Advice to a Young Professional

Back when I was teaching MBA students, they often asked me for advice on everything from career direction to whom to date. I finally found it much easier to compile my favorite pieces into one list, which I offer to my fellow consultants today:

• The real keys to success are neither smarts nor qualifications nor belonging to a brand-name firm. Rather, success is derived from courage, drive, energy, passion, ambition, enthusiasm, excitement, initiative, discipline, a dream and enough self-confidence to keep trying.
• What do you want to do with the rest of your life? Stupid question. You'll be a different person five years from now. Decide what you want to do with the next three years. Throw yourself into it. If it turns out that it's not for you, you'll move on. Most careers that look like a logical progression were, in fact, a series of unplanned, opportunistic choices.
• Don't get depressed. It's amazing how many times you can mess up in life and still succeed. George Washington barely won a battle in the Revolutionary War. He triumphed by not losing—just staying in the game ensured victory.
• Forgive yourself your weaknesses, but not completely. Don't expect perfection today, and not even next year: but make a binding commitment to improve. Apply the same principle to others.
• If it can be delegated, it must be. Never work on something that someone less experienced than you can do—your career will be on hold and you'll become more and more obsolete with each passing day.
• Be an individual, not a member of a class or subset. Step up to the plate, and don't sit around bemoaning the disadvantages that your group (class, gender, race, religion) labors under, valid as they might be. No one owes you anything. It's too easy (and useless) to blame others (parents, spouse, boss, co-workers). Take responsibility. When the system oppresses you, you have three choices: give up, fight the system or get to work regardless. I can't say which choice is morally correct, but I do know which choice moves you forward.
• Logic and rationality will only take you so far; the most important thing you can learn is how to interact with other people. Everything you'll want in professional life (and outside it) will come from another person: a client, a colleague, a superior or a subordinate. Do you know how to get other people to (willingly) give you what you want?
• As a good first approximation, think of others as being like you, not as "them." If you want to influence someone, ask yourself, "Would that approach work on me?"
• What qualities do you try to show in a romantic relationship? Are you understanding, nurturing, sympathetic, supportive, considerate and kind? Apply the same to everyone you deal with and you'll get more of what you want from them.
• When searching for a romantic partner, looks are nice, brains are nice and money is nice, but character is essential. Ultimately, the same is true in all business relationships: character is the most important thing you should look for in a partner, an employee, a client, a boss or a supplier.
• When dealing with clients, subordinates or anyone else, remember that people are motivated more by meaning than by money. Help them find the drama and the excitement in what they do (or what you want them to do). And never lose sight of the meaning in what you're doing.
• People may forgive you for a mistake you've made, but they don't forget. The worst thing is to ignore it and move on. Repair fences when you can. You'll be working a long time to re-earn lost trust and confidence.
• The better you are at business development, the more choice you'll have for saying, "Sorry, I'm too busy," to people you don't want to work for.
• Broken promises are remembered more than kept promises. Do what you say you are going to do. It's better to have the guts to say up front, "I'm not sure I can get that done on time," than to accept a task that you can't deliver on.
• The worst thing you can do if you want to get somebody to listen to you is to criticize him or her. As human beings, when attacked we attack back. And we attack back even when we are in the wrong.

David Maister is one of the industry's leading authorities on the management of professional services firms. He can be reached at david@davidmaister.com. Please e-mail your story comments to customercare@alm.com.

David Maister's books are must-reads in the profession. Purchase Maister's Strategy and the Fat Smoker, Managing the Professional Services Firm and
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