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Newsletter – 16 Feb 2009 – Terry Wogan
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Hi,

For those of you who are not familiar with the UK, you may not know of Terry Wogan.
He is a veteran broadcaster and humourist. In the UK he is widely regarded as a national treasure.
Terry recently had some interesting things to say about motivation and some of the people who are pushing “new age” motivational theories:

“I find myself itching to slap around the ear those who say to youngsters, ‘If you want something badly enough, you can get it’.
What an absolutely destructive thing to tell them. It simply isn’t true. Wanting something is never enough.
Nor even, in isolation, are intelligence and sheer hard work.
A major element is always being in the right place at the right time and having something of relevance to offer….. Good fortune, in other words. “

Terry is presumably talking about his own field of expertise, the entertainment industry, in the light of many of the “reality” TV shows which encourage young people of moderate or undeveloped talent to believe they can be mega stars “just because they have a strong belief in themselves”.

However the same is true in the corporate employment world.
We have all seen intelligent and hard-working staff who seem to get nowhere, and creeps who seem to prosper.

So what makes the difference?

The one comment of Terry’s I do disagree with is that being in the right place at the right time is simply “Good fortune”.
Many people believe that you can make your own luck.
Gary Player, the golfer is supposed to have said "...the harder I practice the luckier I get!"

I have been observing workers in the corporate world for many years and have developed a strong interest in what makes some people successful and not others.
We have all seen examples of what looks like pure fortune, but on closer inspection there are usually other factors.

Sure we have all seen those who simply seem to have a talent for self promotion and the apparently endless confidence that goes with it. These people are often very successful, at least until they reach their level of incompetence.

But they are the exception.

People who are in the right place at the right time may have a bit of luck on their side, but, much more importantly, they are prepared for the new opportunity and they are watching out for it.

After all, being in the right place at the right time is not as important as KNOWING when you are in the right place at the right time.

So what’s involved?
Firstly you have to want to better yourself and believe that you can handle a better job and make more money than you currently are able to.
But, as Terry Wogan points out, that is not enough on its own.
You have to develop a talent for recognising when you have been dealt a winning hand.
Microsoft would not be the giant it is today had Bill Gates not recognised the winning hand he was dealt when IBM came looking for a PC operating system.

At a more personal level, when I was doing contract programming work in the early 1990s, I was working in what looked like a small, not very well paid, Basic-language programming assignment.
The boss asked me if I could convert the programs to this new-fangled Visual Basic (VB), which had just been announced by Microsoft.
I accepted the challenge even though I was not familiar with VB.
That small job led to years of well paid work in the VB world for many years.

It is not just programming work which has this quality.

We will all at some point be asked to do something which is slightly outside of our day to day activities.
You have to regard these requests as opportunities to move upwards or sideways to something better.

Finally you need to be prepared for new opportunities, which mean increasing your general level of knowledge in your areas of interest.
TThis isn’t always quite as easy as it sounds, particularly in fields as rich and diverse as IT.

At Jack's Guides we can show you the techniques for making your own luck.
We can show you what you should know, and the most effective things to learn about.
RRemember – not all knowledge is equal.
We can show you the knowledge power-houses which have the maximum impact for you.

For our full list of publications see our websites at www.jacksguides.com
www.icanraiseyourincome.com
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I hope you've enjoyed this issue of our newsletter.
Please let me know if you have any questions, suggestions or requests.
Enjoy and prosper in your chosen career.

Till the next issue.
Kevin Ramsey
Founder of Jack's Guides