motivasi19-kelebihan Ways to gain a competitive advantage October 26, 1994 Patrick Combs Copyright 1994 by Communication Concepts Dear Patrick, I've done all the things you've been suggesting in your column--completed several internships, been active in campus clubs and organizations, and joined a professional association. What other things can I do to get ahead in my career to come? Looking for an Edge Dear Edge, Your question gives me an opportunity to offer one of my favorite suggestions: read your way to success. Start by reading a how-to book about the career of your dreams. No matter what field you desire to enter, there has been at least one how-to-get-started-in-the-field book written by an expert. (Okay, in some of the REALLY arcane fields, such as MRI technician or satellite designer, there may only be a handful of articles. But read those articles.) Go to the library and do a computer search, using the most appropriate key words. Also check the reference books BOOKS IN PRINT (both the Title and Subject volumes) and GALE'S DIRECTORY. You'll come up with something--and probably several things. Many fields not only have several how-to books, but one or more regular magazines published for professionals (and would-be professionals) in those fields. In fact, you'll probably be amazed at the number of newsletters, books and magazines that are available on almost every subject. Reading one of these books, magazines, or articles differs very little from sitting down with one of the world's top experts in the field and learning some of their success secrets. For instance, if you want to build your expertise as a public speaker, read SPEAK AND GROW RICH (Prentice Hall) by world-famous speaker Dottie Walters. Or if you want to build your expertise as a writer, read THE INDISPENSABLE WRITER'S GUIDE (HarperCollins) by writing and publishing expert Scott Edelstein. The fact is that reading how-to career books is an ultra-simple way to learn a lot of the same things that other people took years to figure out, the hard way. Look at it this way: you can either learn these insights all on your own through painful trial and error, one tough step at a time, or you can skip years of potential mistakes by doing a little carefully-selected reading. Which makes more sense to you? Here's another suggestion: read some of the best general self-help books. I know that many college students are cynical about self-help books--and it makes sense to be cynical about the bad ones. But there are some good ones out there, too. Two that I highly recommend are HOW TO WIN FRIENDS AND INFLUENCE PEOPLE by Dale Carnegie and AWAKEN THE GIANT WITHIN by Anthony Robbins. Dale Carnegie's book is both wonderful and humanitarian. The title sounds a bit like HOW TO SHMOOZE FRIENDS AND MANIPULATE PEOPLE, but a more accurate title would be HOW TO WIN REAL FRIENDS AND INFLUENCE PEOPLE RESPECTFULLY. You've surely heard it said that people skills are everything, and this is THE best book to learn people skills from. It hasn't become the second-best selling book in the history of the world for no reason. Anthony Robbins' book is inspirational and just plain SMART. If Robbins' late night infomercials turn you off (and there are plenty of things in them to do that), give his book a chance anyway, because it's not what you're expecting. This guy is for real, and his book teaches personal development techniques that work. There are at least a hundred other helpful activities and resources I could suggest--and surely will, a few at a time, in future columns. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------