This Is the Best Career (Life) Advice I Ever Got

In life and in your career, you have to be the driver of your own advancement. When conditions aren't ideal, you can't just sit around waiting for things to happen. If you do that, they never will. There is always something you can learn, always some opportunity to take advantage of.

Greene gave me his amazing advice about "Alive Time vs Dead Time." Dead Time is when you're sitting around waiting for things to happen to you, and Alive Time is when you're in control, making every second count, improving, learning, and growing.

I asked about this once and he told me that if ever offered the choice between credit and money, only an idiot takes the credit.

You don't want to be dependent on PR and publicity to sell your books, she said. You need to have a direct connection to your audience.

. I wished I'd used my Google email address more, he said. Meaning, he wished he'd taken full advantage of the unique status/reputation of Google at that time. He wished he'd taken more meetings, reached out to more people, agreed to speak at more events and attended more conferences. He wished he'd built his network more when he was in a position of demand.

I'm so glad I learned this early. Forget credit. If you want to get ahead, think about somebody other than yourself.

If you have developed an independent platform, you have an insurance policy. You have security. Not just against what other people might do to you, but also against changes in the trends or the marketplace.

At some point, you're going to have something you need to communicate to the world, you're going to need distribution…and when you need it, it will be too late to start building.

So don't wait. Build your platform now.

My editor was telling me to be like Eleanor Roosevelt and Winston Churchill. To have power outside the system as an insurance policy.

Churchill published 11 books, 400+ articles, and delivered more than 350 speeches. The result of this was an enormous worldwide platform that allowed Churchill not only to survive financially but wield influence that kept him relevant and guided policy and opinion across the globe. Under ordinary circumstances, a politician would have been powerless when pushed out of office or driven to the fringes by political enemies. But Churchill's extensive platform—based on his editorial contacts, extraordinary gift with words, and relentless energy—saved his career…and as a result, the free world.