3 Reasons Why Everything You Know About Career-Success Is Wrong

When you search for Career Success on Amazon, you get more than 90.000 results. Books on behavior, motivation, happiness and so-called secrets.

I am not saying that none of these books have any value, but I do think that there is much less you can gain from them, than you actually think.

In the following then, is a list of how our knowledge of career success is incomplete or wrong, and how to look at things instead.

1. Motivation doesn’t matter — managing relationships does

In his groundbreaking book Barking Up The Wrong Tree, Eric Barker outlines the research behind what is important in the work-place. Surprisingly, it is not motivation or happiness or any of the factors that we usually think matters.

The most important thing in the workplace is managing what others — your boss specifically — thinks of you. Now, obviously you can manage this by doing good work, but you also need to be aware of your relationship with your boss.

We’ve all heard horror stories about people getting on the wrong side of their…