How to Get What You Deserve

In a traditional academic environment, your performance is measured by some kind of exam. If you perform better on the exam, you get a better grade. If you performed worse, you get a worse grade.

For the most part, in a school environment you get the grade you deserve.

However once you get out in the workforce, a new set of rules applies.

It’s profoundly important to recognize the rules of the game have changed. 

This is especially true if you’ve been successful in your career to date.

Remember this:

What got you here… will not get you there…

In the workforce, quite frequently you do not always get what you deserve.

The smartest person doesn’t always get the promotion.

The hardest worker isn’t always the boss.

The person who is most competent isn’t always the person given the microphone.

Most people eventually make these same observations, but are confused by this.

Here’s a very simple principle that explains why this happens. In life…

You don’t get what you deserve. You get what you “sell” others on giving to you.

In short, the best engineer doesn’t always get the promotion.

The “good enough” engineer that can sell his boss on why he should get the promotion is the one that gets the promotion.

The smartest employee isn’t the one that gets the recognition. The “smart enough” employee that can sell others on her ideas is the one that gets the recognition.

Is this fair?

I don’t know.

But what I do know is that it is very true.

If you want to maximize your life and career, you must be able to convince others of your ideas.

Whether you’re looking for a promotion, funding, or even a date on Saturday night, the outcome of your life revolves around your ability to sell.

I conducted an 8-hour class on How to Sell Your Ideas in Everyday Life. Although it has not yet been available this year, I will have a limited release later this month. For future articles on how to sell your ideas, and to be notified about the release, just complete the form below.