Tony Zeiss - Build Your Own Ladder: 4 Secrets to Making Your Career Dreams Come True

Copyright 2006 by Tony Zeiss

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, scanning, or otherexcept for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Published in Nashville, Tennessee, by Thomas Nelson, Inc.

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Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE, Copyright The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977. Used by permission. www.Lockman.org.

Scripture quotations noted KJV are from the KING JAMES VERSION of the Bible.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Zeiss, Anthony.
Build your own ladder : four secrets to making your career dreams come true / Tony Zeiss.
p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 0-7852-1260-4 (hardcover)
1. Career development. 2. Success in business. I. Title.
HF5381.Z332 2006
650.14dc22

2005028563

Printed in the United States of America

06 07 08 09 10 11 QW 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

CONTENTS

Are you living your dreams? Are you a success? Are you satisfied with your career? If not, do you have a plan to help you obtain your career goals? What steps will you take?

You can greatly improve your prospects of having a brilliantly successful career by doing what thousands of successful people have done before you.

The purpose of this book is to help you set a vision and develop the knowledge for achieving the career goals of your dreams. In effect, as you read and assimilate the information in this book, you will be designing and building your career ladder for success.

Most people spend more time working than in any other endeavor in life; yet they often leave their careers to chance. Although they have career dreams, they dont know how to achieve them. The principles in this book represent a collective body of knowledge and experience spanning from ancient to modern times.

Build Your Own Ladder will teach you the secrets that highly successful people have known for thousands of years. Successful people work from a personal vision, control their thinking, influence others, and employ the principle of reciprocity. They have achieved unparalleled success, and so can you!

This practical book will provide you the opportunity to develop your personal road map to career success and will teach you how to achieve significance through your work. At the end of each chapter you will find open-ended questions that, if you answer them honestly, will supply a basic business plan that works for you.

The first chapter introduces you to todays world of work and presents a basic overview of what it takes to be successful in a career. Chapter 2 helps you set the career vision of your dreams. Chapter 3 focuses on the power of disciplining your thoughts and forming healthy, positive beliefs about your life, and chapter 4 provides insight on the mind-body connection. Chapter 5 examines the importance of being influential and teaches you how to expand your influence at the workplace. Chapter 6 discusses the principle of reciprocity and how it can give you the clear edge over any barrier or competitor. Chapter 7 identifies the key principles of leadership and offers wonderful career-building advice from others who have already succeeded in achieving outstanding careers.

This is an unusual book. If you read it, think about it, and employ the wisdom of the ages compiled in the narrative, you will arm yourself for complete success. By learning and practicing these principles, you will exceed your current expectations and have an extraordinary career. As you achieve your career success, I request only that you share this knowledge for personal success with others.

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Failure to prepare is preparing to fail.
Anonymous

THE CURRENT WORLD OF WORK

There has never been a better time to establish the career of your dreams!

America is in the beginning stages of the greatest labor and skills shortage of its history. Labor economists predict that we will experience a shortage of more than 10 million workers by 2011. Baby boomers are retiring by the hundreds of thousands, and employers are eager to replace them with skilled workers.

Technological advances are opening entirely new career options no one dreamed of even a few years ago. Bioinformatics, geospatial technology, hydrogen fuel cell technology, and similar high-tech career options are providing broader career options for todays workers. These are most exciting times for emerging workers who wish to establish personal career plans and for those who are already in the workforce and wish to navigate these workplace changes successfully.

The U.S. Department of Labor publishes a list of the fastest-growing occupations that may be of interest as you consider your career goal. They primarily include health care, automotive technology, construction, and computer software professions. There are emerging occupations in technology, and the demand for teachers and security professionals is growing rapidly. You can access this information at http://www.bls.gov/emp/emptab3.htm. If you are a young person, I urge you to talk with your parents and older people about how to advance in a career, but dont expect them to help you choose a high-tech career field. Most of these jobs werent around even five years ago.

With few exceptions, todays workers are outlasting the lives of their companies. The days of dedicating ones total working life to one organization are generally gone. Todays workers will likely work forty-five years, change jobs seven or more times, and change career fields three or four times. Smart people are preparing themselves with the knowledge and skills to be competitive in the marketplace today and in the future. They see learning as a lifelong endeavor, and they keep pace with changing technology and changing businesses. In effect, they see themselves as individual enterprises. When one customer (employer) no longer needs their services, they shop for another one.

Todays workers will likely work forty-five years, change jobs seven or more times, and change career fields three or four times.

You do not exist just to make money! A career should be fun and provide meaning to your life. If your current career doesnt supply these things, its time to change careers. If you are just now entering the workforce, resolve to think this way from the beginning. There are plenty of exciting opportunities for anyone who has the ability to set a career vision, develop a plan, and work the plan.

Think about it. Your career options are almost innumerable if you prepare yourself with the knowledge and skills necessary to compete in the marketplace. Your chances for achieving a pinnacle experience in your career will be much improved if you also learn to harness the power of vision and thought, learn to be influential, and use the principle of reciprocity.

The choice is up to you. The human potential is awesome. Excepting certain physical limitations, you can become anything you choose and believe you can become. You may be thinking you are too old to start over. This is nonsense. Colonel Sanders of Kentucky Fried Chicken fame was in his late sixties when he began that business. Grandma Moses achieved artistic fame in her seventies. As President of Central Piedmont Community College in Charlotte, North Carolina, I was privileged to award a ninety-year-young great-grandmother her high school diploma last year. These people refused to limit themselves.