Do your job precisely as if you were your own boss, and sooner or later you will be.
The American system of free enterprise is based upon the premise that every individual may profit in proportion to his or her labors. In today’s hectic, highly competitive, global environment, however, you may feel that you are not adequately recognized and compensated for the contribution you make. The next time you feel overworked, underpaid, and unappreciated, remind yourself that you really are in business for yourself. Your product is you. Are you the kind of employee you would like to have if you were the boss? When you are considering a difficult decision or when you are thinking about how to avoid an unpleasant assignment, ask yourself, “If this were my company, how would I handle this situation?” When your answer is that you would take precisely the same action you are considering as an employee, you are headed for bigger and better things. You will soon be the boss.
Big pay and little responsibility are circumstances seldom found together.
It is possible to go through life without ever accepting any responsibility, but such freedom from the cares of the world comes at an enormous financial cost. If you make it a practice to go out the back door when responsibility walks through the front, you will also miss out on the opportunities that always accompany responsibility. In almost any vocation, profession, or calling, your remuneration is directly proportional to the responsibility that accompanies your position. Make it a practice to volunteer for more responsibility or simply to assume it. There are times when you must get on with the task at hand without ever being formally told you’re in charge of it. If you demonstrate that you are a can-do kind of person, responsibility and the higher pay that accompanies it will come to you.
The value of actions depends on the courage they require.
Ordinary people who do extraordinary things for others are those we later call heroes. When asked why they performed as they did, they often say, “It was nothing anyone else wouldn’t have done in the circumstances.” Perhaps that’s their way of saying we all have the capacity for greatness. It is only when we are severely tested that we rise to the occasion and perform at the highest levels of our competence. You become a person who does the right things when presented with great opportunities the same way you achieve success at anything: through force of habit. If you make it a practice to take the appropriate action even when it seems unimportant and insignificant, you will do the right thing — without thinking — in important situations. If you let your actions speak for you, you will never have to worry about others recognizing your contribution.
Discouragement
What we do not see, what most of us never suspect of existing, is the silent but irresistible power which comes to the rescue of those who fight on in the face of discouragement.