Here are the seven basic yet very effective habits for career success recommended to become Highly Effective Job Applicant Candidates:

1. Plan your Career
2. Be Organized
3. Manage your time effectively
4. Create a Positive Image
5. Keep Learning
6. Be ready with your next step
7. Maintain work life balance & be healthy

There are good habits and there are bad habits – in all of us. We have to ensure that good habits are practiced more by new jobseekers. They must look for reaping the benefit by internalizing the good habits.

You know the noted author Stephen R Covey has written a book “Seven Habits of Highly Effective People”. We acknoledge that we have taken inspiration from the concept of seven habits from there.

Share your views about these habits by writing in the comments below.

CareerCola is conducting a poll on which is the best IT company in India work work for. Take some time and poll your vote to decide the best IT services company in India.

If you have some suggestions regarding the names of the best IT services companies that we are missing – write in comments below.

Read on:

The top four Indian IT firms — Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Infosys Technologies, Wipro and HCL Technologies have all declined to participate in the annual Dataquest IDC Best Employers Survey. This is for the first time in eight years history of this prestigious survey.

Here is a list of IT best employers in 2008

IT Best Employers: The Top 20
Rank Company Empex
1 iGate Global Solutions 82.5
2 RMSI 81.8
3 HCL Infosystems 81.1
4 Rolta India 80.8
5 Microsoft India 76
6 Tata Consultancy Service 74.9
7 SAS Institute 74.6
8 Synechron 71.8
9 Tavant Technologies 70.7
10 Span Infotech India
11 Hexaware Technologies 70.3
12 Intel India 69.9
13 Datacraft 69.9
14 Infrasoft Technologies 69.3
15 Fulcrum Logic 68.6
16 GlobalLogic 68.5
17 Ness Technologies 68.4
18 Tulip Telecom 68
19 Sun Microsystems 67.6
20 Nagarro Software 67

Source: Dataquest

Now in the absence of these bigwigs who used to be among top 20 in the HR survey the Best Employer survey will have no meaning. In our opinion there should be an informal survey and these companies should be rated on that.

I have seen many of the employees that I interact with rating badly their workplace happiness. That is the reason I have created an exclusive Workplace Happiness Quotient Survey for readers of CareerCola.com. This will help our readers to gauge how happy they are at work.

If you have taken this survey of Workplace Happiness Quotient you can evaluate your results here. Now that you have answered the fifteen questions in YES and NO – you can count the YES you have marked and read the analysis below:

Less than 5 YES: You are totally dissatified with your work and not happy with most of it. Either you are in wrong job or have chosen the wron career. You must consult a career advisor to identify the right job and career for you.

6 to 9 YES: You did not like your work but there is a hope that with positive changes at your workplace the situation can improve. Check the answers where you have said ‘NO’ in the survey and try to identify the areas for improvement.

10 to 12 YES: Well you mosly like your work and can be said that you are almost happy about your work. There is still scope for improvement though and from here you can easily reach the blissful stage of complete work happiness.

13 to 15 YES: Yes you are Happy at work. Now it is up to you to spread this happiness by being a happiness giving boss, subordinate and coworker. Keep it up

Your Workplace Happiness Quotient which measures how satisfied you are workplace can be found from this survey. Those of you who have taken the Workplace Happiness Quotient survey can write in the comments below to share with other readers of CareerCola.com. You can also write about the tips for other readers on how to happy ate the workplace.

I have seen many of the candidates that I counsel and advise rating badly their workplace happiness. In fact I have devised an exclusive Workplace Happiness Quotient survey for readers of CareerCola.com – to gauge how happy the employee is at work. You can take following questionnaire to gauge your Workplace Happiness Quotient.

To check you Workplace Happiness Quotient answer the following questions in Yes / No

1. You look forward going to work everday?
2. You like your coworkers for their work expertise?
3. You feel that relationship with your boss is very positive?
4. You feel that your boss is a better professional with more knowledge and wisdom than you are / have?
5. You like the systems and procedures of your company and feel that they are among the best in industry?
6. If you want any help at work you get it easily from your coworkers and boss?
7. You think that the direct reportees you have at work are among the best?
8. You are happy with your job title?
9. You are happy with the salary package you are getting at work?
10. You feel that you are contributing significant in your job?
11. You feel that you have enough capability to do the job assigned to you?
12. You feel that you are learning something new on the job?
13. You are happy with the future prospects you have from your current position?
14. You get good opportunity to network with similar professionals while on job?
15. Your are happy with the career plan that current company has for you?

Now if you have answered these questions in YES and NO then count your YES and NO. Your Workplace Happiness Quotient which measures how satisfied you are workplace can be found from this.

Those who have taken the Workplace Happiness Quotient survey can write in the comments below to share with other readers of CareerCola.com. You can read the analysis of your answers here.

The countries which are least affected are Afghanistan, Syria, Sudan, Brunei, Libya, Jordan and Lebanon where job losses are not significant.

Have you lost your jobs in recession in any country abroad? Were you forced to relocate back to India due to recession? Share your story with us by writing in the comments below.

“Recession” is the reason for everything that is happening to me!

Are you among those who think like this? If you think like this then you need to rethink about your thinking.

It has become fashionable to blame recession for everything that is going wrong. I lost my job because of recession. I have to work extra because of recession. My sales is down because of recession. Blaming everything on recession is an easy excuse.

But is that truth? Yes we accept that there are some who are genuinely affected by recession – but there are more than that who just got the “recession bug” and complain about recession in everything  they do and assign the reason of their failure on recession.

Remember – it is easy for anyone to do good in the good times – those who have got stuff – do good even in bad times. The real test of how good you are is not in the times of extreme growth but it is in the times when the going is tough.

So if you are a good salesman – do not blame recession for drop in your sales revenue. Go out and sell! Do not sit assuming that due to recession there are no buyers.

If you are a good production manager – do not stop producing as nobody is buying. May be look for the ways to reduce the product’s production cost and pass on the benefit to buyers – al lower price they may buy!

If you are a good IT manager – look for ways to improve information efficiency and make your organization competitive in the changed scenario.

What else is mark of a real professional. If you keep sitting, doing nothing you will keep getting the same results – no action – no results.

As a job seeker even if you lost your job – do not get overwhelmed by the figures of unemployment – they are just statistics and they are there because we are making them. Keep trying to find the opportunity – never stopping your effort – and you will get the results. Meanwhile try for alternative occupations in the time you have and make the most of it.

Key is to ACT and do not make recession as an excuse for inaction!

Here are our recommendations for boosting your self confidence

Self Discovery: Self discovery will lead you to know about your self and accept it as it is. You answer questions like:

• Who you are?
• What you can do?
• What do you want?

Acknowledge accomplishments: Now prepare a list of positive achievements and personality characteristics. Forget the negatives and just concentrate on positives.

• List your accomplishments till date
• List your positive characteristics
• Exhibit this list where you can read it daily

Prepare yourself: Your preparation will give you you knowledge, courage, control and strength to achieve your goals. Try to maintain your focus on what you want to do. Look ahead and keep your energy focused on the challenge.

• Prepare yourself for achieving your goals
• Plan meticulously

Perform and Persist: Start action on your plan and keep doing it till you reach the goal. Achieving goals takes work and persistence. Do not stop midway and persist – that is the key.

Here are some Do’s and Don’ts

Don’ts

• Don’t change yourself to please others.
• Don’t compare yourself to or compete with others.
• Don’t let what happened yesterday affect what will happen tomorrow.
• Don’t personalise the failure. Look upon failure as one step toward growth.
• Don’t let your relationships become a hurdle. Sever ties which restrict you.

Dos

• Do maximize your strengths.
• Do believe in yourself.
• Do affirm yourself by replacing negative thoughts with positive ones.
• Do visualize your goals everyday and imagin yourself achieving them and think of the process of reaching them
• Do Speak up, share your thoughts, opinions and preferences.
• Do reward yourself. Every time you pull through a challenging or negative experience, give yourself a treat.
• Do think of something something positive for yourself every morning.
• Do enjoy success. Evaluate yourself by what you have done, what you are doing, and what you can do.
• Do Keep a daily, weekly, or monthly record of your accomplishment and build on these. Each day do something a little better than yesterday.
• Do become an expert on something or some subject and share it with others.
• Do accept compliments positively. Say, “Thank you,” to those who offer praise about your appearance or ability.
• Do maintain your perspective
• Do face each challenge with an open mind.
• Do develop strong relationships – those which help you achieve your goals.

Building self confidence will go a log way for you to be successful in your life. Following these small tips over a period of time will help you believe in yourself and reach your goals.

If you thhik you can – you will!

If you are confident then your confidence gives you the courage to set high expectations from yourself and others, to take risk, to grow and prosper, and to reach the goals you want.

If you lack self confidence then you take jobs that are relatively easy setting lower expectations from yourself and others, you avoid risks and do stuff tha will not ask for too much. Those lacking self confidence may be losing out on opportunities for growth and prosperity.

How will I know How Confident I am?

How confident are you? Here is small questionnaire to determine your level of self confidence. The results may help upi in improving your self confidence. To take the questionnaire – just answer “yes” or “no” to the following.

1. I feel that when I do a job, I do it well.
2. I am proud of myself and what I have achieved.
3. I feel good about myself.
4. I am as much or more successful compared to most of my graduating class.
5. I feel that I am a worthwhile person.
6. I feel that if I am dying today I will have no regrets about life.
7. I welcome constructive criticism as an opportunity for growth.
8. I feel that my knowledge and experience enables me to offer good advice to those who ask.
9. I accept mistakes and learn from them.
10. I feel that I can achieve almost anything I desire if I work hard.
11. I feel secure in my interpersonal relationships.
12. I feel that other people regard me as a successful person.
13. I respect myself for what I am and what I can do.
14. I am satisfied with the contribution that I made to the society.
15. I accept failure and see them as a chance to learn and grow.

So now you have responded to all the questions in either “Yes” or “No”. Count all the “Yes” and for each “Yes” give yourself “1″ mark and add them togather.

If you have scored 12 or higher: A score of 12 or higher indicates that you love, like and respect yourself. You have high degree of self confidence. You are content and you accept your positive and negative qualities. You are very enthusiastic about life.

If you have scored 7 to 11 Points: This indicates that while you are confident in some areas at the same time you are lacking in few others. This may also mean that you may be a perfectionist – who sets very high standards in life which result in feeling inadequate about oneself.

If you have 6 or lower points: This indicates you have a low self confidence. You may be lacking the zing in life. Your confidence level may be low due to the experience you had in life.

If you feel that you are high in self confidence despite the low score – may be your mood when you have answered this questionnaire was down.

If you are lacking or are low on self confidence – you can change this. There are ways to improve your self confidence. We will be talking about this in our next post.

• Average salary hike in India in 2009 will be 8.2% (the highest in the Asia Pacific region hoever first time in six years that India is likely to see single-digit salary increases)
• Projected salary hike is lower than the increase of 13.3% seen in 2008
• The hike higher than China (8%) USA (3.2%) and Japan (2.3%)
• Sectors expected to see the highest raises are FMCG, durables and telecom.
• Healthcare is sector that is doing well globally and in India. In 2008, hospitals had awarded the lowest salary increases but have been placed among the top five sectors for 2009.

With inflation well below 5.5%, an average increase of 8.2% can be considered as a good raise.

To read more about this on Hewitt website – click here

• Employees at the junior manager, professional and supervisor levels are expected to receive the highest increases.
• About 16% of companies in India are considering retrenchments
• More than 60% are still hiring
• Nine out of every 10 companies still giving promotions
• Only 0.83% of companies are resorting to salary cuts

Now compare this to USA – 55% of companies in the US, 30.6% in China, 32% in Australia, 20% in Thailand and 17% in Japan are considering laying off their employees to cut costs in the face of economic recession

How Indian companies are facing recession

• In India, most companies face the downturn by drastically cutting down on luxuries and discretionary expenses such as non-billable travel and entertainment, with greater focus on prudence and productivity with the intent is to avoid layoffs.
• They are redeploying human resources and making largescale realignments to the organization

Mistakes are a great way to learn!

We all make mistakes at some or other stage in our careers. there is nothing wrong in making mistakes. What however is wrong that we do not learn from our mistakes. To rectify these mistakes there is a need to understand that in which areas we may have been going wrong. And then we need to start making the right decisions now. To avoid these career mistakes, you will need a paradigm shift. You may have to unlearn the way you have been taught about work.

Here is a list of commmon mistakes that people in their careers:

Thinking that Working hard means working long hours
People tend to think that these two are same – working long hours means we are working hard. Well working long hours for delivering results without understanding that there is more to get results than the hard work approach. Working smart is the need of hour and not working hard.

Failing to set the goals
If you wait for your boss to set your goals you may be making a mistake. Not setting the accountable goals for yourself and measuring yourself on an ongoing basis is a prescription for failure.

Not leveraging your communication skills at work
Communication is all about modern organizations. If you do not know the art and science of communication in your job – you are at risk. Although you are paid for your skills and experience but how the others will know that unless you present them to the world. Hence your communication and presentation skills are your biggest assets at work and you must leverage them

Failing to network is sure a recipe of failure
The best jobs and opportunities are there very near to you. If you do not understand the importance of networking within and outside the company to gain access to the right people (and hence right opportunities) and not knowing how to network – you are cooking for failure.

Not making yourself visible
Making yourself visible means crating your uniques value proposition for organizationa d making that visible to key people. If you are not doing this – you do not exist. Your value needs to be visible to the people in your company who matter on a regular basis.

Not being an Intra-prenuere
You have to manage your career as a business. You have to think like an entreprenure within the organization. Then only your true potential will come out and your value will be unlocked. If you feel yourself as a business and understand the need to “Brand yourself as a Business” – there will be success around the corner.

So next time you are out in organization check if you making any of these common mistakes and make a concious habit of analyzing your every move against them.

It is better learning from mistakes of others than doing them yourself.

However most of them (work from home sites) ask for a registration fee. And like any other business – this business is also full of players (read cheats) who just collect upfront fee (by promising you very high earnings while working from home) and vanish.

Many people want to know how to work from home for FREE, without paying any fees. You can make money while working from home, but it will take dedication, hard work, and creativity. And you can make money subsequently and reach your goal without spending money. here is what steps you should take in this career alternative of working from home:

1. Find your niche area: There are legitimate opportunities to work at home with no upfront fees. We recommend you to Research the options and find something which you are REALLY interested in. There are opportunities can be for freelance writing, freelance editing, freelance design, freelance web development, freelance teaching, freelance customer service, freelance technical support etc. There are other companies that are even for freelance secretary (working virually).

2. Research work source: Once done your research and identified an area to work in identify the people who will need your service. Complete as much research as you can to be sure the site is legitimate. There should be no fees involved to “get information”. If the site is legitimate, you will able to begin for FREE. There are many scams out there. Check out scambusters website link below. Some of the reputed sites which are online freelance marketplace are:

www.elance.com
www.rentacoder.com
www.mondayworks.com

3. Register at the site. If you choose to start an at home career, sign up with the website to find out more information on what the company is looking for. Remember never to give any financial or credit card information to sites. Free sites never ask for this information.

4. Check for available work and show your intention to work on thes projects. of required bid for the projects.

5. if awarded – do the work. Once you decide on what you want to do, do the work. For writing, obviously you will need to write. If it is customer service you wish to do, you will have to dedicate time to answer the phone calls.

6. Stay focused, dedicated, and patient. Most legitimate at home jobs are not get rich quick plans. You may not show any significant income for a while, but as you learn the ins and outs of the business you will start to earn more money.

Remember the purpose of you coming in Work from Home bandwagon – then be prepared to give it a long shot. Give the time to this and see results.

Have questions or want to share your views on work from home – just write writing comments to this post.

The marketing experts use a terminology called USP – that is Unique Selling Proposition to describe a feature of product which is its unique proposition to be sold. The same way as an employee we need to have our PUSP (Professional Unique Selling Proposition) – something that makes you stand out from the crowd and this is a very important aspect which may decide your fate on the job.

All senior managers look for someone who can be their trusted soldier. Depending on these few trusted employees (on whom they depend for operational aspects) the managers try to rise up in any company. One of the reason you see many managers when leaving the job they tend to take their team also.

You may be highly skilled or qualified but of you are not visible to senior managers – you are nowhere. There are many ways to become visible in organization but the key is to position yourself in a place where these senior managers will notice you. Here are some of the ways to be visible:

Senior expect to recognize a rising star before they recognized by others in organization. The first step for this is to have a PUSP – professional unique selling proposition that you can talk about to show a potential new manager that you are different to the people around you.

Once you have identified the industry, or area that you want to work in, you need to brand yourself, be clear about your professional unique selling proposition, and practice selling yourself to the people around you who can help you get to the position you are aspiring to.

Note that positioning yourself is not a one day job – you need to do this day in & day out in your career. The dynamics of a successful career demands that you compete in you career every day – you compete when you go for a job interview, you compete daily for the best positions, promotion and pay rise.

So next time when you are in a position to speak in front of one of these managers will you take that positioning step. Yes and keep doing that always? Having an elevator pitch – a GE way in which you are prepared with small conversation pitched (small enough to get completed in elevator) which leave the desired positioning in senior manager’s mind.

Now let’s take an example of how positioning must have helped some of the industry leaders. Mr. Ramadorai CEO of leading software services company TCS has started off as a Trainee in the company and has worked his way to the position of CEO. This would not have been possible without the right positioning he made for himself ever since he was a middle level manager. This includes the way he positioned himself in the right area, networked with the right people, let them know where he wanted to go, and when the right positions came along. Earlier he was America head which is followed by being COO second only to visionary Mr. F C Kohli (one of the founders of TCS). What we need to notice here is that he was prepared for the position, the management at TCS knew he was prepared this position, and he himself right from start knew what he wanted, and he was an undisputed choice for the role.

Unless you put it in practice, then only you may realize the power of PUSP – Professional Unique Selling Proposition. I invite readers to share their experiences of own or people around them. Just add to the comments on this post.

Till now in India the layoff by an Indian company were an hush hush affair. The layoff or pink slips (as they are called in western world) were thought to be a way of only companies from rest of world. This event was unlike the earlier layoffs which has been splashed in media like anything.

On the other side of world amidst the economic recession more than 750,000 jobs have disappeared from the U.S. economy this year. The workers face the prospect of plenty more layoffs to come as a continuing credit crunch and weak consumer demand hamper firms trying to maintain payrolls.

Now the big question before all of us workers is – “How safe is my job”? The answer is tricky but not difficult. You can now look for early warnings indicators for approaching layoffs. Here are seven signs (EWAs) that may signal your position is on the line.

(1) Other got fired in your company: If others are losing their jobs you may too, even if your boss says otherwise. Prepare yourself for that call to corner office and being handed over the pink slip. Note that in bad times even management may not have sense of things which may be affecting the business real time. In a globalized economy situations change rapidly. This does not mean that people are telling lies but them may not be aware genuinely. It may be the case of missing information, or circumstances change.

The basic pint is that you need to be aware of the possibility of a layoff. Workers at greatest risk of layoffs may be those who were most recently hired (although a lot depends on company policy). This was the case with Jet Airways layoff above. Other targets are workers who aren’t getting the job done. Middle management and highly paid top managers are also targets. The workers who are contract are also among the first to go.

(2) Freeze on New Hiring: Vanishing job postings (internal or external) and vanishing referral schemes are also send a layoff signal. You should look at whether colleagues are taking on more or less work, and whether some are being asked or told to leave.

The sequence of disappearance is typically started with the newly created or budgeted positions that have not been filled which are the first to go, then replacement positions that used to be posted and have disappeared, and then come the retirements that seem to be welcomed by management and are not filled.

(3) Training budgets cut: Even large companies may cut training budgets, a red flag that financial concerns could lead to layoffs. While there are certain critical initiatives or projects that need to go forward if a company wants to keep up production, workers should watch out when project spending slows.

From an employee’s standpoint, anytime they see an organization cutting back on its spending and cutting back on activities, as well as staff or initiatives around them, they need to think through the details and figure out at what point does it reach my position.

(4) New projects and events vanishing from scene: The new IT project or budgeted initiative has just vanished and no one talks about it now. Well, that is an indication of slowdown and probable cut in employees who are normally required for new projects.

(5) Office Grapevine: Conventional wisdom calls for taking office gossip with a pinch of salt. But sometimes it makes sense to listen to what your co-workers are saying and doing. It makes sense to notice what the talk is and to notice how people’s responsibilities or jobs are being redefined.

(6) Company is missing targets quarter after quarter: While some management may be less than forthcoming about missed targets for financial performance, workers can investigate a company’s health by checking out the budget. A major sign of approaching layoffs is a business that isn’t performing well. Especially at publicly traded companies, performance is critical, because firms that don’t perform to an expected level, even during recessionary times, will be forced to cut back.

(7) What your top management is saying in public: The top management speeches and statements in public are sometimes indicators of coming dangers. Like in case of Jet airways – a stress deal with Kingfisher airlines is announced a couple of days earlier and this followed by retrenchments.

Whatever may be the reason workers all over the world need to face recession and have to secure their jobs. Making note of early warning indicators may help in some cases.

Save to avoid compromise in your career: A good kitty in savings will prevent any desperate measures to compromise in career. Just compare the case of two executives who are being laid off – one is having one year’s take-home pay in the bank and while other is no savings. the second executive will immediately try to settle for a job (whether he likes or not) to save himself from financial distress. Savings are a big relief for the desperate feelings of needing a job when you don’t have cash in the bank. Savings allow you to better choose a position that meets your needs and not taking any job because you need the money right now.

Lower debt helps in more disposable income: If you have lower debt (loans) means you will have lower monthly installments to pay. This will give you that extra flexibility and while working you can enjoy more from life by having more disposable income. Also if your job is in danger, having lower debt means your payments are low and will help you in preserving your cash flow from your savings. This means you can survive without a job for a long time if required.

Credit Rating reflects your capability: Your credit rating will have a great influence on your ability to be hired. Some of the companies, with your written consent (background check), can see your credit information. Hence the companies can use that that information for not hiring you. If the candidate can not manage his finances how will he manage the job?

More savings means more money for the future like – retirement etc. Not having enough savings will significantly reduce your choices about your life and career. For instance if you want to make a decision to choose to no longer work – your savings will be a determinant factor.

Can take more career risks: How well you manage and invest your money and finances will sure have an impact on your career options. More savings cushion will help you in taking more risks – which may help you in earning more (higher risk – higher returns).

One of my sincere advise to candidates is to make a personal finance plan while making career plan. They go hand in hand together as our savings come out of our earnings from job and our future jobs may depend on savings.

The above examples may sound unethical but they are a fact. And only those who fail to network pass such comments. Key to a successful career is networking!

The people whom you know and help will be the people who can help you in your time of need. Many of us ignore this critical area and fail to build a network starting early in our career. Of course you may be busy performing your day to day job? You may already know hundreds of persons? But note that knowing is not networking. Networking is creating relationships who can be of your help. Here are few tests to check your networking status:

Breadth of Network: How many diverse types of people are in your network? Do you have people from all professions in your network? Do you have connections in diverse geography?

Depth of Network: How deep are your relationships in network. How supportive the network connection will be in your time of need?

Networking is not a day’s job or a project which you do in a day or month. Networking is a continuous process. Networking is not only knowing someone – it is nurturing your relationships with whim you already know.

Tools to network: Here are some tools I use regularly to network:

• Gmail Contacts: A great place to sture your contacts categorize them in groups and have as much details about your contacts. Will be a great source to keep your contact innformation online.
• Plaxo: Online business cards – beauty is that they can be updated as people move and you always have updated information.
• Linkedin and Xing: Great place to network with people across Geography. Geographical networking was always a constraint earlier and with online networking tools like Linkedin it has solved all problems.

Networking will be even more critical in the bad econimic times that we see now and in near future. With layoffs becoming common everyday – your network will come handy in securing new jobs.

I remember looking for a job just before I finished graduate school. I poured over lists of companies that were located where I wanted to live, and I dreamed a lot about what it might be like to work in different industries.

I was reminded of when several my friends graduated with MBA degrees the preceding year and the goals they had.

One handsome, tall fellow wanted to become a vice president of an airline. I asked him why, and he told me that you could become a vice president of an airline at an earlier age than in other industries. Smiling, he also mentioned that as a single man he liked that there more unmarried young women working for airlines than could be met in most other industries.

A married couple had more modest ambitions: to get jobs in the same city that would provide opportunities for challenging careers. If the city was a nice place to live, that was an extra benefit. When both gained jobs in Seattle, Washington, they were thrilled.

Another man had spent a lot of time as a sailor on a nuclear submarine before graduate school: Any job that didn’t involve working underwater was welcome to him.

All of that career planning sounds pretty reasonable, doesn’t it? Little did I know that we were aiming very low.

A recent MBA graduate helped me see that much higher goals can be set. It was quite an eye opener. Let me tell you his story.

Ramesh Venkatraman was born in a beautiful village in a part of southern India that is well known for entrepreneurship in exporting products around the world. Accompanying his father on professional trips expanded his geographic horizons at a young age. His early schooling, college, and graduate studies were undertaken in a semi-urban setting renowned for its textile exports. Having absorbed so many influences, you might think that he entered a career that connected back to those origins, but that was not the case.

After completing a master’s degree in science, Mr. Venkatraman was preparing to join a Ph.D. program; however, he joined the Indian space program instead, expanding his perspective on what can be accomplished. You are probably expecting to read that Mr. Venkatraman then became an astronaut . . . but that’s not what happened.

Instead, his focus turned earthward and outward: He entered the information technology (IT) industry and began work in the United States, gaining important skills in IT at firms like KPMG, FedEx, Compaq, BvOI, and ABN AMRO Bank. Supremely talented, his quickly rose through the ranks from project manager to program manager to vice president.

In the corporate world, he came across many talented individuals who caused him to raise the bar on his dreams and aspirations, directly and indirectly tapping into his hidden talents.

One fine day, he learned that a highly respected colleague was an MBA and a Ph.D. student at Rushmore University. The colleague shared that he would soon be moving into a strategic management function from a technology management position, and the colleague became head of strategy and planning for a leading financial institution.

Encouraged by that example and wanting to build on his IT success, Mr. Venkatraman decided to earn an MBA degree. He hoped his studies would add the skills and knowledge he would need to become a generous entrepreneur, one who would share any wealth gained with employees and other stakeholders.

He also selected Rushmore, primarily because he would have more freedom there to tailor his studies and courses to meet his personal objectives. The freedom he gained provided lots of motivation to learn, and Mr. Venkatraman graduated a little more than a year later.

Asked just before his graduation what his goals for using his MBA degree were, he reported that he now wanted to found a billion-dollar business in a short amount of time. Wow! What a contrast that goal was with what my friends and I had thought about at the same stage in our business training.

Curious about the shift, I asked Mr. Venkatraman to tell me more about how he decided on this new direction. He responded that the course work at Rushmore made him realize that greater things were possible than he had considered before. Wanting to help others, he also began to appreciate that the more successful he was as an entrepreneur, the more people he could help as a philanthropist, a role he hadn’t thought about playing before.

He now feels confident that he can accomplish that aggressive goal and is working hard to achieve it. He is also considering earning a Ph.D. from Rushmore.

Naturally, few people accomplish the full scale of what they hope to achieve. Often, they accomplish quite a bit less.

Even if Mr. Venkatraman falls far short of his new goals, he will probably accomplish more than he would have by merely fulfilling his pre-MBA goals. By learning the power of thinking carefully about what he wants to accomplish, his education served him better than mine did.

What are the lessons for you?

Are you insisting on the best from your career? If not, why not?

Ask yourself what the best could be for your career if you shoot for the top. Then get busy!

Author Resource:-> Donald W. Mitchell is a professor at Rushmore University, an online school. For more information about ways to engage in fruitful lifelong learning at Rushmore to increase your success, visit http://www.rushmore.edu-

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