Build or Bust Your Career in 2009, Part 2

Herman Malonzo, his lovely wife Angie and their talented daughter Mariah are good friends of mine. They have a beautiful house and Herman’s got a very stable job. As he took me and my family along the Las Vegas strip during our annual family vacation he shook his head slowly and said, “My friends from the casinos tell me that there have been massive layoffs. And this comes at a time when home mortgages and college loans have to be paid. This will be tragic to many of my Filipino friends who never had a life plan.” Herman’s house is practically paid off, his daughter has straight A’s in school and is working on her musical talent with the Las Vegas Junior Philharmonic Orchestra. Herman looked at me and said, “God has been good to us all these years.”

Today is the continuation of our 2 part material and idea number 6 in our study on building and securing our career is:

6. MAKE SURE YOU HAVE A LIFE PLAN

Every successful person I know has a well-defined life plan. They know what they want and they set all effort to get it. Forget all those empty promises of so-called “motivational speakers,” forget all those stupid mystical books that promises success without having to work for it. At the end of the day, it is the person with a goal who works hard for it who will get ahead of the dreamers who merely dream great dreams without waking up and doing some work. You and I need to have a life plan. Without a plan, we leave our success in the hands of others who may or may not have time to look after other people’s successes.
7. SURROUND YOURSELF WITH SUCCESSFUL PEOPLE

This is one principle I find amazing. Successful people are always in the company of equally successful people. Losers are almost always with losers too. They rush to get to their happy hour they tell tales where they are the heroes of their own stories while successful people talk about ideas on how to be more successful. They network with each other and the glue that holds things together is integrity and trust for one another.

8. ASK QUESTIONS ALL THE TIME

Be naturally curious. Find out everything you can know about how your company operates. Get to know the people behind the positions. Ask intelligent questions and you get intelligent answers. Be knowledgeable. Knowledge is power and winners remain unceasingly interested in learning ideas and approaches. Successful leaders are those who ask questions all the time and they build trust with their people.

9. MARKET YOURSELF BUT GIVE CREDIT TO OTHERS

In a huge organization setup, it will be difficult to just work hard and hope and wait for the people upstairs to take notice. You have to learn how to market yourself correctly….. (which is an entire seminar on its own)… but in doing so, make sure you give credit to others.

Most people think this is strange. “How can I be noticed when I give others the credit instead of bagging the credit for myself?” The answer is quite simple. You cannot succeed alone. It takes a lot of effort from other people to help make you succeed. And even if you were the first one to come up with the idea and even if you were the person who contributed big time to making the project work, when you pass on the credit to your team, they would love to work with you and make you more successful. And then the irony appears. PEOPLE KNOW! So you don’t have to toot your own horn. This is one of the effective ways in marketing yourself. Never forget this: If you say good things about yourself then it’s bragging. But when others say it, then it is a fact!

10. BUILD YOUR CHARACTER IN ORDER TO BUILD YOUR CAREER

Ask any owner and they will tell you that top in their list is people who are not only efficient but trustworthy. Hands down, no contest. Integrity rules! Most people rise up to their success because of their talents but only to crash because of their lack of character. This is why you need to cultivate a pure heart and clean hands as Scriptures would say and work harder on yourself than you do on your job. Do not lose perspective. The end does not justify the mean-ness. At the end of the day, people love people who are kind, caring, competent and trustworthy. At the end of the day, people are thrown off by scheming, deceiving, slandering and maligning folks who would sacrifice their own personal values on the altar of worldly success.

This is how you build your career in 2009 and this is how you build yourself for the rest of your life.–Francis Kong, Philippine Star