Myra White - The Superstar Roadmap: How Ordinary People Build Extraordinary Careers

Copyright 2012 by Work Intelligence, Inc.

Publish Green

212 3rd Ave North, Suite 290

Minneapolis, MN 55401

612.455.2293

All rights reserved. No part of this publication 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 written prior permission of the author.

ISBN: 978-1-938564-25-3

To Kyle who started me on my journey to success.

To Elizabeth who has sustained and supported me on my journey.

To Tieh-Su Wu who has kept me moving forward.

To my Mother who taught me the magic of stories and how to have fun.

To Karina Furman who worked tirelessly to make this book possible.

To my former students who inspired me to write this book.

To Shahbaz Khan, my marketing guru.

May the eyes of your heart be enlightened.

From Paul in Ephesians, 1:18

"We are all born Superstars." Lady Gaga

Each of us has a superstar hidden in us waiting to come alive. The Superstar Roadmap shows you how to bring that superstar to life. It teaches you what they forget to teach you in school and at worknamely the steps that you need to take to be successful at what you love to do.

People often fail to fully express their inner superstar, not because they lack talent and ability, but because they get lost along the way. Even Lady Gaga struggled. When she began her career playing small clubs in New York, she received standing ovations in some but in others she was booed off the stage.

This is because success is a process which involves a series of steps. It doesn't happen overnight but you can avoid a lot of wrong turns and make more progress if you know how to do it.

The Superstar Roadmap lays out the steps that have worked for others. It is based on a study of how 60 ordinary people became superstars. It differs from other books because it goes beyond just telling you the steps that superstars take. It also shows you how to take those steps using examples and stories from the lives of people who have become superstars.

This "how to" component is critical to your success. Think of it in terms of taking a tennis lesson. You arrive at the court in your new tennis outfit eager to become a good tennis player. The coach hands you a racquet and ball and says, "All you need to do is hit the ball across the net so it lands within the lines in the opposite court." You try this. Sometimes the ball falls in the court but a lot of times it doesn't go where you want and it certainly wouldn't win you any points. You turn to the coach and say, "OK, but how do I hit winners?"

He replies, "Well to do that, you need to learn what the pros do. You hold the racquet this way, bring it back at this angle, step into the ball, swing though with a circular arc and aim the ball at a place where your opponent can't return it." Suddenly you realize that there are approaches and techniques that you can use whether you are a beginner or seasoned player that will make hitting winners much easier than just whacking at the ball.

Jack Welch not only knew that he needed to build power and influence to become CEO of GE but he also knew the concrete actions that he needed to take to do this.

Becoming a superstar is similar. Like hitting a tennis ball, there are actions and techniques that will ensure that you hit winners at each step along the way. Understanding these techniques and knowing how to use them can make the difference between the ball going in the net versus zooming past your opponents out-stretched racquet. Just like in sports or any other endeavour one of the best ways to become good at it is to learn the techniques and strategies that the pros use. This is what The Superstar Roadmap teaches you.

The superstars in this book come from a wide range of fields of endeavor ranging from business to medicine to sports. They were chosen because they achieved something of value for others. They produced products or services that improved the quality of people's lives, created jobs for others or lifted people's spirits through their art or athletic feats.

Virginia Rometty, the new CEO of IBM, relates how early in her career she almost turned down a big job at IBM because she was afraid that she wasnt ready to take on such a high level job. New York Times, Nov. 11, 2011, p. B2.

Included with these superstars are the characters from The Wizard of Oz. As you may recall, The Wizard of Oz is the story of how Dorothy, a naive girl from Kansas, teams up with the Scarecrow, who is always falling apart, the Tin Man, who keeps getting stuck in one place and the Lion, who is afraid of everything. Together they journey across Oz and achieve their dreams. They slay the Wicked Witch of the West, which frees the inhabitants from the Witchs reign of terror and makes them into superstars in the land of Oz. These characters with all their flaws serve to remind us that no matter how inadequate we may appear or feel, we all have the potential to make valuable contributions to the world around us.

Even more importantly, as Dorothy and her companions dance and sing down the yellow brick road, they show us that the journey can be fun. Superstars know this. One of the distinguishing features of the superstars in this book is that they all love what they do and find it fun. This is because tapping into what is best in us fills us with the same sense of joy and exhilaration that athletes experience when they are in the zone.

Tip for the Road

Becoming a Superstar is not about changing who you are. It is about changing what you do.

M. Myra S. White

Andre Agassi Winner of eight Grand Slam tennis singles titles; the only tennis player to win each of the four Grand Slam singles titles, the Masters, the Davis Cup, and an Olympic gold medal.

Madeleine Albright First female Secretary of State of the United States.

Alan Alda Actor who also writes and directs feature films; played Hawkeye on the popular television series M*A*S*H.

Woody Allen Academy Award winning film director, writer, actor, and comedian.

Lance Armstrong Seven-time winner of the Tour de France and well-known cancer survivor.

Fantasia Barrino Popular singer; 2004 winner of the American Idol talent competition.

Jeffrey Bezos Founder and CEO of the Internet company Amazon.com.

Richard Branson British entrepreneur who founded the Virgin Group, which now includes more than 400 companies. They include Virgin Atlantic Airways; Virgin Mobile; Virgin Trains; and Virgin Fuel, which provides cheap green fuel.

Sergey Brin Co-founder of the Internet company Google, Inc.

Zbigniew Brzezinski National security advisor to President Jimmy Carter.

Warren Buffett Berkshire Hathaway chairman and CEO whose ability to spot undervalued companies and purchase them cheaply has made him and the people whose money he invests extremely wealthy; in five decades he has amassed a fortune of over $44 billion, most of which he is currently donating to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Susan Butcher