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.

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.

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.

We all create problems about something in our lives, and respond to these problems differently; these problems are life’s way of sending us messages and challenges. We can make these problems work either for us or against us. Develop a sense of clarity about the true nature of whatever problems you are facing. When you remove the charge from problems and view them in the present rather than the past, you will find that the solution lies within each problem and you save your time and energy in dealing with them.

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.

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 I was younger and less experienced in the...