16 great career tips from successful people who definitely need to try in 2016

New Year's holidays are over, and 2016 is ahead of us, which opens up new horizons, a year with many blank pages for new stories and achievements. You have every chance to make it the best in your life.

Of course, the next 12 months will not do without any troubles and failures of various scale. However, they will be accompanied by many new opportunities, victories, achievements and new experiences. We have prepared for you 16 interesting tips from successful people who will help you realize the maximum of what you planned in the new year, inspire you and give you new successes.

Richard Branson (Richard Branson): Do not waste your energy on the so-called "failures"

Richard’s mother taught him that regrets are wasted time and energy. As the founder of the conglomerate and the head of the board of the Virgin Group notes, he was always amazed at the amount of time people devote to thinking about their defeats, instead of investing their efforts and energy in a new project.
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“It is a pleasure for me to run all types of business in a company, and failures for me are just a falling curve on a general chart, but not a bad experience,” the founder of the Virgin Group told The Good Entrepreneur.

Mark Cuban: learn to listen

One of the first mentors of Mark taught him that the most important skill of a person is the ability to listen.

He advised Kuban to write the word "LISTEN" (LISTEN) at the very top of his notebook before the beginning of each meeting, and use the written as a reminder of the most important thing during the passing event. This advice means not just silently waiting for your turn to speak. The mentor meant maximum concentration and the desire to really understand what the source said.

Soulmates founder Becca Brown: act "all is well, no matter what"

Becca Brown managed to work at Goldman Sachs Bank, which is famous for its rigorous selection criteria for employees, before it launched its startup selling accessories for women's shoes. Now her company supplies goods to more than 3,000 stores.

She received the best advice in her life from her university lacrosse coach, who told her to act in the style of “everything is good, no matter what.” As Brown herself explains, this is a state of mind, a way of thinking, a vision of the world. “It is not always that everything goes as you intended, whether it is your own business, career or personal life. There are failures and disappointments, and then the temptation is great to start feeling sorry for yourself or self-flagellation, Becca says. “But you must act as if everything is all right and nothing bad has happened.” It is as if nothing disturbs you, and everything goes as you intended. ”

Emily Hughes: Connect with more people

When Emily was still in high school, she managed to get into the US Olympic team in figure skating and go to the Olympics in Tokyo in 2006. She is now giving business advice to Google Fiber.

But during the intermediate stage, from the career of an athlete to the choice of a new professional development path, Hughes felt somewhat lost. “I didn’t have a resume, and I didn’t even know what consulting was,” says Emily. So she just started talking to completely different people.

“I started a conversation with people in order to learn as much as possible about work areas, specialties. I wanted to understand what this or that person is doing for a particular company, ”the current consultant explains. “For me, it was an opportunity to define my own skills, as well as those skills that I would like to learn to do what I like.”

Pat Wadors (Pat Wadors): Put the potential experience above the beautiful post

LinkedIn is a well-known Silicon Valley company that helps users create their resumes and find jobs. The project is also famous for good salaries and various “buns” for employees.

The senior vice president of the recruiting unit on LinkedIn gave this advice to people who are just starting their professional journey. However, these words will be useful to each of us at any stage of our career.

“Throughout your professional development, you will move not only forward, but also to the side,” says Pat. - You probably will change the area of ​​work. Search not a beautiful post, but experience and skills that the new job will give you. Do not be attached to the spectacular title of your position, do not dwell on a steady promotion on the career ladder. "

Jerry Seinfeld: Focus on doing your job well, not on self-promotion

Some time ago, the famous comedian Jerry held an AMA (Ask Me Anything) session on Reddit, offering readers a couple of great career tips.

According to Jerry Seinfield, one of the wrong advice that can be given to a novice comic, or any other young professional, sounds like "you should try harder to promote yourself." This is the worst advice. The best advice is to just do your job qualitatively, and then you won't have to worry about anything else. ”

President of Google for Work Amit Singh (Amit Singh): sometimes on the road to success you need to go from the flank

About six years ago, Amit Singh left a promising job at Oracle to help Google build a new, then still unknown, Google Apps for Work service.

Then Amit deliberately took this risky step, and moved with his family from Boston to the famous San Francisco Gulf Region. Looking back, he can give others great career advice: “When you get a great chance, use it. Of course, some may say that this does not mean some great changes in my life, but in fact they are mistaken. I had a great career with Oracle, and the offer from Google brought a lot of changes for me. ” Thus, the current president of Google for work realized that sometimes "on the way to something important, you need to go on the other side, although it does not seem to be something obvious at that moment."

Red Hat CEO Jim Whitehurst: Strive to maintain the right balance between work and leisure throughout your career

Jim Whitehurst can boast several rounds of his successful career. He has gone from a management consultant at the Boston Consulting Group to an executive director at Delta Arilines and a general director at Red Hat.

Jim says that each of us should not view our career as a kind of sprint race, during which you need to give all the best and work a tremendous amount of hours up to the moment your work gets you down and then repeat it again and again.

“Of course, in your career there will be hard times full of stress - this was the case with me when Delta Airlines was preparing to declare bankruptcy, or, for example, during the first 100 days in Red Hat,” Jim Whitehurst says, “but in general must find that rhythm for work and everyday life that you can maintain constantly. Find the balance in which you will have enough time for family and friends, learn to be emotionally happy and at the same time remain unsurpassed in your work. This is very important because building a great career can be compared with a marathon, not a sprint. ”

Yale School of Management Professor Amy Wrzesniewski: Try to make your work more meaningful

Amy Wrzesnevski is well known for her research on how people find meaning in their work.

In her opinion, the happiest workers make their work more meaningful by engaging in “worker crafting”. So she calls the process by which employees, on their own initiative, find some significant tasks and add them to the working routine. Instead of waiting for the boss to give you some new projects or improve your position, they ask themselves: “What can I do in my work right now so that it makes more sense?”.

To do this, you can, for example, allocate a part of the day to help other people, or try to find tasks that allow you to use your best, favorite skills. The point is simply to make such things a part of your work.

Pop Country Performer Taylor Swift: First Know Yourself

Taylor Swift is one of the most successful performers in pop music in recent years, and she is also known for her judicious attitude towards her career.

The singer said in an interview with GQ magazine that she managed to comprehend the nature of failures as a child. According to Taylor, she literally raved about the Behind The Music TV show, which told about the ups and downs of famous music artists: “I thought about it a lot and made for myself the conclusion that it was the absence of self-awareness that caused all the failures: the loss of significance, ambitions, skill. Therefore, the desire to understand myself has always been among the main tasks that I set for myself daily. This is much less related to reputation management, strategy and vanity, the main thing is to try to preserve your self-consciousness at whatever cost, since it is the easiest way to lose it when glory comes to you. ”

Investor and entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk (Gary Vaynerchuk): Compile your career

Co-founder and CEO of VaynerMedia, Gary Vaynerchuk, is also known as an advisor and investor, leading his activities in the field of technology. During his career, he had a hand in the creation and development of more than 50 startups, among which are Twitter, Tumblr, Medium, Birchbox, Uber and Venmo. Vaynerchuk became a millionaire by the age of 35. “If I had to choose one habit that really changed everything around me, I would call decompilation of the last stage of my career today in real time,” says Gary. - When I talk about decompiling, I mean analysis of events - step by step, from my big dream to the present moment. I am trying to analyze each stage in detail. ”

According to Vaynerchuk, you cannot just copy what someone else did: you should only do what is right for you.

Journalist Katie Couric: Say Yes to New Opportunities

In her book “The Best Advice I Ever Got” (The Best Advice I Ever Got), Katie talks about a farewell from Google Chairman Eric Schmidt (Eric Schmidt), who once told her: “Learn to say“ yes "In response to the opportunities that you have in life. Respond by agreeing to an invitation to a new country, to meet with future friends, to the offer to learn something new. It is the word “yes” that gives you the first job, the new job, the spouse, and even your children. ”

Former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright: Learn to interrupt the interlocutor if necessary

Being at one time an American diplomat, Madeleine Albright gives unusual advice. This parting word is relevant for every person, but it will be especially difficult for women to do: learn to feel the right moment to speak when you are listening to another person. Interrupt the interlocutor, if circumstances so require.

“It was an important lesson even for me, although I had previously held other views,” says Mrs. Albright. - As a member of the Security Council, I doubted the correctness of this approach and thought: “Maybe I should still wait and not speak from the very beginning?”. However, if you raise your hand, and your opinion is not asked at the right moment, later everything that you wanted to say will no longer matter. ”

Apple co-founder Steve Jobs: Ask for help

When Steve was 12 years old, he called the legendary engineer William Hewlett and asked if he had any spare components for a computer. It all ended in that the co-founder of the corporation Hewlett Packard offered Steve a job.

In one of his interviews back in 1994, Steve Jobs said that he learned one important lesson: most people are not given such opportunities just because they "do not ask others." Therefore, the key to success, according to Jobs, is very simple: ask for help: "I have never met people who would not want to help me if I asked for help."

Marc Andreessen: Focus on helping others, not on “favorite business”

Mark Andriessen’s successful career began at Netscape. Subsequently, he launched and successfully sold other projects, and now Andriessen is known as one of the most influential venture investors in Silicon Valley.

His career advice consists of two parts. First, he says that the idea of ​​“following one’s passion” is “dangerous and destructive”, because only those who have succeeded in becoming successful while doing what they love can support it. But the world also knows many entrepreneurs who could not achieve success, following their hobbies.

Thus, according to Andriessen, it is better to focus on creating benefits for other people who make them happy.

Facebook Operations Director Sheryl Sandberg: Don't let fear stop you

Cheryl Sandberg boasts many successful projects related to her name, starting with the post of Chief of Staff of the US Treasury, ending with the help of Google in establishing the company as a phenomenon in the contextual advertising industry. Now she does the same thing on Facebook.

Cheryl became world famous by founding the feminist movement LeanIn. She gives a lot of career advice, but we will write about the best of them: “Believe that you can do everything in the world. It is important for every person, and especially important for women. Do not let anyone tell you that you will not be able to build a successful professional career and at the same time live a full personal life. When someone tells you that you cannot do something, know that everything will work out for you - and immediately start thinking about how to organize it. Ask yourself: “What would I do if I wasn't afraid?”