Part I: The Invincible Career Path

Chapter List

Rule 1: Do Not Map Out Your Career

Rule 2: Discover Your Talents Early, and Discard Your Fantasies Immediately

Rule 3: Maintain Pervasive Professional Flexibility

Rule 4: Get Lucky

Rule 5: Promote the Organization, Not Yourself

Rule 6: Connections Get You a First Chance, but Never a Second One

Rule 7: When You Suffer a Setback, Come Clean and Bounce Back

Rule 8: Learn to Take a Punch

Rule 9: Work is a Member of the Family

Rule 10: Find a Job that You Look Forward to Every Day

Part Overview

The first step to becoming a professional with staying power is to understand how top executives plan their careers. I studied their answers to questions like, How early did you know what you wanted to be in life? How focused were you on particular career goals? How big a role did luck play in your success? How did you know when to make your move? How have you handled failures or setbacks? Here are the fascinating answers that invincible executives gave to these and other questions about their career paths.