anything goes: Seth's Blog: How to succeed

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

You don't need all of these, and some are mutually exclusive (while others are not). And most don't work, don't scale or can't be arranged:

Be very focused on your goal and work on it daily

Go to college with someone who makes it big and then hires you

Be born with significant and unique talent

Practice every day

Network your way to the top by inviting yourself from one lunch to another, trading favors as you go

Quietly do your job day in and day out until someone notices you and gives you the promotion you deserve

Do the emotional labor of working on things that others fear

Notice things, turn them into insights and then relentlessly turn those insights into projects that resonate

Hire a great PR firm and get a lot of publicity

Work the informational interview angle

Perform outrageous acts and say obnoxious things

Inherit

Redefine your version of success as: whatever I have right now

Flit from project to project until you alight on something that works out very quickly and well

Be the best-looking person in the room

Flirt

Tell stories that people care about and spread

Contribute more than is expected

Give credit to others

Take responsibility

Aggrandize, preferably self

Be a jerk and win through intimidation

Be a doormat and refuse to speak up or stand up

Never hesitate to share a kind word when it's deserved

Sue people

Treat every gig as an opportunity to create art

Cut corners

Focus on defeating the competition

When dealing with employees, act like Steve. It worked for him, apparently.

Persist, always surviving to ship something tomorrow

When in doubt, throw a tantrum

Have the ability to work harder and more directly than anyone else when the situation demands it

Don't rock the boat

Rock the boat

Don't rock the boat, baby

Resort to black hat tactics to get more than your share

Work to pay more taxes

Work to evade taxes

Find typos