You and Your Career: Luck Is Only Part of the Equation

What does it take to have a successful, fulfilling professional career? Effective results are most important, many would say. Others would point to hard work as the key ingredient. Interpersonal skills, a sense of timing and organizational know-how are still other factors. Then there’s luck, which nearly everyone would agree can contribute to the golden career. Good people are with great potential. They succeed because they are good at what they do, and because they possess the capacity to surpass themselves. When good people manage their careers intelligently and communicate well, they take advantage of the many opportunities available within the company—to travel and get to know the world, to work in a variety of different business areas, and to share their time on the job with a uniquely diverse and enriching group of colleagues the world over. Of course, winning what might be called “the career game” necessarily involves playing the game with a certain amount of skill. In addition to making a steady contribution to the business and meeting your objectives, you’ll need to have a sense of how the company works, to persevere in your job, and to learn to seize opportunities and recognize the limits of a given situation.With this issue of you should take an opportunity to test your skill at marrying all of the above factors—hard work, knowledge of the company and Give it a try. The outcome matters less than just having fun.