Use Your Head to Get Your Foot in the Door

Use Your Head to Get Your Foot in the Door by Harvey Mackay Read Free Book Online Page A

Book: Use Your Head to Get Your Foot in the Door by Harvey Mackay Read Free Book Online
Authors: Harvey Mackay
Tags: Business & Economics, Careers, Job Hunting
anyway.” Of course you wanted it. “I suppose I didn’t deserve it.” Of course you did. Self-delusion and self-hatred aren’t the answer. Don’t let your worth be defined by others. Point your head in the right direction and get back in the game. It’s not a permanent condition; it’s a short-term setback. You have a goal. The particular job or raise or school may have been a stepping-stone to that goal, but that’s all it was. There’s more than one way to cross a river. Now you’re going to have to rethink the path, but that doesn’t mean you have to abandon the goal.
    • Don’t walk around as if you’re wearing a scarlet letter. For heaven’s sake, who knows you were turned down for a job or for admission to Harvard? It’s not going to be the lead story on the evening news. Rejection is only as big as you make it. Take an inventory of human emotional responses, like love, hate, greed, fear, jealousy, grief, envy, gratitude, compassion. Now compare them to self-pity. Of all the emotions on the list—some constructive, some not so constructive—I’d venture that self-pity probably has fewer positive applications, and can do less for you than just about any of them. Whatever you do, don’t take rejection personally. It may have nothing at all to do with you.
    • Start worrying when they stop considering you as a contender. Cary Grant, Marilyn Monroe, Alfred Hitchcock, and Richard Burton never won an Oscar. Babe Ruth was never named MVP. Thomas Jefferson, John Quincy Adams, and Andrew Jackson all lost elections for the presidency before they won one. Losers? No. Legends.
    Mackay’s Moral: Failure is not falling down, but staying
down.

    “If you want a positive outlook, you’re going to
have to turn your chair around, Walter.”
    © The New Yorker Collection 2009 Victoria Roberts from cartoonbank.com . All Rights Reserved.

Chapter 15
    Pitchmanship: Applying
    Marketing Nichemanship to Job Hunting
     
     
     
    Niche marketing is a bona fide and well-tested approach to strategic selling. Some firms have had stellar success building their business around their pursuit of specialized niches. They say it pays to know your niche as well as your name.
    Pitchmanship is a term I use to describe how to apply niche marketing principles to pitching yourself in a job search. There are some perilous myths surrounding niche marketing. Similarly, there are dangerous assumptions you steer clear of when you pitch yourself and your credentials for a job.
    Myth one : A pitch has to be chic. Don’t assume that organizations are always on the prowl for cutting-edge talent. Some companies posture themselves so low-key that they expect their people to have state-of-the-art skills, but the culture demands they present themselves with “Aw, shucks!” understatement. Study the organization and the style of the CEO in speeches and articles. It may be impractical to tailor your résumé for each and every company you pursue, but your cover letter should reflect some understanding of what the organization is about.
    I call this the Turtle Wax Lesson because of how this old car-care staple is marketed. Turtle Wax has held a dependable—and sizable—share of the car-wax market for decades. This task is synonymous with something people hate to do. They do it with a product that has a reputation for being harder to apply than others, by exploiting a niche out there of people who literally “love” their cars. What better way to show dedication to your set of wheels than by lavishing care and devotion on the object of one’s affections? Working hard to get a shine that shines through. Romantic stuff, huh?
    Turtle Wax-style employers don’t like people with instant, easy solutions. They cherish people who love to apply elbow grease in liberal quantities. And they tend to be skeptical of people who are finished products—people whom they can’t change or polish in their own style.
    Myth two : A pitch has to be flashy. There

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