What's Stopping You?: Why Smart People Don't Always Reach Their Potential, and How You Can

Commit to the Organization

One thing we must do is commit to the organization we work for or find one we can commit to and do whatever it takes to get in the door. This could include initially doing the wrong job for the right organization. In the bank, for instance, I noticed that many of the female executives had started as PAs and many men and women had joined at 16 as lowly branch cashiers. And my first post-university job was selling classified ads for The Independent, simply because I wanted to work on a national newspaper.

I hated the work less than I thought – in fact, I was surprisingly good at it (and have used the sales training ever since) – and meanwhile looked for editorial opportunities, despite being told such a move was impossible. ...