience these things. These filters shape everything in your life, and influence your life and career for better or worse. How you use these filters are the most important factors in your decision making; develop filters that empower rather than limit your experience, and you will unlock the secret to a successful like and career.
Your reactions to the world around you determine your state of mind and your progress in life. While most people tend to blame others for what is happening to them, you must learn to react in a positive way. You must understand that you usually cannot change the people and things around you, but you can control your reactions to these things; when you choose not to react negatively, you open the door to growth and fulfillment.
In this article Harrison explains the importance of being seen as the cure for all the problems. Becoming a cure for all the problems is very important for getting and keeping a job. Employers are constantly facing a barrage of new challenges and problems. Being at the right place at the right time, to which we often attribute success, really means offering the right cure for the right situation. Become the cure–not the cause of your employer’s struggles. If you are the best candidate for the job, you are the cure for the situation. Let this be known through your words, and let it be seen in your actions. This will be very good for your career.
There is vast potential beneath the surface of each individual person, and it is the same with the job market. Many people fail in there job search because they only pursue one tactic, find nothing, and conclude that there are no jobs available. When looking for a job, you need to go deep beneath the surface, and exhaust every job board, employer website, and other possible avenue in order to get ahead.
In this article Harrison discusses how it is important not to get influenced by negative behavior of people around you. One thing you often find is that there seem to be a great number of people out in the world whose chosen business is to make your life and circumstances, whatever they may be, seem much worse than they are. Your success and ability to get on will in large part be determined by your ability to sift through all of this negative information coming at you. It is important to understand that all around you there are people and forces that want you to feel weak, vulnerable and inadequate. The best thing you can do to control and fight back against these forces is to sniff out and identify these people for what they are–and then avoid them. Do not allow others to control or influence you.
Although many people claim to seek a state of peace, all people fundamentally seek variety in their lives and pursue it in different ways. People must satisfy this need for variety in order to be happy, and seek out new experiences and situations in which they face tension. Maintaining a healthy variety in your own life, therefore, is key to your happiness and success; doing so will replace boredom and stagnation with growth.
In this article Harrison discusses how it is possible to find success, love and happiness in any situation. Different opportunities and resources are available to different people. You need to use your skills and resources in an incredibly effective and efficient manner. There is an amazing number of opportunities out there, and we need to make the most of our resources. Take the job market in a major city, for example. There are so many potential jobs and things you can do, it is really overwhelming. No matter how bad things get, there are always opportunities. Strive to make the most of every opportunity that exists out there for you. There are plenty of opportunities everywhere. Be grateful for this. Be grateful for where you live. Be grateful for the people who care about you. Be grateful for your life.
Opportunity used the wrong way can destroy everything. Cheating, even in small ways, can add up to cause ruinous damage. You must account for every action you take with your employer and in your life, and realize that every action carries consequences. With so much invested in your job and career, you must act with integrity in everything that you do rather than risk the consequences of taking the easy way out.
Companies necessarily seek to employ positive, forward-minded people. A firm’s success depends on their employees, and they seek people who will enhance them rather than merely contribute to the bottom line. People with positive natures, who contribute to a healthy social environment, prove essential to the growth and success of their employers.
In this article Harrison reveals some secrets of success. According to Harrison most people who become super successful commonly have utilized ‘motivating force’ and ‘routine’. They have a strong sense of love, lack, rejection or anger and they incorporate routine and discipline into their career and life strategy. People who are not successful generally do not have that same motivating force and/or discipline to achieve their goals. In order for people to become extremely successful, people generally need both. However, having an internal motivating force is so powerful that you too can succeed with it alone. In order to reach your full potential, it is important that you understand these success factors. How you use motivating emotions is something that is going to determine how well you do in your career and in your life. Nothing is more important than using these motivating emotions in a positive and empowering way.
Determine whether you are a global or specific person. Most people are either too general or too specific in the way they treat information, and overly detail-oriented people risk losing sight of the bigger picture. General people are more comfortable in managerial positions, while detail-oriented people prefer everything to conform to a logical sequence. Understand which sort of person you are, and seek work that best harnesses your natural inclination.
Do not be a dabbler, or someone who turns away in the face of stress; the secret to long-term happiness is to instead confront and push through these stress factors. Do not be discouraged by difficulties, but find ways to persist and deal with the stress. Confronting problems head-on is the key to improvement, and will take you much further than the dabblers who fail to approach their careers with commitment.
Anyone can be up when things are going well, but the real challenge comes when things are not. Do not look at problems, which are inevitable for any person or business, in a negative light; think of them instead as challenges, lessons, or opportunities. There is a silver lining to be found in every problem, and finding that silver lining will enable you to grow.
In order to make full use of your strengths, it is important to determine whether you are an internally or externally motivated person. While externally motivated people are directed by others’ opinions, internally motivated people prioritize their own opinions and ways of thinking in their lives and careers. Decide which sort of person you are, embrace this identity, and seek work that makes the most of your natural tendencies.
In this article Harrison discusses the importance of educating yourself constantly. You need to take advantage of every opportunity to learn that ever presents itself to you. Knowledge can empower you to become better, faster, and stronger in everything you do People want to hire and do business with people who are knowledgeable about what they are doing and are continuously studying it. Education needs to be a process of continually educating yourself, continually growing, and continually improving. The more you are constantly pushing yourself, the more you will grow. This can change your career and life forever. The more you learn, the more profound your ultimate experience will be and the greater the career and life you experience will be.
In this article, Harrison discusses the power of commitment. Your commitment and love for what you do need to defy explanation if you are going to reach your full potential, and obtain lasting success. We remember the people who put in incredible efforts, and these are the people who make an impact on the world. People like to be surrounded by other people who like and respect them. Those who generally do the best in life are the people who genuinely like and support others. Everyone likes to be around those who they believe will stand behind them and support them. Those who show commitment that defies explanation are liked, promoted, remembered and admired by everyone. The people who do the worst are those who are most interested in themselves. The people who do the best are those who are most interested in others.
ABOUT HARRISON BARNES
BCG Attorney Search, founded by Harrison Barnes, leads the legal recruiting industry in placing top associates and partners in premier law firms, bringing a high level of service and commitment to excellence within the legal world. Harrison has been an attorney, legal recruiter, and career coach for over 20 plus years, and it is indeed his passion in life. Read More…
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Having a goal or vision will propel you towards greater career success and happiness. Without a purpose, you will find yourself depressed and ultimately fail to achieve your goals. Do not subscribe to the unrealistic problem that you should never have problems, but instead regard problems as part of your overall growth strategy.
In this article Harrison discusses the importance of using association websites in your job search. One of the best places to track down jobs which (1) few people know about and (2) you stand good odds of getting an interview if you apply, is association websites. Associations are not experts in advertising themselves, and so the jobs on their websites are far less likely to be found by people looking for jobs online. The people you are competing with in the job market generally are not researching association websites for job opportunities and leads. Employers typically like posting jobs on association sites because applicants from association sites tend to be serious about their profession. If you are in the job market, using association sites for research is highly recommended.
In this article Harrison discusses the importance of making good decisions pertaining to different important areas of your life. To explain his point he talks about the concept of ‘home team advantage’. The home team advantage is one of the most important concepts in sports and it is a proven factor in how well teams do. There are people who support us, validate us and make us feel good, and this helps us do well. There are also people around us who fail to support us, and this hurts us. Your success in your career and in your life will in large part be determined by whether you are living, working and associating with a “home team” crowd or an “away team” crowd. The best thing you can do for yourself is to put yourself in a position where you are supported, where you have the home team advantage.
Success in every part of your career and life depends on your mindset; a positive mindset lays the ground for achievement, while a negative mindset makes for an unhappy work environment and ultimately failure. Find work that you love and practice it with passion, and you will attract people and create more value in the world. Find what it is that makes you passionate in life, and commit to it. Passion is the most fundamental part of success, and you must exercise it even if you do nothing else.
Everyone seeks to imitate the people they look up to, and with transference they believe that they have an understanding of other peoples’ thoughts, motives, and beliefs. Transference, however, can blind yourself to the true nature of those around you and can lead you to make wrong judgments or assumptions. You will be much more successful with a better understanding of who you are and how your perceptions of the world help or hinder you.
You can change almost every aspect of your life through good negotiation. You must view your career in terms of opportunities to negotiate the best possible outcome; when you do this and hone your negotiation skills, you will achieve far more wealth, security, and happiness than would be possible for those who do not negotiate. While negotiation is critical, it must not be overdone; simply realize that there are always more potential opportunities than what might initially be on offer.
Good leadership is crucial to the success of any company, and the quality of leadership in your workplace helps determine your own success. Organizations with good leadership thrive, while organizations with poor leadership suffer and can negatively impact your career. When evaluating potential employers, be sure to select companies with strong leadership.
Never try to be someone who you are not, or something that does not match your natural gifts and skills. Embrace your skills, whatever they are, rather than rejecting what you are good at and setting yourself up for unhappiness. Find your true gift, and run with it.
You cannot afford to be associated with positions in which people implant negative thoughts and ideas in your mind. Negative information, rumors, and so forth can spread like a cancer and destroy your life; positive energy is the exact opposite and works to improve everything. Be on the side that is growing and productive, not the side that is bringing you down; doing so will do much to smooth your career path.
The quality of your life is not determined by your job, city, or lifestyle, but rather by the filters through which you experience these things. These filters shape everything in your life, and influence your life and career for better or worse. How you use these filters are the most important factors in your decision making; develop filters that empower rather than limit your experience, and you will unlock the secret to a successful like and career.
I’ve tried to provide you with as much information as possible about mistakes to avoid when you are interviewing. Mastering these elements can ensure your success when interviewing and make you more likely to get the job.
There are advantages to both time economy jobs and productivity economy jobs. Time economy jobs pay you for your time spent on a project regardless of your productivity, while productivity economy jobs pay you a fixed amount for a given task. Success in the former depends on your ability to look busy and deliver the level of productivity expected of you, while the success in the latter depends on doing as much work as possible. Determine which of these two types of jobs most suits you, and focus on that type of work.
In this article Harrison discusses how your career can see growth if you choose to work with an employer who is marching forward. All employers go through different stages, and when you get in will have a real bearing on what happens to your career over time. The best time to get in is at the beginning of the growth cycle. The employer marching forward will provide you with the most important opportunities and the best overall career. The employers marching forward are easy to spot as they tend to be hiring more and more people. Such employers are excited about the future and the people working with them typically feel the same way. In your search for a job, and in choosing between employers, you need to find an organization that is marching forward or beginning a march.
In this article Harrison discusses the importance of putting your efforts in the right direction. The most important decision you can make is deciding where you are going to put your effort. If you choose the right field for your efforts, you will frequently be richly rewarded (even if you do not have a lot of skill in the field). When you identify something that the market wants, and provide it, then you can frequently do quite well—even if you are not particularly skilled. It is just a question of being at the right place at the right time and taking action. In your career, very little is more important than where you choose to focus your effort. Nothing is more important than working somewhere with opportunity and where you are being carried away by the wind of a positive economic current.
Your reactions to the world around you determine your state of mind and your progress in life. While most people tend to blame others for what is happening to them, you must learn to react in a positive way. You must understand that you usually cannot change the people and things around you, but you can control your reactions to these things; when you choose not to react negatively, you open the door to growth and fulfillment.
Aristotle introduced the concepts of Ethos (an appeal to credibility), Pathos (an appeal to emotions), and Logos (an appeal to logic), means of persuasion that you can employ in your job search. Utilize Ethos by convincing others of your credibility, Pathos by appealing to their emotions, and Logos by logically supporting a consistent message. The effective use of these methods can position you for career success, as well as for raises and promotions.
Address your weaknesses, and offset them complementary strengths when they become an issue. You want to be trusted and your weaknesses to be overlooked. When interviewing, you must bring up and address your weaknesses to your employers before bringing up your strengths. Employers are more likely to pay attention to your strengths if they have already been made aware of your weaknesses, and you in turn will have more credibility. You must always be sure to follow up a discussion of your weaknesses with complementary strengths.
In this article Harrison explains the importance of being seen as the cure for all the problems. Becoming a cure for all the problems is very important for getting and keeping a job. Employers are constantly facing a barrage of new challenges and problems. Being at the right place at the right time, to which we often attribute success, really means offering the right cure for the right situation. Become the cure–not the cause of your employer’s struggles. If you are the best candidate for the job, you are the cure for the situation. Let this be known through your words, and let it be seen in your actions. This will be very good for your career.
My first job out of law school was working for a federal judge in Northern Michigan. The position did not pay very well, but that did not matter to me at all. I decided I was going to “live it up!”
In the job market or any other venue, getting others to sing your praises will make a huge difference to you as far as getting ahead. The best way to brag about your work is to get someone else to do it for you. When applying for a job, getting someone inside the company to speak well of you will vastly increase your odds of success, making your application much more effective than it would otherwise have been.
There is vast potential beneath the surface of each individual person, and it is the same with the job market. Many people fail in there job search because they only pursue one tactic, find nothing, and conclude that there are no jobs available. When looking for a job, you need to go deep beneath the surface, and exhaust every job board, employer website, and other possible avenue in order to get ahead.
It is important to have a career that makes you happy, rather than pursuing a career simply because you or others think that you should. Life too short not to be doing the things that you really want to do with your life. If you do not yet know the kind of work that makes you genuinely happy, you need to go and find it.
In this article Harrison discusses how it is important not to get influenced by negative behavior of people around you. One thing you often find is that there seem to be a great number of people out in the world whose chosen business is to make your life and circumstances, whatever they may be, seem much worse than they are. Your success and ability to get on will in large part be determined by your ability to sift through all of this negative information coming at you. It is important to understand that all around you there are people and forces that want you to feel weak, vulnerable and inadequate. The best thing you can do to control and fight back against these forces is to sniff out and identify these people for what they are–and then avoid them. Do not allow others to control or influence you.
Although many people claim to seek a state of peace, all people fundamentally seek variety in their lives and pursue it in different ways. People must satisfy this need for variety in order to be happy, and seek out new experiences and situations in which they face tension. Maintaining a healthy variety in your own life, therefore, is key to your happiness and success; doing so will replace boredom and stagnation with growth.
Creating a sense of urgency is one of the most important things you can do in your job search. Understand that your career is itself a commodity and you need to sell yourself, and your salesmanship will determine your career success. Creating a sense of urgency will always help you close your sale.
The number one thing that makes people fail and not reach their potential is competition. If get into an area where there is not much competition and you genuinely have something to offer, you will succeed. Everyone is successful to the extent they are doing something others around them are not that provides value.
When you try to mask or suppress aspects of your personality, those traits will inevitably come to the fore anyway. You need to develop a comprehensive understanding of yourself, including your darker or deeply buried traits; once you know how your dark side limits and controls you, the better you will do in your life and career. Self-discovery will ultimately lead to inner peace, which in turn will enable you to more fully develop your goals.
Your must always strive to create value for your organization, and your organization must in turn strive to add value to the world. Since value comes from teams of individuals rather than any single person, the best companies strive to maximize their staffs’ efficiency. You must also ensure that your company weeds out the employees who do not create value in favor of those who do, and that you belong to the latter group.
In this article Harrison discusses the role of self-motivation and self management. Self-motivated and self managed people always perform well. In contrast people who are forced to follow massive amounts of procedures and rules can never perform. It is important that our rituals and sense of responsibility is internal, and something we learn to do naturally–not something we only do when it is imposed on us by people on the outside. The best people in every job are self- managed and responsible individuals. Also, the more self-managed people there are working for an organization, the stronger the organization generally is. Instead of creating problems in the workplace, you should seek out responsibilities, and ritualize your work routine. These responsibilities will drive you forward in your daily work, in your career, and in your life.
You will greatly benefit your career by helping and promoting your company’s expansion. A common belief is that expansion is fundamentally positive, and a lack of expansion is fundamentally negative. You must be on the side of expansion rather than contraction in every area of your life. All employers seek people who will help them expand, and the more your ability to contribute to this expansion will provide you increased job security and a greater likelihood of being hired.
In this article Harrison discusses how it is possible to find success, love and happiness in any situation. Different opportunities and resources are available to different people. You need to use your skills and resources in an incredibly effective and efficient manner. There is an amazing number of opportunities out there, and we need to make the most of our resources. Take the job market in a major city, for example. There are so many potential jobs and things you can do, it is really overwhelming. No matter how bad things get, there are always opportunities. Strive to make the most of every opportunity that exists out there for you. There are plenty of opportunities everywhere. Be grateful for this. Be grateful for where you live. Be grateful for the people who care about you. Be grateful for your life.
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