When it comes to careers, sometimes following the straight and narrow gets you nowhere. In many of today’s companies, the career ladder has no legs. Employees’ wishes to the contrary, few businesses can provide a map to, much less guarantee, advancement. You have to take responsibility for your career development and make your own way along the path.

If you feel like your career is stuck on hold, don’t keep running in place. There are other options for getting on besides waiting around for that promotion that may never come.

• Move out and up. One of the most tried and true ways of advancing your career is changing companies or institutions. Positions may not be turning over quickly with your current employer, but opportunities usually are available with other companies. You may need to accept some trade-offs, but making the change can help revive your career and lead to other possibilities.
• Move over and up. If your company is large enough, consider a lateral move, such as moving to a different department, division or branch. Especially if you are at a level in your career where you are approaching the point where the hierarchical pyramid begins to narrow, a lateral move may position you more favorably for future advancement.
• Make a change. Experts say most of us will have three or four careers during our working lifetime. Switching careers is not easy, and not for everybody, but it happens more often than you might think. Over time you may have acquired a number of related skills that could be applied to another occupation or profession. Perhaps with some additional education, experience or certification you can parlay that knowledge into a position in a new field. Or, you may want to consider starting your own business or consultancy.
• Transition to something new. If you’re not ready to commit to making a job or career change, you can give yourself a boost by exploring other options while maintaining your current position. Volunteer for different kinds of duties either within or outside your company. Do a bit of freelancing. Go to a conference in a different field to see what it’s all about. Take some classes or attend talks or seminars. Even if you decide not to make a change, you will benefit from the infusion of new knowledge and ideas.

With the many responsibilities and commitments we have, it’s easy to get locked into our current job and lose sight of the other opportunities we could be pursuing. Sometimes putting ourselves in a new situation or taking on a new challenge is just what we need to free us up and getting moving again in a more positive direction.

You remember the story of Pinocchio, the puppet who wanted to become a real boy. Whenever he would tell a lie, his nose would grow longer and give him away. The moral of the story is simple: You may think you are fooling others, but when you lie it is as plain to them as the nose on your face.

In my firm, I’ve seen a rash of Pinocchios over the past year or so. For reasons I understand but don’t condone, candidates seem unable to resist the temptation to embellish their resumes, cover letters and portfolios with claims of education, achievements and experience they don’t have. In most cases, it does not take a lot of digging or checking references to uncover the truth. What might have been a promising application quickly gets moved to the rejection pile.

You may think you are helping yourself by “exaggerating” your credentials. But take it from me, don’t do it. There’s nothing wrong with casting your accomplishments in the best light, as long as they are truly your accomplishments. Taking credit for something you have not done is another matter. The rationale that everyone pads his or her resume is a lame excuse for unethical behavior. It won’t cover up your Pinocchio nose.

When you are caught in a lie, you not only eliminate your chances of being considered for the position, you damage your reputation and potentially your career. Don’t risk it. Sell yourself on your own merits. They will take you much farther than a phony resume.

Whether you are just starting out, are well established in your career, or are considering a career transition, you need to set goals to keep your work interesting and your career moving forward. It is less important what particular goals you set than that you have them. A goal allows you to focus your energy, develop plans, stay future-oriented, and make measurable progress. You can always modify them later or create new ones if circumstances change.

To be effective, a goal should be concrete, achievable, identifiable (i.e., you recognize when you’ve achieved it), and time-constrained. It should be specific but not too narrow. For example, your goal might be “to become a department director in three years.” To set a goal such as “to become human resource director in company X in three years” may not be achievable if no vacancy occurs for that position within your specified timeframe. Once you have articulated your goal, break it down into smaller steps or objectives. What are things you need to do over your specified period of time to make progress toward achieving your goal? An objective is a short-time achievement that will help you to fulfill your longer-term goal. Again, your objectives should be concrete, achievable, etc., so that you can realistically make time and devote energy and resources toward accomplishing them. Build these into your annual work and personal development plan.

Goals can take many forms, but I find it’s helpful to think of creating one or two goals for each of the following types:

• Development goals. These are “stretch” or aspirational goals that address new skills, knowledge, relationships, or experience you need to acquire to make progress toward your ultimate career goal.
• Advancement goals. These are goals related to reaching the next level of your career, however you define that for yourself, such as serving in roles or positions of greater responsibility, visibility or influence.
• Fulfillment goals. These are personal goals that, when achieved, will increase your sense of satisfaction, accomplishment, confidence, purpose, and so forth. They may be work related or not, but they should be linked to things you really care about.

Two of the most common goal distractors are frustration and procrastination. Varying your goals in this way will keep you more well-rounded, balanced and engaged. If you get stuck in one area, you can continue making progress in others and prevent getting thrown off-course by temporary disappointments or setbacks.

Most of us have had a work situation that didn’t go well. You and your boss or supervisor didn’t get along. You had some personal or health issues that temporarily affected your performance. You were given an assignment that you lacked the experience or resources to complete successfully. You need to move on to another job. But what do you do about providing a reference?

One thing you absolutely should NOT do is provide an insufficient or bogus reference. In my firm, I’ve seen a number of applicants list work references that were not their former employer. It might be an HR officer, former office mate, sales rep, supplier, or even a customer. Whatever the case, it immediately sends up a red flag. Why doesn’t this candidate want me to talk to their former boss or supervisor? Are there other parts of the resume that won’t hold up under scrutiny?

The purpose of a work reference is to verify performance, not vouch for your character. If the individual who is providing the reference was not responsible for evaluating your performance, then they are of little use to a recruiter. If you are looking for a new job because you did not get along with your boss or supervisor or had a bad review, don’t omit that person as a reference. Instead, explain what happened in your cover letter, so the recruiter will be aware of the situation when they contact them.

Stuff happens. Don’t jeopardize your chances for a better situation by trying cover over something from your past. Let the new employer decide if it matters to them. You’ll at least get a point or two for your integrity.

Networking (I use this word very cautiously because I think it’s become a dirty word like sales) is fundamental to reaching your full potential. Networking is part of the selling process which makes you (and me) a salesperson. We’re all salespeople. If you want a job, you’re packaging yourself so that they hire you. We’re ultimately all selling products and services. We sell ourselves day in, day out. And there’s a true art form to getting in front of people and to making them to want to talk to you. It starts with a simple hello. After that, I have found a very effective strategy in getting through to people is to try multiple avenues of approach.

In my video below, I provide my personal philosophy for how to market yourself.

The ability to negotiate is a skill that takes practice. It does not always come easily or innately, but it does get easier the more often you try it! In an effort to assist you, here are a few tips to keep in mind as gleaned from the WSJ Online December 15th, 2004 in an article by the Millers:

1. Adopt a negotiating style consistent with who you are: if you speak softly and don’t carry a big stick, then just be direct and firm and smile. You don’t need to get angry or aggressive or make quick decisions. Take your time and only respond after you’ve had time to consider an offer or counter-offer.
2. Remember that every situation is an opportunity to negotiate: Even your utility companies will negotiate with you, one-time credits are easy to get if a problem situation arises or you think rates are too high. Remember to make sure you are dealing with a decision-maker who has the power to make the changes/deals that you want.
3. You must be willing to say “no”: if you are not willing to walk away from a bad deal, or a “no deal” scenario, then it negatively impacts your ability to drive the best deal for yourself. Once the other person knows you are serious and will not proceed, they will come to their best offer.
4. Don’t settle for less just because you can (or because it’s for yourself): do your homework, know what you’re worth and what the market will bear, and then be persistent. Asking for more is not greedy; it’s just good business.

Remember, in all cases, be gracious and keep the energy positive!

THE PROCESS BEGINS BY GIVING OURSELVES CREDIT FOR WHAT WE HAVE DONE, AND NOT LAMENTING WHAT WE HAVE NOT.

“Become what you are” is the Alan Watts mantra that I have been dwelling on these many months. I think it is so important not to be distracted by what we covet, what we don’t have, what others have that we do not, what makes us feel like we are not successful, what keeps us distracted from the present because we always are looking at this elusive future. It really is just now, and we certainly are in the place we are meant to be, and it is all quite magical and amazing.

Too many people, and I think we are all guilty of it to some degree, are living in a vicarious reality of desiring what they are not. LA is particularly a place that breeds a climate where people are wanting and waiting to be someone else. The cult of celebrity is high here, but even without this it is a perennial spiritual crisis in the materialistic age in which we live. Oscar Wilde has a great quote that says, “Be yourself, Everyone Else is taken.” And there is a Navajo saying, ‘who I am I must become.” It is really crazy that this is something that actually needs to be actualized in one’s life, and is not just a given. You would think there would be no other way to live or to be. But clearly…looking at our culture most of the world is totally out of sync with this unity of being. It is easy for me to imagine that I am not a successful artist if I feel forced always to compare myself with Ed Ruscha, David Hockney, Jeff Koons, or any of the other small handful of artists who were singled out in the 1970’s and ‘80’s, and have since then played the lead roles in the contemporary art world. If that kind of career is the only template, and it seems to be since the art world now equates success with the prices of work sold, then the role afforded the artist as a force in our culture, is effectively negated.

As I was thinking about all of this, and shared some of these thoughts with a friend of mine, she remembered that David Copperfield begins with the observation:

“Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show.”

I hope that what I have just shared resonates with you. I guess it boils down to not allowing ourselves to look back and think about what we have not done or accomplished, or look at other people and imagine that our success should look more like their success. Each of us had one day at a time, and we have filled it up with what we had to do. It is inevitably full and we have been engaged in living and loving. What more can it be? Once we begin to tell ourselves our own story, and realize who we are, we must BE it and LOVE it! We must not be a shadow of someone else whose success seems to be the version that is approved by a society obsessed with the materialistic.

I think too of time now. How fast it is all going. My grandson just turned 2,  which seems just impossible. He was just an infant and now he is on the run. All of you with children or grand children must know this well, as you watch how fast they become such real and conscious spirits. And then my own life…I just turned 62, which is equally as staggering. How did the last ten years just zip by me? And how much longer do I have? It is precious, and that is certain, and living cannot be put off. We don’t get a ‘redo’ of our lives. I will never go back to my thirties and take that other fork in the road. We need to make ourselves aware of our own story: who are the main characters, who are the minor characters? And most importantly…like Charles Dickens observed, we should be the hero in our own story, not a minor character in someone else’s.

And we don’t suddenly end up with a different cast of characters, so valuing the people whom we have shared our journey with is paramount. There is a beautiful tapestry of those whose lives we have shared, and this is a web of amazing beauty, something both complex and elegantly simple. When all those narratives are interwoven, and we come to the end… it is truly a masterpiece!! We could not have orchestrated this, if we tried, it just is. But we do need to bear witness, while we also immerse ourselves in the unfolding of all that is to come.

As an artist I think of ways in which the creative gifts that I have been given are those that I am meant to channel and give away to others. It has nothing to do with art as a commodity that is for sale…a state of affairs that is so rampant in the art world that it is extremely troublesome and counterproductive…but rather, an obligation and a way of life that asks that we take responsibility for the creative life force within us. I hear myself say, the work is not for sale.  I am not for sale! Let me give this as a gift.

This is only the beginning of this longer train of thought on how we can and must change the way in which art can become a part of meaningful transformations for ourselves, and for our communities, and within our culture. I personally believe that art should be transcendent, a spiritual oasis of sanity, and that can hardly happen when it is all about the price tag it garners at Sotheby’s or the consumer frenzy that exists at mega-art fairs that are the walmarts of the art world.

These thoughts for me of course relate to my own life as an artist, but I think it also has a lot to do with being a woman, and perhaps it is in this aspect of yourselves that you can relate to some of what I have shared with you.  As women we are vessels for the creative energy of life. We channel creativity into the world.  As women we have the chance to change many things, we have the gift of the alchemist, to turn what is raw and elemental, without form, into beauty. Look at your children, and how amazing is the charge with which you are gifted…to guide them in delicate and loving ways, and shine the light on the paths that they must carve out for themselves. Not a day goes by that what you do is not of ultimate value!  And there is no price tag that can be attached to that~

The other day I came across this quote about success while working on this speech and I will close with it:

“To laugh often and much;
To win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children;
To earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends;
To appreciate beauty, to find the best in others; To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition;
To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.”

Elizabeth Gill Lui

Delivered on May 20^th, 2013 Good Samaritan Auxiliary Annual Luncheon

Los Angeles, California

“Watch your thoughts for they become words. Watch your words for they become actions. Watch your actions for they become habits. Watch your habits for they become your character. And watch your character for it becomes your destiny. What we think, we become. ” Frank Outlaw