From My Inbox

Got this from my inbox today. Quite an interesting read, although i am sure it's been doing it's round on the forwards a few times around already.

Your career is not everything; your life is. But then, what is life without a career or a career without a life?


1. You are always on your own. Even if you work for a big company, you will always be on your own. Companies aren't people. They're things and they don't have feelings. If you are expecting the company to "take care of you or "do the right thing", you'll be often disappointed. There are no strong bonds in a company. No one cares more about your career than you do. Remember that, and don't expect the company to take care of you.

2. Certain jobs fit certain people best. You do have special gifts that fit you for some, disqualify you for others. Take time to assess your skills, temperament and aptitude in depth.

3. Careers are short-term. Your present job can end anytime, even if you own the company! Therefore, think short term. Don't take your present career for granted. Someone once described a consultant as a person who wakes up every morning unemployed. You should feel the same way. Wake up every morning feeling unemployed so that you'll appreciate your present job more and figure out what you're going to do next. Always have a "Plan B." (No kidding!!)

4. It's more important to be a "people person" than an "achievement-oriented person" who always win at the cost of others. People skills are more important than technical skills. Even in technical jobs, you have to deal with someone. The average performer who are easier to get along with last longer in his job.

5. What you accomplish today will be your calling card tomorrow. Your accomplishments will determine your marketability. In marketing yourself, it's the results that count. A soccer forward who scores in every game is easier to market than one who doesn't. So make sure you're contributing something substantial and measurable every day. And make sure you keep a written record of your results, in case you forget!

6. If you lose your job, 80% of your marketing for a new position is already done. That's right. Your reputation, results, accomplishments, people skills, contributions, friendships are all a matter of record. If you've been a contributor, if you've been kind to others and easy-to-work-with, you'll be in better demand. If not, you won't. Nobody can create friendship for you if you haven't created it for yourself.

7. Changing fields, industries, and functional specialties is difficult. The more difficult it is, the bigger the change will be. Therefore, choose your career path carefully. As management expert Peter Drucker says, "The best way to predict the future is to plan it."

8. If you're fired or laid off, don't sue your former employer. Ask yourself why you didn't see it coming; or if you did see it coming, ask yourself "why you didn't do something about it." Figure out your part in causing the problem. Then set about creating a new, better life for yourself. There is a better life in your future.

9. Don't stay in a job you hate. Hating your job can kill you.

10. Success is difficult. If success were easy, everyone would be successful.

11. There's a special place for everyone. You can create the kind of future you want.

12. The workplace is fun and challenging. It can also be cruel and heartless. It rewards effort and planning, but tends to punish indifference and lack of preparation. Those who don't manage their careers, who just let things happen - often end up in painful, dead-end jobs and lifestyles.

13. You are in full control of your own future. No one can deny you a happy life if you decide to plan it and work for it. No one can stop you from becoming successful, but yourself.

14. It's never too late for a new beginning.

15. Align yourself with winners. Hang around with winners. Success really does rub off from others. "If you keep doing what you have always been doing, you're going to get what you've always gotten"

~ Anthony Robbins

Don't know about you, but i am probably guilty of not doing probably the majority of what's listed there. Sometimes, its just good to read some of this stuff to remind you of the big picture. Since most of the time, you are always just concentrating on the issue or task at hand that you just sometimes just stop what you are doing, take a step back and realise "What the hell have i been doing all this while!!??" and that there are other things in life as well. Sometime i do think, like now, at 9pm on a Wednesday night, still stuck here in the office, franticly hitting my head against the wall trying to figure out the cause for the server process' core dumping, why am I doing this right now? Is all of this really worth it all? Do I really want to be doing this? Do I see myself doing this for the rest of my life (Oh god, please no...). And i just start thinking of what else is there to do.I figure, actually that this is more of a means to an end, and looking at the bigger picture, there are somethings you just need to do to get to the targets that you are trying to achieve. As long as i still do see the light at the end of the tunnel, i should be fine.

Isn't Anthony Robbins that self help guru fella from the Shallow Hal movie?

Later