Someone who wants to succeed in finding a job must understand marketing. Regardless of what you do, your job search is a marketing operation. The more effectively you market yourself, the more jobs you will get, the better jobs you will get, and the more successful you will be. The people who market themselves most effectively are the ones who do the best in their careers.
Avoid the envy of others. Successful individuals know envy can lead others to undermine them; in order to remain powerful, you must paradoxically minimize the appearance of power. Avoiding envy will put you in a much better position to succeed and effectively compete.
Many people mistakenly focus their energy on things that they want to avoid, rather than the things they wish to achieve. Your focus ultimately determines where you will go in life and what will happen to you. The best way to move ahead in life, therefore, is to focus on your goals rather than the obstacles to them and the risks along the way. You need to take small, consistent steps toward changing your focus, and understand that it will not change overnight. Once you do change your focus, however, you will be able to chance the direction and momentum of your career for the better.
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In this article Harrison suggests that you need to be in favor with the right people. These people have an ability to control what happens in your career. People with strong and influential opinions exist within all companies and organizations. It is important to cater to and get the approval of people who have the ability to influence the opinions of others one way or another. When you go against people with the power to influence others they can turn against you and make your career and life much more difficult. You do need to be aware of the game going on and you do need to play it, or at least play along with it to get ahead.
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 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.
Russell Conwell’s fantastic Acres of Diamonds speech argues that the means for success do not require extensive searching, but are all around us. Opportunity is everywhere if you know where to look. Many times we miss opportunities that are right in front of us because we are looking in the wrong places.
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.
Seeking outside input, and taking feedback and criticism from others are crucial components of your success. The most successful people not only seek criticism, but seek situations in which they will be challenged and criticized, and surround themselves with people who are likely to challenge them. Arranging for regular input from others will help you improve in all respects.
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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