Nicole Williams - Girl on Top: Your Guide to Turning Dating Rules into Career Success

Copyright 2009 by Wildly Sophisticated Media

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eISBN 978-1-5999-5298-7

Nicole Williams is both frank and funny. Shes full of witty advice thats not only relatablebut doable for the girl whos just getting started or the woman, like me, whos on her second time around in the career game. Heres my advice to you about GIRL ON TOP: Read it. Laugh. Learn.

Veronica Webb, model

Only Nicole can make career advice this much fun. Sassy, relevant, and packed with great advice, its a must-read for any woman looking to get ahead.

Liz Lange, founder, Liz Lange Maternity

GIRL ON TOP is a sensational book. In the most delightful and hilarious way, Nicole Williams serves up loads of excellent advice for anyone wanting to get ahead.

Dan Jinks and Bruce Cohen, producers, Milk

Every girl should have thisthe little black book for career success!

Susan Cohn Rockefeller, author, Green at Work

GIRL ON TOP is a fabulous read. Its chock-full of actionable insights and laugh-out-loud advice for any woman (of any age) who is serious about getting to the top of her career. I highly recommend it.

Julie Cottineau, vice president, Virgin USA

Michael Loeb, thank you for betting on this jockey.

N o girl gets on top without riding the talent, inspiration, and sheer effort of a mountain of supporters. This book simply wouldnt have been possible without the following: My agent, Rebecca Oliver, for coming up with such a fitting title (for someone with an aversion to balls you really pulled out a provocative one). To my editor, Michelle Rapkin, for not being able to live without it and publisher, Harry Helm, for believing in its potential. To my business partners: Michael Loeb, my fellow Working Girl (thank you for raising the bridge for this little girl from Ajax); Rich Vogel, for putting on your girl voice, explaining, on way too many occasions, the concept of supply and demand, and for making it real in our business; and Robert Imershein for sprinkling your inspiration, honor, and brain power all over WORKS. To Jennifer Bedell for the fact that the aforementioned partners would never be at any of my meetings on time without you. I will never forget the day you called to ask for the package and know without you it would not have gotten into the right hands. Im forever grateful. Nahila Chianale, for making me look, and more important, feel like I can take on the world. Maggie Bock for not only ensuring the checks get cashed but for cheering me on behind the scenes.

To the WORKS team: Kimmy Scotti this bookfrom concept to coverwouldnt have become real without you. You make everything easier and so much more fun. Thank you for your loyalty and friendship. Stephanie Reese and Michelle Hainer, for driving it to the finish line with your amazing and never-ending ideas, voice, and edits. Rachel Barrett, for lending me the Chico and for picking up what Im putting down. Andrew Segoshi, Ed McCabe, Andrew Slutsky, and Jack Lennon, for adding some testosterone to the team and for allowing me to harass you. Jon Jenson, for pushing out 500 words on the train ride, making sure someone actually reads all this shit, and giving me first taste of child labor (thanks Zoe!). And a special thank you to all the WORKS freelance writers who contribute to our website each and every day.

A heartfelt thanks to all my friends and family: My mom, Linda Williams, for landing such a shitty job and inspiring this whole career thing. My beloved nana Doris Smith, my gramps Ernie Smith and nana Eileen Williams. My brother, Shane, and his wife, Melanie, thank you for supplying me with an ever-waiting home. My two JennifersLittle and Hannayalways in my heart. Maria Eftimiades, I have never met anyone more brave or generous. Heller, Munkton says it all. Terry Leiweke for ordering me to put your bag in the overhead and introducing me to your wife, Shelley. Shelley for downing bottles of rose, welcoming me to your home and sharing your family. Jen Leiweke for being like the sister Ive always longed for. Pam Fryman for inspiring me with your talent and spirit. Susan Hamilton, Maeve Raeddle, and Pat Duffy, my because-of-dogs friends till the end. The Vancouver cheering squad: Edna (Roxy Roller) Zurbuchen, Con Buckley, Praveen Varshney, Paul Grehan.

L ets go back. Its March 27, 2004. I know the day, the exact day, because I was at the wedding of one of my best friends. Sitting in a front pew (her sister was her only bridesmaid), absorbing the vows (self-written), holding the hand of my husband (uncharacteristically clammy), I decided I was leaving (not the church my marriage).

There were, of course, the requisite dastardly, excruciating, heartbreaking months in between, but on one special day, sick and tired of my distress, a friend came by my new apartment with a basket of get-out-of-your-funk goodies. It was filled to the brim with everything from chocolate and erotic porn to a library of dating books, and that night, as I jumped into my big, lonely bed and strategically chose The Rules over the vibrator, my life changed.

Page after page I devoured the words that were meant for my love life, and I was struck with one shining beacon of discovery pure career genius.

Heres the thing: Im a career manager so I do tend to look at the world through the lens of work. Thanks to my mother who, working for a paint and chemical manufacturer, lived a special kind of hell, I grew up with the desire to actually spend my days doing something I enjoyed. As a kid, I would drive people to drink with questions of, How did you know you wanted to be a doctor? Where did you learn that? and How much do you get paid? I was a one-woman career investigative team terrified of hating my job (which really means hating your life), and I ultimately parlayed that fear into a career management brand called WORKS.

But get this: Even before I read and reread The Rules, I was, and still am, a good dater. The whole concept of playing hard to get is as natural to me as breathing. Love dating or hate it: We know it. We need it. We do it. In my business Ive been forever trying to convince women that working for less than industry standard is going to kill their career but now I have a context to wrap it aroundDont give away the milk for free.

After that fateful night in bed, I took a cruise through the bookstore and online and found the top twenty classic dating rules and then turned them into career strategies. Treat him mean to keep him keen; dont tell him you want a kid on the first date (or interview); dont expect to change him I didnt make this shit up, but I promise Ive found the key to applying it to your career in a way that will change your life.