1. Focus on the people who really believe in you: they will propel your career.
2. Make very few promises and keep all of them.
3. Be generous with your time. Try to help people without keeping a balance sheet in your head.
4. Understand what you do well and strive to get even better at it.
5. Be known for something. Be memorable.
6. Don’t fit in. Successful entrepreneurs and successful senior executives are often non-conformists.
7. Read as much as you can. Read fiction and biography and magazines that do not relate to your career interests.
8. Learn from as many people as you can. Seek out great training organizations early in your career.
9. Be opportunistic. Know what you want in life, but be flexible about how to get there. Keep your eyes open for different paths to success.
10. Find people you admire and befriend them. These are usually people that bring out the best in you.

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I really did not like the re-branding plan because I thought it was walking away from the core expertise of The Athlete’s Foot (who used to be positioned as experts in technical footwear) and because I think acronyms are very confusing for consumers.

The other nine times I’ve been on Fox I’ve either agreed with a company spokesperson or disagreed without seeing the human face I was disagreeing with.  This time was different because I was brought on almost immediately after the new marketing director, Darius Billings, and I had to basically say that I thought he was wrong and that his plan wouldn’t work.

I suspect that most talking heads on business networks are stock analysts, consultants or academics.  I’m not.  Yes, I do teach at NYU, but I spent over 15 years on the client side at places like Coca-Cola and Johnson & Johnson.  So when I am watching Darius, I am thinking that he seems like a very nice guy, that this probably was not his plan to begin with but something handed to him by his CEO who is an investment guy, not a marketer and that I am basically trashing his plan on national television.  And I know exactly what that might feel like.   And I realize at the same time that even a bad branding strategy executed well might work, at least for a while.  So he might be able to do exactly what his bosses are asking from him.

This makes the talking head business a bit more difficult.  I’m still happy to do it, but now I see that there may be human consequences.

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I would recommend this for career seekers, particularly recent college grads or soul searchers currently reading “What Color is Your Parachute?“  Alexandra creates a self assessment that lands you in one of a number of different career profiles including Adventurer, Creator, Data Head, Entrepreneur, Investigator, Networker and Nurturer.  Based on this she spins out convincing descriptions of jobs - some of which you might never have thought of (Congressional Staffer, Health Club Owner, Zoologist, Foreign Service Officer).

This book will stimulate your career thinking and it’s concise and well-written.