Shirley Morrison - From Classroom to Career: How to Network, Nail the Interview, and Navigate for Success

Copyright 2022 by Shirley Morrison

All rights reserved. Copyright under Berne Copyright Convention, Universal Copyright Convention, and Pan American Copyright Convention. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the express written consent of the publisher, except in the case of brief excerpts in critical reviews or articles. All inquiries should be addressed to Allworth Press, 307 West 36th Street, 11th Floor, New York, NY 10018.

Allworth Press books may be purchased in bulk at special discounts for sales promotion, corporate gifts, fund-raising, or educational purposes. Special editions can also be created to specifications. For details, contact the Special Sales Department, Allworth Press, 307 West 36th Street, 11th Floor, New York, NY 10018 or .

27 26 24 23 22 5 4 3 2 1

Published by Allworth Press, an imprint of Skyhorse Publishing, Inc. 307 West 36th Street, 11th Floor, New York, NY 10018. Allworth Press is a registered trademark of Skyhorse Publishing, Inc., a Delaware corporation.

www.allworth.com

Cover design by Mary Ann Smith

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file.

Print ISBN: 978-1-62153-819-6

eBook ISBN: 978-1-62153-820-2

Printed in the United States of America

For Bertrand, my universe.

CONTENTS

FOREWORD

#THERES ALWAYS ANOTHER OPTION

F or my twenty-first birthday, my mother surprised me with a trip to Oktoberfest, a month-long celebration in Munich, Germany, where you drink beer in tents and dress up in traditional German outfits of dirndls and leather lederhosen.

The festival originated in the 1800s as a celebration of marriage between a German princess and the king of France. Oktoberfest is now an annual festival that takes over the entire town of Munich for a month. Large tents are put up and the celebration of beer attracts hundreds of thousands of people from around the world. Up to seven million liters of beer gets chugged, some in glasses the shape of boots and some while people dance, linking arms in celebration. The festival is known to be crowded, loud, and international.

In order to get in, you need to wake up at the god-awful hour of 6:00 a.m. to be first in line to enter the tents and start drinking beer. My sister, mother, and I dressed up in our dirndls and proceeded toward the festival area. By 7:30 a.m. the place was already full and people were running around trying to figure out which tents they wanted to enter.

As Americans and first timers at Oktoberfest, we werent quite sure of the process, but my mother had picked out the biggest tent she could find on the map and said, Lets go there. So, we walked to the middle of the festival to the biggest tent on the premises with a total of ten thousand seats. It looked like a small village on its own!

As we got closer to the tent, I noticed thousands, literally thousands, of people standing in a line circling around the tent. It was the biggest and longest line I had ever seen in my life. People were pushing up next to each other, impatiently waiting to get their first sip of beer at 8:00 a.m. in the morning.

As we stood at the end of the line, my mother shot me a look I knew too well, letting me know she was not pleased with the situation. My sister and I carefully gave her some space, and made friends with a few college girls in line, discussing our time abroad and patiently waiting our turn until we could enter the tent. We speculated, judging by where we were compared to the entrance, that it would take up to about two hours or so.

All of a sudden, my mother grabbed my arm and said in a stern voice, Ladies, follow me. She was not only speaking to me and my sister, but also to the three college girls wed met in line. Being the obedient girls that we were, we immediately followed my mother, no questions asked. Moving quickly, my mother rushed us to the side of the tent and then through a kitchen door propped ajar. None of the kitchen staff seemed to really care as a mom and five college girls passed through. Not only did we skip hanging out for two hours, but we were one of the first groups to pick a table in the tent.

WOW!

We jumped up and down with joy and laughter at my moms ingenious idea of sneaking through the kitchen door. I dont often drink beer at 8:00 a.m. but I tell you, that morning, that beer was the best ever. Not only did we have the best birthday of my life, but my mother also taught me an invaluable lesson: There is always another option, even if the vast majority of people dont see it.

A friend from university once told me to think of life like entering a nightclub: the majority of people are waiting outside in line with the nothing-I-can-do attitude until finally being let through the main door. Others go through VIP, the rich and privileged, never glancing at people still in the other line. Then you have the courageous and bold who climb through windows or kitchen doors (my mother) with a nothing-stops-me attitude until they are dancing on that main floor. The next day no one talks about the people who stood in line at the nightclub, but everyone knows the legend who found their own way into the club.

Its the same with business and your career. You can choose to be like 90 percent of the population and stay in line waiting your turn. Or you can say:

Forget the line. Ill find my own way to achieve my career or the opportunities I want in my life.

My mother used to say, I dont do lines. I took it literally, like she wouldnt wait in a line at the grocery store or at the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV). But really, what my mother was telling me was that shed ensure whatever she wanted, not by waiting, but by taking action. She claimed that there is always another option and proved that time and time again. Shes one of my heroes.

Ill say this throughout the book: the thing about life that no one quite admits is there are NO RULES. So, taking the kitchen door or climbing through a window may not be the norm to get into Oktoberfest, but its an option. No one gave us a fine or got mad at us; we just found another way into the tent.

As you read my business book, I ask you to review what I have written with an open mind. Some of the activities may seem different or feel fake or impossible to believe for you now. When I first started my career, I felt useless, like I was not in control of my own destiny. Ive learned over these last ten years that regardless of your background, education, tough childhood, or monetary status you are 100 percent in control of your own destiny and, with a strong mentality, you can make anything happen in your life.

I hope that at the end of this book you realize that anything is possible to those who want it badly enough. And theres always an open door for those who believe they can find it.

Life has no limitations, except the ones you make.

Les Brown

CHAPTER 1

HOW TO DECIDE YOUR FUTURE

#HOW TO DECIDE YOUR FUTURE

G raduation day was the most surreal day of my life. On one hand, I was so excited to be leaving university after eighteen years of institutional life. On the other, I was completely in the dark on the journey I was about to begin.