3 GEN!

US TIPS FOR BOOSTING YOUR CAREER

by James Bannerman (© Jan 2013)

Author of Genius! deceptively simple ways to become instantly smarter (Pearson)
INTRO

Looking for a new job, or career change, can be tricky at the best of times; in an
age of austerity, however, such a challenge can feel less like an uphill climb, and
more like scaling the Matterhorn !

If this happens to ring true for you (or someone you might know) the good news
is that there are a ‘creative tips’ which can help. The following 3 won’t necessarily
guarantee you success, but what they will do is hopefully inspire you to look at
the ‘world of employment’ through a different lens, so you can start to come up
with fresh solutions of your own:

TIP 1: TURN BITTER LEMONS INTO LEMONADE

Life doesn’t always go according to plan, and this is why it’s so important we
learn how to make the most of our ‘setbacks’, and use them as valuable
‘stepping stones.’

Look at the Michelin chef Gordon Ramsay, for example. He was originally all set-
up to play football for Glasgow Rangers, but then after a bad injury came to
realise it was wiser to focus his creative energies elsewhere.

Or what about the author Dick Francis ? He was enjoying a pretty good career as
a jockey, but after he fell off his horse in the 1954 Grand National just before the
finishing line ( and then decided to write about his experience in an
autobiography) he then ditched the world of jockeying to become a writer instead.

So if you find that your career has been unexpectedly blocked or knocked-off
course by forces beyond your control, please don’t despair, for as William
Shakespeare once said, ‘There is a world elsewhere’…
TIP 2: LOOK ON NETWORKING AS ‘GIVING’

Everyone knows that ‘networking’ is an important part of career development.

What less people know, however, is that networking is really all about GIVING.

It’s not about thrusting your business card into someone’s hand at a wedding, or
ringing someone up after 10 years of deafening silence and saying ‘got any
work?’ On the contrary. It’s about sharing and distributing information.

So, if you really want to help yourself and your career, you might find it valuable
to ‘spin this thought’ and focus instead on new ways to help others and their
careers (without expecting anything in return).

After all, this is precisely what Henry Edmunds did back in 1904 when he
introduced two people to one another at The Midland Hotel, Manchester; one
was a businessman he knew called Charles Rolls, and the other was an engineer
called Henry Royce…
TIP 3: FOCUS ON ‘HOW’, NOT ‘WHAT’

I once asked a room full of people ‘what can’t you make money out of ?’
Surprisingly, when people really put their minds to it, they found it difficult to
answer. Loo paper ? (Think of Andrex). Sandwiches ? (Think of Pret) Rubbish ?
(well, even re-cycling is now pretty big business).

The point being that it’s not always WHAT we do that matters, but HOW.

And this is perhaps why Creative Thinking is so immensely valuable in the

modern world. Creative Thinking can help us to find the alternative ‘how’ and
additional ‘how’ which we might not have considered before.

So, next time you find yourself getting more and more frustrated in your job
search, forget the old phrase ‘If at first you don’t succeed, try, try, again. ‘ Far
better to replace it with the following ( recommended by the sport psychologist
Yehuda Shinar): ‘If at first you don’t succeed, refine the method’…

Oh yes, and here’s one final thought. One ‘extra tip’ I contributed to Pearson’s
website shortly after GENIUS first hit the shops last year…

You may even find it helpful to TERMINATE YOUR CAREER, too.

Here’s why…
When Arnold Schwarzenegger first went to America in 1968, he wasn’t the
wealthy celebrity we all know today. Far from it. His day-to-day job was
‘bricklaying’, which he only did to help subsidise his dream of becoming the uber-
body-builder of all body-builders…Mr.Olympia !

The problem was, however, that because he had such a strong Austrian accent
few L.A. clients were able to understand him, and this meant his business was
suffering.

So what did he do?

Well (according to an article by Martin Kasindorf in USA TODAY in 2003) he

adopted a little Cunningly Clever Creativity and turned this perceived
weakness to his advantage. Together with fellow body-builder Franco Columbu
they re-positioned themselves as ‘speciality European bricklayers.’

Suddenly, as a result of this simple twist of thought, their newly named company
‘European Brick Works’ not only ended up being busier than ever; it also
enabled them to start charging MORE than their competitors, rather than less…
GENIUS!

With this in mind, if you happen to be looking for a breakthrough in your own
career development, you might want to consider how you could potentially use
your weaknesses (or perceived weaknesses) to your advantage.

After all, if this approach was good enough for THE TERMINATOR, there’s a
good chance it might also be good enough for you…