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.

The most successful people are often obsessed with and are incredibly knowledgeable about the minutiae of their work. You must concentrate and develop an understanding of the details that others “gloss over” for true happiness and success in your job. When looking for a job, you will find greater success by looking for openings in places that others overlook. Focusing on the small details will, in aggregate, bring you much greater success than focusing on the bigger picture, so start by tending to one detail at a time.

To be happy, you must create the life that you want on your own terms. Structure your life in a manner that is fulfilling to you, rather than a vision of what you want to be or a vision that outside influences have created for you. The inability to design your own life is one of the worst tragedies that can befall you. When you design your own life you are in complete charge of your life’s events, and you set the rules any way you choose.

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 it is important to stay focused. According to Harrison anyone can get started on the road to success and a life of fulfillment but the real task is staying on the path of success. Staying on track can make a giant difference in the quality of your life. No one is going to be there to keep you on your mission and this is the most important thing you must realize. You have to stay focused even amidst the myriad distractions of people and life. Everyone has a spirit within, which drives him or her to do great things. It is those naysayers around us, and the prospect of something bad happening that often keeps us barred back, and on the sidelines. But there is nothing glorious, fulfilling, or memorable about spending your life on the sidelines. You need to run the race, and once you start running you need to stay on track.

If you can learn how to create work for yourself, you will never be unemployed or lacking for excitement in your life. You must learn to use your mind to create work; if successful, this ability will come to define your life and career because outside circumstances will no longer matter to you. The world will work for you, rather than the other way around.

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.