Six Secrets to Success at Work

By Jack and Suzy Welch

How many people do you know who are truly happy at work? Are you one of them?  We recently surveyed American professionals throughout the nation and learned that nearly a third feel trapped in their careers and passed over for promotions. 

Don’t count yourself among them. If you’re feeling stuck, here are six operating principles that can put you on the path to a stronger career trajectory — and, we hope, to the kind of success known as happiness. 

1. Find Where Your Passion and Skills Intersect

We have a concept called Area of Destiny, which is the very rich territory at the intersection of what you are uniquely good at and what you love to do. That’s where you should be building your profession. 

2. Make Your Boss Smarter

No matter where you are in your career, one thing never changes. Every day, it’s your flat-out responsibility to make your boss look good. You have to make him or her smarter — about your industry, your customers, your competitors, your products, and technology — all the time. 

3. Know When to Leave a Bad Boss

Great bosses are generous bosses. If you feel your boss doesn’t in some way have your best interest in mind and want you to grow, you’ve got to have the confidence to move out.

4. Give Yourself a Deadline

Don’t let work feel like a grind. If you're unhappy — or you just aren’t all-in — you have to put a time-frame on how much you are going to put up with before making a change.

5. Don’t Fear Failure

The thing about failing — because you will fail if you take risks — is that you realize you don’t die. You just pick yourself up and keep going — and how fast you get back on the horse says a lot about you.

6. Never Stop Reinventing Yourself

Who wants to just “retire”? Banish that word from your vocabulary. You’ve got to constantly reinvent and take a chance on something you’ve always wanted to do — it’s what keeps you alive. You’re never done.  

Jack and Suzy Welch are co-authors of the new, #1 best-selling book, The Real-Life MBA -- Your No-BS Guide to Winning the Game, Building a Team, and Growing Your Career.

Jack Welch began his career with the General Electric Company in 1960, became its eighth Chairman and CEO in 1981, and was named “Manager of the Century” by Fortune magazine in 2000. Upon retiring from GE in 2001, Mr. Welch published his autobiography Jack: Straight from the Gut, an international bestseller; his second international bestseller, Winning, was published in 2005 and written with his wife Suzy Welch. For the past decade, Mr. Welch has been active as a special partner with the private equity firm Clayton Dubilier & Rice, an advisor to IAC/InteractiveCorp, and a popular public speaker addressing audiences around the world. In 2010, he founded the Jack Welch Management Institute, a fully accredited online MBA program with 900 students.

Suzy Welch is a best-selling author, television commentator, and noted business journalist. Her last book, the New York Times bestseller 10-10-10, presents a decision-making strategy for success at work and in parenting, love, and friendship. She is the former editor of the Harvard Business Review, and she spent several years at Bain & Company, the management consulting firm. Mrs. Welch is on the advisory board of the Jack Welch Management Institute, and actively engaged with several non-profit organizations promoting animal rights.