• A highly skilled surgeon typically earns much more money than a regular doctor, simply because the duties of his or her profession require more focus.
• A patent attorney typically earns more money than a litigation attorney because his job often requires more focus than the other.

When you are more focused, you are more productive with your time. Society and the work world values people who are able to bring a high degree of focus to any situation at hand in the workplace. There is nothing more important in any job than your productivity. You will lose direction in your career and even in your life if you are not being productive. You will also lose direction if you are not measuring your productivity. Over the years, I have spoken to hundreds of people who are looking for jobs. I have found that a large percentage of people dream of a job and of a life without a lot of pressure. Ideally, many people look forward to retirement or not having to work at all because of wise money management or luck. But the less focus and productivity you give to society, the less you are rewarded in terms of money, prestige, and more. Productivity is rewarded by society. There is generally no free ride available. We must always be productive in one form or another. We must be able to produce. You must produce in every job you have. What you produce must have a much greater value than what you take. You must consciously (in every job you have, or any job you are seeking) create tremendous value. You must develop personal statistics and goals that showcase your value, even if none are provided to you by your employer. If your employer is not measuring your productivity, it is often a smart thing for you to measure your own productivity. When you show your employer what you have achieved throughout the week, as the end of the week draws near, it will be clear to the employer who is doing what, and which employees stand out as more valuable. Several years ago, I hired a very talented attorney to work for me on a contract basis. This was when our company was much younger, but growing. The attorney was in his late 40s at the time, and he was pretty seasoned when I hired him. Something about him stands out in my mind; something he did really impressed me. He would send a detailed report to me each week about what he had accomplished in his job. This report went over everything he had done in considerable detail, and was always very well written. While he eventually left to start his own law practice, he was somebody I really valued. I can say with absolute certainty that he’d never have lost his job if he had stayed on with the company. He was productive with his time, and he showed me on a weekly basis. I appreciated that, because at the time I had no methods for measuring the productivity of the people working for me. When I hired his replacement, I requested a weekly report, but the replacement resisted. The replacement was someone who did not use their time wisely, wandering around a good part of the day gossiping and so forth. This is not productive behavior. Over the course of the past several years of hiring people, the best employees continue to be the ones who document what they do every single week. My best employees do this, and no one has ever lost their job when they document their work to me every week. I highly recommend doing this. Your superiors want to see productivity, and if you document what you are doing, it shows them exactly how you are spending company time. And if you do solid work, this can become a tool for making yourself virtually indispensable. It may result in more raises, better job security, and frequent promotions. Employers respect those who document their work. About six years ago or so, an employee of mine was in my office, telling me about how someone they knew had just gotten a large inheritance. “He’ll never have to work again,” my employee observed. I thought about this and realized the person I was speaking to was also interested in “never working again,” and that their entire goal in life was seemingly to find a situation that would allow them to get rich, and never have to return to a job. This is not something I have ever been at all interested in. The idea of not having to work simply does not appeal to me. To work is to contribute to society and provide value. To work is also to be engaged and to have a purpose in your life each day. There is nothing more important than working and making sure you are doing the job you are best at, contributing every single day. I have been reading many recent articles about people who have been laid off. Certain people are having a difficult time finding jobs. But I have witnessed this for many years. In the legal profession, for example, people traditionally have a difficult time finding a new job after getting laid off. Many law firms with openings demand that recruiters only submit people who have not been laid off. There is a strong interest in the legal profession and other professions in avoiding people who have been laid off. One article I read recently titled Only the Employed Need Apply in the Wall Street Journal discusses the fact that many employers avoid the unemployed when hiring:

With unemployment at 9.4% and rising, it’s a buyer’s market for employers that are hiring. But many employers are bypassing the jobless to target those still working, reasoning that these survivors are the top performers. “If they’re employed in today’s economy, they have to be first string,” says Ryan Ross, a partner with Kaye/Bassman International Corp., an executive recruiting firm in Dallas. Mr. Ross says more clients recently have indicated that they would prefer to fill positions with “passive candidates” who are working elsewhere and not actively seeking a job.

The reason the unemployed are avoided is because there is the presumption that they are not as productive as the people at their firms who were not let go. The idea is that companies and firms keep their most productive people, and this has been understood in hiring circles for as long as I can remember. If you are productive and do really good work, in most cases employers will do what they can to hold on to you because you provide more value than you take. If you are not productive, and you are seen as more of a taker than a producer, your job will always be in jeopardy. This is a horrible position to be in; ideally you should never have to worry about keeping your job. You need to be productive and focused, and you must constantly prove your value to your employer. Even if your employer is not measuring. THE LESSON You must hone your ability to block out external stimuli and focus solely on the work you provide for your employer, not what you can take from the company. High focus leads to high productivity, which in turn leads to high value. Attaining such a high degree of focus will make you much in demand in the business world and in society at large. Productivity should be measures either by you, or by your employer, and the most successful companies are usually those who prioritize keeping track of their employees’ productivity.

1. People are illogical, unreasonable, and self centered. Love them anyway.
2. If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives. Do good anyway.
3. If you are successful, you win false friends and true enemies. Succeed anyway.
4. The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway.
5. Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable. Be honest and frank anyway.
6. The biggest men with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest men with the smallest minds. Think big anyway.
7. People favor underdogs, but follow only top dogs. Fight for a few underdogs anyway.
8. What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight. Build anyway.
9. People really need help but may attack you if you do help them. Help people anyway.
10. Give the world the best you have and you’ll get kicked in the teeth. Give the world the best you have anyway.

These commandments are valuable on many levels because they can drive you to do exceptionally well in everything you do. They were originally written by Kent Keith in a book called, The Silent Revolution: Dynamic Leadership in the Student Counsel. At the time he was only 19, a sophomore at Harvard. During his time as an undergraduate, Kent visited numerous high schools, lecturing young students about leadership and giving workshops. Many of the students wanted to change the system; however, Kent noticed that they most often gave up when they faced any sort of difficulty:

“I saw a lot of idealistic young people go out into the world to do what they thought was right, and good, and true, only to come back a short time later, discouraged, or embittered, because they got negative feedback, or nobody appreciated them, or they failed to get the results they had hoped for,” recalls Keith. “I told them that if they were going to change the world, they had to really love people, and if they did, that love would sustain them. I also told them that they couldn’t be in it for fame or glory. I said that if they did what was right and good and true, they would find meaning and satisfaction, and that meaning and satisfaction would be enough. If they had the meaning, they didn’t need the glory.”

Each of these commandments is about the importance of staying on course and really addressing the issue. People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centered. Love them anyway. Most people out there are thinking only about themselves the majority of the time. If you do well at anything they are not necessarily going to be happy for you. They are going to think about how your success makes them look. They are going to think that if you are doing too well, you are not going to like them, and that you will not want to be friends with them anymore. These same people are going to discourage your ambition and everything you hope to accomplish because of how it is going to make them look. I read an interesting quote recently in a book called The Best Damn Sales Book Ever:

You know them. The coffee cup brigade are the sales people who walk around all day holding a coffee cup, telling anyone who’ll listen the right way to do things (according to them); what’s wrong with the company, the boss, and the product; and how, if they were running things, it would be different. The only problem with the coffee cup brigade is they never do anything, and because of that, they look to drag you down with them.

People are self centered. They think about themselves first–always. Do not worry about it, though. Love people; do not hate them. Their reasoning for being competitive with you, undermining you (or whatever) may be illogical, but it does not need to concern you or command your attention. I cannot even begin to tell you how many illogical and nonsensical people I have encountered in my career. I used to tell people that I thought they were completely off their rocker, yell at them, and so forth, but now I do not even allow problematic people to affect me that much. I have learned that a substantial portion of the population is completely off their rocker. I love them anyway. Rather than being negatively affected by how nuts so many people seem to be, I have just decided to embrace everyone. When you start doing really well you begin to see a lot of people close to you acting very irrational. A lot of this is due to the fact that your success is threatening them. Love them and do not fight them. This is the best way to deal with this. Allow them to be irrational but do not allow it to drive you nuts. You are going to see the worst side of people very quickly the more successful you get. Whether it is your parents, other relatives, your coworkers, or others around you–people will very quickly show their self centered side to you. Do not stress about it. Just love these people anyway. You can analyze it all you want, but just know that they are acting the way they are for reasons which are more about them than you. Love them anyway. Stay on track. If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives. Do good anyway. When I was in law school I used to attend church twice a week and I went on my own. My girlfriend would not go with me and I did this every week. On one Ash Wednesday I saw one of the most inspiring sermons I can remember. It dealt with the fact that if you do good you should not tell others about it. Meaning, you do not want to draw attention to the good you do. The purpose of your good act should be only to do good, not to gain praise or otherwise draw attention to yourself. Since hearing that sermon I have done a lot of secret charity acts that I simply do not talk about. My wife does not even know everything I do. I am simply constantly doing this or that and little charity things off the radar. I am very glad that I keep a low profile with my charity work, although it is not nearly as significant as it should be–but I keep doing it. What I notice is that this secret work that I do has never gotten “sidetracked” by other people’s negative opinions. Keeping out of the limelight has made it easy for me to continue my charitable work. The public work I do is different… However, one of the more interesting things I have seen is that the work I do publicly often gets attacked and criticized. For example, I like to write about how to get jobs, which I have been doing for years. Nevertheless, there are people out there who ascribe selfish motives to this. My life mission is to find people jobs. I have been doing this with an incredible amount of enthusiasm my entire career. Some people claim this is selfish too… In fact, in just about everything I do there are people who ascribe selfish motives to it. Notwithstanding all the criticism, I have continued doing everything I do because I believe in it. I will always continue, despite the criticism. I believe in who I am and what I am doing and I will continue to do good regardless of what the cynics may say. If you are doing something worthwhile then continue with it and do not give up. Who cares what other people say about you? What is the alternative they are offering? Who cares if the work you are doing provides you with economic rewards? This does not make you evil. Do good anyway and do not allow people to dissuade you. Stay on track. If you are successful, you win false friends and true enemies. Succeed anyway. I cannot tell you how many people will be there to be your “false friend” and “true enemy” once you become successful. This will amaze you. In most cases the “false friends” you meet when you become successful will be people you may admire and look up to. They will realize your success and very quickly start calling you “a friend” in a superficial sort of way. You will spend very little time with them and they will suddenly be your friend. Your friendship and their “false bond” with you will be based largely on your success and nothing more. There will not be a deep bond to go along with this and the friendship will most likely be based on what you can do for them, how you make them look, and so forth. You need to be incredibly careful. I cannot tell you how many stories I have read about boxers, overnight music sensations, and others being preyed upon by more powerful people the second they became successful. When you are successful, you are going to find yourself increasingly isolated in some respects, and you will have a difficult time telling your real friends from your fake friends. My wife’s family used to be very wealthy and then they lost all their money some time ago. My wife has told me numerous stories about how when this happened, many of the family’s former friends were suddenly no longer friends. The family was left with a small core of friends and not many more. Many people are superficial and this is a real shame. This is just the way it is. Realize you will have numerous false friends and leave it at that. The real danger of success, however, is that you are going to win a ton of enemies. People will become extremely jealous and simply not like you by virtue of your success. It is really odd to me how this works. You will suddenly have people around you who hate you. Former coworkers you were promoted over and other people who are threatened by your success. It is always interesting for me when I go to trade shows in the employment industry. I will be standing around doing nothing and competitor will walk up to me and say something like: “You think you are a big deal because your site has more jobs than ours but we still value relationships with employers. If you got off your ass and met more employers perhaps you’d see that your business model is ass backwards!” BOOM! Out of nowhere someone I never met will walk up to me and start hurling insults at me. When I look into it, it is almost always a competitor who is threatened by our company, or something along those lines. Who cares? Everyone has enemies. You are going to gain enemies when you are successful. In my case, my companies have employed literally thousands of people throughout the past decade. Not everyone has had a good experience working with me and I am sure some previous employees even dislike me. Our companies have had hundreds of thousands of customers. Not every one of their experiences has been the best. Try as you may, you are going to make enemies just by being successful. Do not take this personally and do not let it make you quit! It is the same process for everyone. Stay on track. The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway. For the most part, most people are not going to care what you did a month or a year ago. Most people will judge you on what you can do today and the most recent thing you did. One of the biggest ways this comes out is in helping people. For years I have helped people who were chronically unemployed, get jobs. I have taken a personal interest in numerous people throughout the years and have done everything within my power to help them get jobs. After getting these people jobs I rarely hear from them again, and they rarely credit me as the one who helped them get a job. I do not care. I help people anyway and continue to do so. In my companies I have helped numerous people by giving them massive raises, promotions, and so forth. Once people get this, the next step for them is often wanting more. Instead of being happy with what they have gotten, they very quickly forget everything you have done and want more. Who cares? It is important to do good anyway. One of the most amazing things to me is when I watch young attorneys. Some of them will work 100+ hours in a week rarely sleeping. Then when business slows down in the firm, they will lose their job within a few months. The good they did is quickly forgotten, or so it seems. I am sure you can come up with similar experiences you have had with your own previous employers. You work really, really hard and then people forget about it later on. You help someone, offer something, or make some sort of contribution and it is quickly forgotten, as if it didn’t matter at all. Do good anyway. When you are constantly focused on doing good and working hard, these attributes become part of your character. It comes across in how you look, the way you talk, and what others say about you when you are not around. No good that you do ever goes unrewarded. Continue doing good–there is no reason not to. Many people are constantly evaluating each good action they do, expecting to get a corresponding return. There is much more to it than that and you need to continually be doing good regardless of your expected outcome. You are not going to get an instant return and reward from every good act that you do, but you will be rewarded in your character and reputation. Do not get detracted from people who tell you that your efforts are in vain. Stay on track. Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable. Be honest and frank anyway. One of the biggest challenges that people have is continuing to be honest and frank. Most people want to remain strong at all times and to continually project an image of confidence, strength, and power. The truth is that the more honest you are, the more powerful you become. Allow me to explain: When you try to hide the truth, people do not know who you are. Being vulnerable is actually a positive thing because it allows you to be human, and for others to care about you, and identify with you and your weaknesses. No one expects you to be perfect. Admitting your failures and lapses is one of the more important things you can do, and not doing so can get you into trouble. I knew of an attorney once who had worked incredibly hard for over 8 years as an associate in two law firms. He was notified that he was a couple of weeks away from being made a partner in a major American law firm. One day a partner in the law firm asked this man if he had sent a letter to client about a matter. Knowing full well he had not, the associate wanting to look good said he had sent the letter the previous day. The associate then went into his office, drafted the letter, and sent it out postdated for the previous day. It was not a big deal and the letter that was sent late was not that important. Somehow, however, the partner that had asked him to send the letter found out it had been sent late, and found out the associate had drafted the actual letter after speaking with him. The associate was fired from the law firm on the spot. Because of his lie, I believe he ended up not getting another job for over a year. This talented and hardworking young man literally destroyed his career over this one incident. Tell the truth. Just be honest. People will respect you more, people will identify with you more, and you will feel better about yourself. Stay on track. The biggest men with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest men with the smallest minds. Think big anyway. If you go around telling people you want to lose weight, improve in your career–or whatever it is you are trying to do, you will be absolutely amazed how quickly numerous people will appear to tell you what you are trying to do is impossible, it cannot be done, you cannot do it, you are not skilled or whatever. This has happened with every single thing I have ever done that has some significance. Do it anyway. The ideas you have are likely to threaten other people, who will come up with one reason after another why something cannot be done. A quote from The Best Damn Sales Book Ever is instructive in this regard:

If you let them, salespeople (and most people, for that matter) will come up with every excuse in the book why it can’t be done. Why? Because they have no vision. They don’t see themselves as successful, they only see themselves failing. In order to fulfill this prophecy they need a reason. So what do they do? They prejudge (most salespeople call it “qualifying”) almost every prospect they come in contact with and decide ahead of time he or she won’t buy.

People will do this with you too. They will prejudge and tell you why you cannot do well. Do not let people shoot you down or destroy your dreams. Small people attack other people’s dreams. You need to be strong; do not ever let others dissuade you. Stay on track. People favor underdogs, but follow only top dogs. Fight for a few underdogs anyway. Most people, you included, I am sure, favor underdogs. We do it in sports, we do it in work. Fighting for the underdog is a matter of character and spirit. You too are an underdog, or were an underdog. Appreciating the weakness in others makes you stronger and hoping and working on behalf of the good is something that adds to your character. Few people have the sort of character needed to not simply follow the crowd, which follows the top dogs. When you allow yourself to follow underdogs, you show yourself as a leader, and you strengthen your character. This helps you stay on track when people try and push you off the horse, as you take other actions to improve yourself and the world around you. Stay on track. What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight. Build anyway. I was in a restaurant several months ago and there was a man standing at the bar who was drunk out of his mind. He looked quite respectable but he was acting like a buffoon. He was telling the bartender how he had lost everything–tens of millions of dollars in property. He was upset and said he felt like everything he had worked for all of his life had not been worth it. He was complaining that this all happened because he did not get a certain bank loan. You can lose everything you have worked for in an instant. It happens. This is not an excuse not to keep trying. Life is based upon forward momentum. Just because something bad could happen in the future, or has happened in the past is not an excuse to give up. People spend years, or decades, building relationships with others and then inevitably, someone dies. It all comes to an end some day, but this is not a reason not to try. You need to constantly be building despite the fact that doom may lie over the hill. Never give up. Stay on track. People really need help but may attack you if you do help them. Help people anyway. One of my favorite shows on television used to be the show Intervention. In this show, people with drug problems, eating disorders, and others would face interventions, wherein their families and others would intervene–often saving their life. You want to help people even if they attack you for it. I have been attacked by people I have helped get jobs and others. Who cares? I help people anyway and keep doing my job. Stay on track. Give the world the best you have and you’ll get kicked in the teeth. Give the world the best you have anyway. If you look around you’ll see the most successful people are the most criticized. All you need to do is pick up any newspaper or magazine to see this. The better you do, the more opposition and criticism you are going to face. This is what happens. You need to always give your best anyway. Stay on track. Yesterday one of the most remarkable things happened. Our maid announced that she needs part of the day off today because she is running the Los Angeles Marathon. This in and of itself may not sound unusual; however, this woman is in her mid-50s, quite overweight, and recently had a gall bladder operation. I have also never seen her exercise a day in my life. Right now as I write this she is vacuuming and later she will be running the race. My first reaction was that the idea of this woman running in a marathon was insane. But, of course, I did not tell her this. Everyone has a spirit within, which drives him or her to do great things. It is those naysayers around us, and the prospect of something bad happening that often keeps us barred back, and on the sidelines. But there is nothing glorious, fulfilling, or memorable about spending your life on the sidelines. You need to run the race, and once you start running you need to stay on track.

• Coca-Cola makes coke. It does not make automobiles or computers.
• Intel makes microchips. It does not make computers or refrigerators.
• McDonald’s makes hamburgers and fast food. It does not make airplanes.

The most successful companies stand for something. They not only stand for something, but they are completely consistent with their core principles. I am willing to believe that companies like Coca-Cola and McDonald’s are presented with opportunities to do different things all the time. Instead of doing something different, they remain consistent with what they do. They stand for something. This is what keeps them going and this is what makes them successful. One of the most interesting things about reviewing resumes is that very few of them ever stick out. Instead of trying to distinguish themselves, most people put together resumes that are bland and similar to other resumes out there. This sort of homogenization of resumes has gotten out of control.

• Most resumes contain tons of bullet points about this or that.
• The resumes contain ”canned” sorts of descriptions about a person’s skills and so forth.

The people try and look like everyone else so they can ”fit the mold” of being a certain type of person. The problem is that looking like everyone else is not going to help them be remembered, or get a job. A couple of years ago, I was looking for a computer firm to help our company do some work. I will never forget the day I spoke with the owner of the company in Louisiana. Despite having an impressive computer science background from Berkeley, the guy was chewing tobacco and spitting while I was talking to him. ”Are you chewing tobacco?” I asked him. I was interviewing him to do some very important work for our company. ”Yes Sir, I am,” he responded without an ounce of hesitation. Then as I was speaking, I started to hear a bunch of motor cross motorcycles in the background. These motorcycles were loud and they were whining up a storm. The man started screaming into the phone: ”I am sorry!! I am at a motor cross race right now. Let me go into the trailer where I keep my motorcycles. It is quieter.” I realize that this may not seem like the best way to behave in an interview, but immediately I was able to connect with him and know exactly what sort of guy he was. I used to chew tobacco in my younger years and grew up with guys like him who did motor cross. Prior to speaking with him, he was just an average ”nerd,” good at computer science, and so forth. After speaking with him, he was the sort of person I was excited to go into a professional relationship with. Why? Because I knew the sort of person he was likely to be.

• I knew that if he was bullshitting me, I would be able to pick up on it.
• I knew that he was not overly concerned with how he looked to me if he was chewing tobacco and racing motorcycles during the day.
• I knew that the guy with a Ph.D. in computer science from Berkeley, was brilliant as all hell, and if he was also interested in motor cross and chewing tobacco too, he probably was an incredibly interesting person.
• I knew that if he raced motor cross, he was probably out of a blue collar background and thought that office politics and so forth were bullshit.
• I knew that if he was towing a trailer full of motorcycles around, then he probably lived in a rural area where he could also keep his trailer (it is pretty rare to keep motor cross trailers in big cities and nice suburbs.
• I knew that If he lived in a rural area, he probably had certain values as well (I have a lot of family friends who live on farms and small towns).
• I knew that if he chewed tobacco, he probably was not too concerned with what others thought of him and tended to associate with a certain sort of person.

You can tell a lot about a person based on them standing for something. When someone does not stand for anything you cannot tell a lot about them. After talking with the motor cross computer programmer, I hired him. He has done a great job and made a good deal of money working for us. You can tell a lot about the girl who resigned from West Point because she was gay as well. I can almost 100% guarantee you that any discussion about her by Yale admissions officers did not revolve around her grades or extracurricular activities: It revolved around what she stood for. I am in Washington, DC, interviewing people for a position this week. I have reviewed a ton of resumes for this position. While some of these resumes stick out, for the most part I cannot remember most of them. One of the biggest problems that I am having is that everyone looks pretty much the same. Most people have similar experience and fairly similar backgrounds. No one I am interviewing seems to stand for anything. They may have had good jobs in the past, or good experience — but they do not really stand for anything in particular. If you do not stand for something, you typically do not get remembered. I have decided in light of the resumes I have reviewed that one of the most important things on a resume is to stand for something. It does not matter in particular what you stand for (unless it is incredibly offensive). Just standing for something

• Makes you more interesting.
• Makes you stand out.
• Makes people interested in hearing about your interest(s).

This morning I interviewed someone I found quite interesting (although he was not a good fit for our company). This man had a commitment to something called ”diversity recruiting,” which is filling positions in law firms that lack diversity. I found this quite interesting and had never seen a resume like this. He wanted to do nothing but diversity recruiting. The gist of our conversation was that he would be interested in speaking with me further, provided I had a job for him doing diversity recruiting for our company; however, if I did not have a diversity recruiting job, he would look elsewhere for a job. There are, of course, not a lot of positions out there I can imagine for someone to do nothing but diversity recruiting, compared to recruiting in general. By limiting his search to just ”diversity recruiting” it seemed to me that he was limiting himself; but in reality, I believe he was actually opening up a lot of doors. If someone needs a diversity recruiter, he will almost certainly get interviewed and called. He will stand out among other recruiters not committed to diversity. He will probably do very well. One of the biggest problems that people have is that they try and fit in and try to be all things to all people. To some extent, this is how we are programmed:

• Schools reward people who are good at math, science, languages, social sciences, and more. The ability to be good in all disciplines is rewarded.
• If someone is a good student in all disciplines and a good athlete, or good at an instrument, or theater as well—all the better. The more things people are good at the better!

Historically, the most positive feedback goes to people who are good at all things. However, in reality the best thing you can do is to be good at one thing and stand for one thing. One of the largest problems that people have in their career is when they diverge from what they are good at. Everyone is good at something, and diverging from your true strengths (and what you stand for) is something that almost always backfires. When you do not stand for something, you divert from your true strength and will not do well, not get as much recognition, and will not rise as fast as you are capable of. Everything begins to crumble and slowly fall apart when you are not doing something that you are really good at and do not stand for. The biggest success comes when you stand for something and are good at it.

• You need to have the right education for your specific value extraction job.
• You need to look the part and act in a certain manner in the organization you are with.
• You need to be able to defer to the right people.
• You need to look busy.
• You need to justify your work to your superiors.
• You need to know when to ask for a raise.
• You need to find the best areas to sell your skills.
• You need to stay employed.
• You need to have a good résumé.
• You need access to the right information.
• You need to be good at what you do.
• You need to know how to look for a job.
• You need to find a stable organization.

There are many skills that you need if your role is in value extraction, and these skills are too numerous to mention here. However, if this is your chosen path, you should do everything within your power to learn about and develop these skills. The most important asset that a value extractor has is the ability to find the right job. This is why the schools they have attended, employers for whom they have worked, cities in which they have worked, and so forth are so important to value extractors. To be truly skilled at value extraction, you must do everything within your power to find the right job. The most important skill a value extractor can develop is how to effectively look for a job. In contrast to the value extractor is the value creator. Value creators typically see the world as a matrix of opportunities. For example, they may look at a product and see 10 different ways it can be sold instead of the one way that it is being sold right now. When they look around, they may see opportunities to do things better and more efficiently. They may succeed and function easily in various industries, and using different methods–many of which may not require formal education. Value creators can function inside of organizations; however, they typically have a far different matrix of skills and interests from someone who specializes in value extraction. Value creators typically are not happy working inside of organizations and are more likely to be out doing things other than participating in a bureaucracy. These people could be salespeople, but they tend to be the people who start organizations rather than work within them.

• Is Bill Gates the sort of person who would have reported to work every day for 40 years at Microsoft, were he not the person who started it?
• Could Warren Buffet have been a stockbroker his entire life, working for a brokerage house?
• Would Madonna have been happy being a singer in a nightclub for her entire career?
• Could Richard Branson have been an executive inside of a large corporation for his entire career?
• Would Donald Trump have lasted in a career working for a bank?

Value creators are people who see the world in a different manner most of the time, and they do not have the same skills and interests as value extractors. I am not saying one group is better than the other. In fact, I would hasten to say that most CEOs of Fortune 500 companies, politicians, and others are value extractors, and they are among the most highly esteemed people out there in the business world. There is nothing wrong with being one or the other. What you need to understand is that you will not be happy in your career and in your life if you are a value extractor who is working as a value creator, and vice versa. I cannot tell you how many careers I have seen end prematurely, and how many people I have seen fall on their faces, because they have gone into roles wherein they are expected to create value rather than extract value. A perfect example is in the legal recruiting business I run. Some recruiters you could put on a desert island with a phone and no candidates–and they would still make hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. Other recruiters only do well when everything is handed to them, and they can simply send the candidate out to a firm. When everything is not handed to them, these recruiters do poorly. These sorts of recruiters need to be inside of firms and organizations where they can extract value, instead of having to create value on their own. You need to decide if you are a value creator or extractor. Once you determine which one you are, you need to just be that type of person–and never look back. THE LESSON There are two kinds of people; value creators and value extractors. Your career success will largely depend on your skill at either of these two things. Value extractors prefer an environment where value is already being created, while value creators look for areas of maximum opportunity. While value extractors seek stable careers, value creators seek to build up organizations rather than work within them. You need to decide if you are a value creator or extractor, commit to one or the other, and never look back.

This story proves the truth of that old saying, ‘where there’s a will, there’s a way’. It was told to me by that beloved educator and clergyman, the late Frank W. Gunsaulus, who began his preaching career in the stockyards region of South Chicago.

While Dr. Gunsaulus was going through college, he observed many defects in our educational system, defects which he believed he could correct, if he were the head of a college. His deepest desire was to become the directing head of an educational institution in which young men and women would be taught to “learn by doing.”

He made up his mind to organize a new college in which he could carry out his ideas, without being handicapped by orthodox methods of education.

He needed a million dollars to put the project across! Where was he to lay his hands on so large a sum of money? That was the question that absorbed most of this ambitious young preacher’s thought.

But he couldn’t seem to make any progress. Every night he took that thought to bed with him. He got up with it in the morning. He took it with him everywhere he went. He turned it over and over in his mind until it became a consuming obsession with him. A million dollars is a lot of money. He recognized that fact, but he also recognized the truth that the only limitation is that which one sets up in one’s own mind.

Being a philosopher as well as a preacher, Dr. Gunsaulus recognized, as do all who succeed in life, that DEFINITENESS OF PURPOSE is the starting point from which one must begin. He recognized, too, that definiteness of purpose takes on animation, life, and power when backed by a BURNING DESIRE to translate that purpose into its material equivalent.

He knew all these great truths, yet he did not know where, or how to lay his hands on a million dollars. The natural procedure would have been to give up and quit, by saying, “Ah well, my idea is a good one, but I cannot do anything with it, because I never can procure the necessary million dollars.” That is exactly what the majority of people would have said, but it is not what Dr. Gunsaulus said. What he said, and what he did are so important that I now introduce him, and let him speak for himself.

“One Saturday afternoon I sat in my room thinking of ways and means of raising the money to carry out my plans. For nearly two years, I had been thinking, but I had done nothing but think!

“The time had come for ACTION!”

“I made up my mind, then and there, that I would get the necessary million dollars within a week. How? I was not concerned about that. The main thing of importance was the decision to get the money within a specified time, and I want to tell you that the moment I reached a definite decision to get the money within a specified time, a strange feeling of assurance came over me, such as I had never before experienced. Something inside me seemed to say, `Why didn’t you reach that decision a long time ago? The money was waiting for you all the time!’

“Things began to happen in a hurry. I called the newspapers and announced I would preach a sermon the following morning, entitled, `What I would do if I had a Million Dollars.’

“I went to work on the sermon immediately, but I must tell you, frankly, the task was not difficult, because I had been preparing that sermon for almost two years. The spirit back of it was a part of me!

“Long before midnight I had finished writing the sermon. I went to bed and slept with a feeling of confidence, for I could see myself already in. possession of the million dollars.

“Next morning I arose early, went into the bathroom, read the sermon, then knelt on my knees and asked that my sermon might come to the attention of someone who would supply the needed money.

“While I was praying I again had that feeling of assurance that the money would be forthcoming. In my excitement, I walked out without my sermon, and did not discover the oversight until I was in my pulpit and about ready to begin delivering it.

“It was too late to go back for my notes, and what a blessing that I couldn’t go back! Instead, my own subconscious mind yielded the material I needed. When I arose to begin my sermon, I closed my eyes, and spoke with all my heart and soul of my dreams. I not only talked to my audience, but I fancy I talked also to God. I told what I would do with a million dollars if that amount were placed in my hands. I described the plan I had in mind for organizing a great educational institution, where young people would learn to do practical things, and at the same time develop their minds.

“When I had finished and sat down, a man slowly arose from his seat, about three rows from the rear, and made his way toward the pulpit. I wondered what he was going to do. He came into the pulpit, extended his hand, and said, `Reverend, I liked your sermon. I believe you can do everything you said you would, if you had a million dollars. To prove that I believe in you and your sermon, if you will come to my office tomorrow morning, I will give you the million dollars. My name is Phillip D. Armour.”‘

Young Gunsaulus went to Mr. Armour’s office and the million dollars was presented to him. With the money, he founded the Armour Institute of Technology.

That is more money than the majority of preachers ever see in an entire lifetime, yet the thought impulse to back the money was created in the young preacher’s mind in a fraction of a minute. The necessary million dollars came as a result of an idea. Behind the idea was a DESIRE which young Gunsaulus had been nursing in his mind for almost two years.

Observe this important fact… HE GOT THE MONEY WITHIN THIRTY-SIX HOURS AFTER HE REACHED A DEFINITE DECISION IN HIS OWN MIND TO GET IT, AND DECIDED UPON A DEFINITE PLAN FOR GETTING IT!

There was nothing new or unique about young Gunsaulus’ vague thinking about a million dollars, and weakly hoping for it. Others before him, and many since his time, have had similar thoughts. But there was something very unique and different about the decision he reached on that memorable Saturday, when he put vagueness into the background, and definitely said, “I WILL get that money within a week!”

God seems to throw Himself on the side of the man who knows exactly what he wants, if he is determined to get JUST THAT! Moreover, the principle through which Dr. Gunsaulus got his million dollars is still alive! It is available to you! This universal law is as workable today as it was when the young preacher made use of it so successfully. This book describes, step by step, the thirteen elements of this great law, and suggests how they may be put to use. Observe that Asa Candler and Dr. Frank Gunsaulus had one characteristic in common. Both knew the astounding truth that IDEAS CAN BE TRANSMUTED INTO CASH THROUGH THE POWER OF DEFINITE PURPOSE, PLUS DEFINITE PLANS.

If you are one of those who believe that hard work and honesty, alone, will bring riches, perish the thought! It is not true!

Riches, when they come in huge quantities, are never the result of HARD work! Riches come, if they come at all, in response to definite demands, based upon the application of definite principles, and not by chance or luck. Generally speaking, an idea is an impulse of thought that impels action, by an appeal to the imagination. All master salesmen know that ideas can be sold where merchandise cannot. Ordinary salesmen do not know this-that is why they are “ordinary”.

I have heard stories like this many times throughout the years about the power of people who set goals and who then proceed to follow through with them. The power of setting goals in this matter is remarkable. Once you tell yourself you can do something everything else in the world begins to fall into place for you. You need to know where you are going and set goals that assist you in getting there. Powerful forces come to the aid of people who set goals and start moving towards them. You need to set goals and believe you can attain them. THE LESSON Setting in-depth goals really works, as it causes an unseen force to motivate you, and make you believe that you can accomplish them. Defining your purpose is merely your starting your point; a definite purpose takes on a life of its own when backed by a desire to translate that purpose into its material equivalent. Determine your destination, and set goals that will assist you in getting there.