Getting your foot in the door is an important, necessary first step towards getting the job you want. Once you are “in”, your colleagues will protect you if you work hard and you will have the same opportunity to compete with others. The biggest step you can make in your progress towards your goals is to get your prospective employer to let your foot in the door, even if only a little.
Your perceptions can make you either happy or unhappy. Most peoples’ perceptions, however, are clouded by assumptions that frequently aren’t even true. To change your life, change your assumptions about the world around you; suffering lies in the perception of the fact, not the fact itself.
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.
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In this article Harrison discusses how persistent pursuit of something you believe in, against all obstacles, is one of the most important keys to success. So many of us just decide at some point not to push through and not to keep going even when a little bit of extra effort would push us through. The secret to being incredibly good at everything is pushing through and getting better and better when others around you are quitting. Even while hiring, employers want experts and people who are the best at what they are doing–they do not want dabblers. They want to hire the person who is incredibly committed to a job and has persisted against odds in one direction when others have given up.
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 how people who stand for something always do better than those who do not. Companies who stand for something always do better than companies who do not. The most successful companies not only stand for something, but they are completely consistent with their core principles. This is what keeps them going and this is what makes them successful. One of the largest problems that people have in their careers is when they diverge from what they are good at. When you do not stand for something, you divert from your true strength. Everything begins to crumble and slowly fall apart when you are not doing something that you are really good at. The biggest success comes when you stand for something and are good at it.
In this article Harrison discusses how being nice is the smartest thing you can possibly do in your career. When you are nice to people, you invite them to be nice in return. When you send out negative energy, it comes right back to you. So also when you send out positive energy, it comes back to you as well. When positive energy comes to us, we feel better and the world is a better place to us. When you are nice to others you send out the sort of energy which gets you ahead. So we need to be focused on putting out positive energy. Let the negative energy of others flow right through you and be nice in response. Companies need people who are nice. Being nice to others is the most important thing you can do in your job.
One of the benefits of being an outsider is not being weighed down by the same social mores, rules, customs, and other restraints as the dominant group. Throughout history it has often been outsiders who have made the greatest inventions, innovations, and breakthroughs and achieved the most in their lives. In business, people like Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates were both outsiders. In Germany, Albert Einstein was an outsider. Barack Obama was an outsider. Each of these people operated by their own set of rules.
Information is the most important thing you can possess; the more you share information with your colleagues, the more they in turn will share information with you. Never try to protect information, but share it freely lest others move away from you in favor of others more giving with their information. When you withhold information from others, you inhibit your own growth; the more you share, the more others will reciprocate.
In his article, Harrison talks about how a change in viewpoint can bring about dramatically improved results. As a resident of a neighborhood run over by vagrants and thieves and living in an apartment where the management was eager to claim its pound of flesh, Harrison article provides beautiful insights into how his choice to look at all the good things helped turn things around. Embracing a positive outlook is a lot like investing in long term happiness. When you praise someone for all that she or he has done, you don’t just pay a compliment; you recognize the person’s efforts and propel him or her to do better as well.
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.
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.
True self-esteem comes from within, not from the acceptance of others. When your sense of worth comes from within, you free yourself from comparisons with others and will enjoy a greater sense of internal security. You will no longer be bogged down by the experiences of others and can become much more self-reliant.
Your greatest successes will come from some of the smallest actions in terms of meeting people. You will cause a “stacking effect” the more you meet and connect with people; conversely, people cannot connect with you when you are withdrawn and nothing will happen. You must do everything in your power to connect with as many people as possible.
A powerful sense of self will make all the difference in your life. You must understand that your sense of yourself and your capabilities come from inside of you, not from the external forces that have brought you to your current place in life. What you feel internally might be completely different from what the world is telling you, and you must learn to focus on the former rather than the latter.
Adopting a positive attitude will always bring you closer to success, as nobody wants to be associated with a losing side. Everyone wants to associate with and hire winners, and avoids losers. Nothing is more important than maintaining a positive attitude, as many employers hire people based primarily on attitude; with the right attitude, everything else will fall into place. You must look like you are on the winning team, even if times are tough; nobody wants to hire a loser.
Everyone tries to maintain a certain emotional state, and learning to control your own emotions will have a profound impact on your career. While everyone allows their emotional states to be influenced by outside events, there is no advantage in basing your own emotions on things that you cannot control. Allow yourself to discover happiness and fulfillment naturally, rather than making your emotions dependant on external circumstances. Your outlook will have a tremendous impact on your psychological health, as well as that of those around you.
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