Just as a Unique Selling Position (USP) is important to sell a product, your own USP is vital for marketing yourself to potential employers. You must define your USP before even creating your resume, as it comprises the basic product that you are trying to sell in your interview. Focus your USP on a specific niche, for which there is market demand, and make it thoroughly persuasive.
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.
You should neither trust outward appearances, nor let them intimidate you. There is always a discord between the appearance that a person or organization projects, and their actual nature. For this reason, always be careful about the people and organizations in whom you place your trust.
Want Powerful Career Advice?
Get my free newsletter and strategies that make people successful
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.
Only take on more responsibility when you are ready for it. While it is fine to try new things, you must have a clear understanding of the challenges ahead of you; otherwise, you are likely to get into trouble when you step outside of your comfort zone. Do not get ahead of yourself and take on work of which you are not capable in your drive for success, or you risk sabotaging all of the hard work you have already invested.
You cannot achieve anything in life by just thinking about it; you must get out there and consistently do work that brings you closer to your goals. There are no short-cuts, so you will need long-term discipline to realize and measure of success. The most important thing you can do for your success is to have and apply long-term discipline to your life and work.
Accountability is a necessary career skill, and one that will lead you to considerable success. You are necessarily accountable, whether you want to be or not, for everything in which you are involved. You must own the results of your actions, whether they be good or bad. You are ultimately responsible for your own success, not your colleagues or environment.
You have the power to become the person you are capable of being. Although you will face external obstacles in the process of becoming this person, but your biggest challenges will be internal. Do not allow others to keep you down, but instead decide to excel on your own; in order to achieve your goals, direct all of your energies towards being the best person of which you are capable.
You can get miraculous results in life and work when you are not in competition with others. Comparing yourself with those around you can lead to a sense of defeat and negativity that can pervade your life, needlessly undermining your efforts. Be your own person and conduct your life on your own terms, and your results will be far greater than if you had limited yourself by comparison to others.
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.
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.
Want Powerful Career Advice?
Get my free newsletter and strategies that make people successful