In this article Harrison discusses the importance of adding value to any job. Companies want to surround themselves with people who work hard and are out to give more than they take. Your task in every job is to add as much value as you can to your employer. You need to understand that if you do not add value, you may not have a job. The primary purpose of any business, job, industry, or service is to add value in greater proportion than the cost of what you are hired for. This is what the entire business world is about. In your job, you are selling your skills and your employer is trying to make money from your skills.

Everything is negotiable, and thus it is important that you choose your negotiations wisely. First, judge your negotiating environment and determine when you can and cannot negotiate; in many important matters, negotiating may actually work to your detriment. Your success in both career and life depends far more on your contributions than your negotiating skill, and having things offered to you is always preferable to demanding them.

In this article Harrison discusses the role of criticism in helping a person grow, evolve, and excel. People generally want to avoid criticism. Many people will do everything within their power to find the “right” people who will say positive things about them and give them approval. But this does not help. You need to make sure that when you ask people around you for constructive criticism, you are doing it so that you can make changes and improve your skills, methods, and understanding of your job. Most people fail to learn from criticism and therefore cannot adapt in response to it. You need to make sure you incorporate criticism into what you do to ensure that you become a better person.

In this article Harrison discusses the importance of first tending to the smaller tasks in life in order to be able to focus on the real large ones. Harrison believes that the inability to keep small details organized in your life is a reflection of your ability to master details in your work. If you cannot keep your surroundings organized, in all probability you will never be able to master your work. There is a certain level of discipline that is required to keep things neat, clean, and organized. If someone does not have this level of discipline on their desk, in their office, in their homes, then they are certainly people who will be incapable of keeping their careers and lives organized. Our surroundings are a reflection of what is going on in our minds.

In this article Harrison discusses how happiness comes from within and not from objects outside of yourself. Each and every one of us is seeking something. The worst sensation is to strive for something and, upon achieving it, to discover that it is empty for us. We all want the superficial outcomes. However what happens is that in seeking these things our brain tries to convince our subconscious that the trivial stuff matters. This ends up creating an internal struggle that really inhibits your ability to ever get anywhere. In your life the most important thing you can do is become the person you are trying to be, instead of trying to get a different life through things, people, and circumstances outside of yourself. You can achieve your dreams; just remember to look within yourself first, in order to assess what is truly important to you and your happiness.

In this article Harrison discusses why emotional connections are so important in the workplace. In virtually every company, there are people who are not needed at all but are kept in the jobs due to some emotional connection. In every industry when layoffs occur, generally the first to go are those who do not have an emotional connection to the organization. According to Harrison there is a huge value attached to having emotional connections in your job. The holiday party, invitations to spend time with your boss outside of work, and other similar occasions are extremely important because they are a chance to form an emotional connection with the people you are working with. The emotional connection will take you farther and will last longer than any other sort of connection.

Avoiding problems, not challenging yourself, and giving up in the face of challenges are all forms of being a loser. Your reaction to any given situation is far more important than the situation itself. Whether you are the type of person who moves towards or away things will ultimately determine your career success; those who move toward things make consistent progress, confronting their fears by facing and dealing with them.