10 KEYS TO CLIMBING THE CORPORATE LADDER FAST!!!!

Want to know how to climb the corporate ladder in rapid fashion? After completing 12 weeks of working as an MBA Intern, I compiled my list of what I consider 10 of the greatest tips for success in you career and life.

1) BE PRESENT- This is hands down my greatest take away for success in life, relationships, and your career. When I picked up the Eckhart Tolle book that I read, it was like his words began to echo in my life. From senior executives to people I met at various bars in San Diego, the greatest wisdom I’ve gained is the need and ability to be present.

2) Be a learner- I may have heard this in an organizational behavior class. But, I have to say that in this summer I’ve learned more in 3 months than I have in 3 years because I was willing to be a sponge. I soaked up as much information as I could and now I feel like somewhat of a subject matter expert in my field. Become addicted to learning and your passion will come across.

3) Embrace your strengths – For half my adult life I have tried to improve all the things I am weak at. While it’s ok to fix things, I think that embracing your strengths is really the key to a successful life. Find what you love, and what you are good at and the rest will fall into place

4) Be flexible – Life is full of curve balls. As many self improvement gurus have said, it’s not about what happens to you, but how you react to it.

5) Be Patient- My best friend once said “It’s not a race. What are you going to do, race to the death?” Too often in life we are in such a hurry to make everything happen and the irony is being in a hurry slows you down

6) Learn to Control your energy- Energy is an amazingly powerful, yet intangible force. The right energy can literally make miracles happen in your life. With good energy you draw the most amazing circumstances. I left my car in La Jolla over night where they ticket like mad, and I got no parking ticket.

7) Know your Story- This is a strange one. But, your story is the story you tell yourself. If you tell yourself a story of failure then that’s exactly what it becomes.

8) Don’t be Realistic- Realism is just pessimism disguised as practicality. Rational thinking never made anybody famous. In fact, it might have killed a man or two

9) You’re always Networking- Whether you know it or not, you are always networking. However, you don’t want to go out with the idea of “I’m networking.” Just talk to people and let it all happen. Last year at a bar, a southern real estate mogul who owned shopping malls, practically offered me a job after a 5 minute conversation.

10) Choose the right job – Most people will make choices based on money. While we may need it to survive the people who have been willing to give up everything and take risks often have tremendous success. There is a great deal of truth to the statement “the greater the risk, the greater the reward.” It’s ironic when you’re willing to give up your attachment to things, how easy it becomes to obtain them.

Search Every Craigslist Site at Once

For MBA job seekers who are reading this, I posted this because it's extremely useful if you want to do a job search on Craigslist across multiple geographic locations.

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Reflections, Looking, Back and more....

This morning was I was driving to work, I was reflecting on the time that I've spent at Intuit over the last 12-13 weeks. Then I started to think about my career as a whole and the journey. When I graduated from college, I was living in a delusional world with expectations that everything should be handed to me on a silver platter and that I shouldn't have to work for less than a certain amount. It was basically the ego of the first dot com generation. We all felt entitled to say the least.

When I look back over the last 13 weeks, one thing really stands out to me. The amount of personal growth I've experience over the summer is probably equivalent or greater than the personal growth I've experienced since I graduated from college. Personal growth from come from a number of experiences, moving to a new city where you don't know anybody, working in an industry where you have absolutely NOTHING in common with the people you are working with, working somewhere that forces you to deal with people from ALL walks of life and more. While this isn't my final blog post for my intern blog, it's getting really close. But the advice I would give somebody when searching for a job or an internship is, don't just look at whats going to give you professional growth, look at something that will give you the opportunity for personal growth too because the personal growth is the fuel for your professional growth.

Business School vs. the Real World

After spending a summer working in corporate America, I realized that you go to business school to get your MBA and they basically will give you a piece of paper with three letters on the end of your name. Then you start working and you have to earn your degree all over again. While you do learn a good amount in the classroom, the classroom is about the fundamentals of business. Most of that stuff doesn’t change, but bringing those skills into the real world forces you to evolve and combine the b-school skills with the real world skills. In school things are pretty black and white. In the real world, there’s a good amount of grey area. There’s way more risk involved. But, that’s what makes it interesting!!!

Free Money...Compliments of the IRS

It’s no fun sitting on the sidelines while the IRS gives out $100 billion in free money -- and you watch friends and family spend it to fill their gas tanks or take summer vacations.

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Free Money...Compliments of the IRS

It’s no fun sitting on the sidelines while the IRS gives out $100 billion in free money -- and you watch friends and family spend it to fill their gas tanks or take summer vacations.

read more | digg story

Being in the Moment

I wrote a previous blog post about this subject where I talked about being present. The reason I'm writing about it again is because I feel like it's really an ongoing theme in my growth this summer. The power of presence has made me realize that it really is essential to your happiness. What I've found is that in my career and in my life, I've always been worried about getting ahead. It's ironic that the extreme desire to get ahead can actual be counterproductive. You'd think that a focus on getting ahead would get you there. Ironically excessive focus on getting ahead reduces the quality of the work you are currently producing.

After reading a ton of books this summer, listening to podcasts, hearing executives talk, I realized that when you can master presence, the rest of your success in life is just a byproduct of being present. Looking back over the course of my internship, I would say the major thing I was guilty of was being so obsessed with making my internship lead to a full time offer that it actually took away from the experience to some degree. So, my one piece of advice to anybody in any internship is to go ahead and let the cards fall where they may, enjoy yourself, work hard, and live in the now, not the future.