Perhaps it starts while you are in bed, sleepless, staring at the ceiling. You wonder: How in this world am I going to not just survive but succeed in this rollicking world of global employment competition? Sure, you are better educated and trained for a successful career than most. Sure you've pitched in with plenty of late-night overtime each time the company faced a special challenge. Sure, you switched your vacation so your boss could take his during prime time. Sure, you've done a thousand things over the years to prove yourself. Yet here you are, stuck in a job you can do with one hand tied behind your back, a job you should have been promoted from long ago. What else can I do, you ask yourself, to break through the ceiling, to break out of the constraints of my present job, and join the select ranks of the movers and shakers? Well, what you can do is study what the movers and shakers do, and do that! Sound easy? Well, it is. And lots of fun too, if you do it right. One thing movers and shakers do is know each other. That's right. Know each other. And trust each other. (Well, up to a point.) Socialize together. Feel comfortable together. It's almost as though there was a 50 yard line across the center of the employment field, with the million dollar players on one side of the line and the more numerous and less celebrated players milling around on the other. Career success isn't just doing a good job on the job. It's doing a good job off the job as well. Getting noticed. Winning confidence. Making people feel confident with you around. Asking their career success advice. Asking them to keep you in mind. Joining the service clubs. Flipping pancakes at the football breakfast. First thing you know (well, maybe not the first thing) the movers and shakers will be coming after you. They will want you in their ranks. They will welcome you, feel confident about you. When a creampuff job comes along that makes you salivate, someone is bound to say, "Hey, what about...?" Career success doesn't just happen on the job. It happens every minute of your life. Including on the proverbial golf course |
