8/01/2013

10 Tips for Success, continued



 Part 4


9.  Find Out What You Cannot Do



years ago, one of my first positions was with a Community College and I was hired to assess the business community and custom design training programs.  On my first day of employment, I met with the President of the College, who looked me straight in the eyes as he sat behind his large mahogany desk and said,

"let me give you the same advice that was given to me when I first started 40 years ago...  find out what you cannot do, not what you can do, and once you know that everything else is up for grabs..."

At first, I thought he was "pulling my leg" and ignored his advice but never forgot it.  Over the years of my 40+ years, I have come to realize how important that advice was.  And, now strive to pass it on to others as it was passed on to me.

Suffice it to say that understanding what you cannot do, opens the door as wide as you want to open it to "out of the box" thinking.  It is this type of thinking that does not just make seen by your superiors but gives you VALUE that you in turn can give to your employer.



10.  Watch Your Back

One must never assume when beginning a new position that everyone’s values and motivation is similar to theirs; in fact, one would be better served to assume that it is not no matter how difficult it might be to accept the worst in people.  One can “hope for the best” but one must also “expect the worst.”  That is to say that the workplace out there is not nice and is, for the most part, predicated upon “survival of the fittest.”

For someone first entering the workplace this might be a difficult concept to embrace, but let me assure you that in a matter of a few years, you will come to embrace the vitality of my comment.

Our marketplace and economic foundation is based upon greed, albeit regulated greed, it is greed nonetheless.   

No one attends college to earn less money; they attend to earn more money.  The same is true for people who receive technical certifications which may cost a minimum of $2500 each, the driving motivator is to achieve more money.

If someone in the workforce cannot look good to their superiors, then they typically make an attempt to make everyone else look worse.  Consequently, one must always be looking over one’s shoulder.

Underlying these 10 Key Success Factors, is one’s personality that, in my opinion, is comprised of the following:   values, ethics, morals, and integrity.  And, while they may/may not influence or directly impact one’s success they are nonetheless instrumental in how one lives one’s life and how one applies these 10 Key Success Factors.

Values are considered to be those things that are important and are typically how one perceives ethics, morals, and integrity.

Ethics are standards of right and/or wrong that are imposed on the individual either by society of by one’s employer.

Morals are tied to ethics in that they are the “lived” standards of right and/or wrong.

Integrity encompasses both Ethics and Morals because it represents the degree to which these two influences our actions.

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