Formula For Success - Rise Early, Work Hard & Strike Oil!

I open my blog this morning with this quote (forgot the name of the "quoter") & recall the conversation I had yesterday with my boss.

In this age & time, there is no such thing as Rise Early & Work Hard to get to the top. It's all:
- Work Smart
- Work Hard only for the "right" people
- Have the gift of a gab that can charm birds from trees
- Polish / suck-up / feign interests during conversations that doesn't entirely got anything to do with you / your work - you know wht I mean... It's called "Network" by the "sucker up-per"

You might be wondering how did this "ranting" come about. Well, recently I was invited to a dinner involving all the "big shots" - VP, VP-1, Finance Mgrs etc. I was told this is to give us "exposure" & "chance to network" / "give a good impression for future job movements". In this supposedly "crucial" event I did :
1. Pretty well - I spoke to the first person I met during the dinner & went on explaining about wht I do currently & even wht I did in my past assignments in the refinery. What I learnt along the way. Though need to brush up on my reply to the infamous "Where you see yourself 10-years from now?" question.
2. Stumble - because when someone asks me "Wht are you doing?" I misunderstood him & told him the department I was attached to, without elaborating further.
3. Soar - or at least I thought I hit the right note with my discussion / contribution to the topic of Brazil's "disastrous" fuel price de-regulation & how Malaysia is unlikely to experience that mess / how M'sia is different in negotiations / treatment of de-regulation plans / the political background behind such plans etc. I also brought in my experience when I was based at the refinery to talk about the supply end.
4. Be a good listener - even if they're bragging abt their new "expensive" hse, their nice "expat pool" in S'pore (I called d pool by tht name cos' only expats can afford their own private pool in crowded / expensive S'pore), their horses tht they ship from UK to S'pore... roll-eyes... Like I said earlier most of us had to feign interest cos' most of us can't even imagine, let alone afford tht kind of lifestyle. Wht inteligent conversation can we contribute to this, but listen?

On an overall, I thought I did quite well.

Until I was later advised by my boss (because aparently she got feedback for my less than lustre "performance") that it's perceived as I'm a person who's too quiet, has no potential to move up the corp ladder & wonder why I was invited in tht dinner in the first place! My God! Just from my 1 lousy reply (refer to 2), I'm sentenced to Death Row! That was just harsh!

The guy who gave tht feedback to my boss (may I add tht it was done in front of the out-going & in-coming Finance Directors!!) was busy "sucking-up" to someone & fretting about the food quality of the dinner (cos' he's the organizer) tht he didn't even notice when I was conducting "inteligent" conversations (refer 1 & 3) & picked on the 1 freaking time I stumbled because he happen to be listening in.

In all fairness, my current boss was very nice. She didn't judge me / make me feel as if I was written-off. In fact she was sympathetic & empathize my situation (w/out even knowing abt 1 & 3). She just said, it's her responsibility then to ensure she develops me in this area. She even tried to console & tell me not to be de-motivated by all this. She's telling me this so tht I know & can work towards developing my networking skills.

I was really really thankful for that understanding. It's only after I left her room & the more I thought about it, the more angry / indignant I was with the "evaluation" I got fr tht guy. Bet he thought he was a saint tht didn't make ANY mistakes. Oh well.... at least this experience tells me that the Formula for Success is NOT brains / effort... It's our gab... (that also explains some of the lousy managers tht I can't figure out how they can climb so high - the power of suck-up!)

Bottomline. Agree I need to learn how to network properly BUT.... I will never ever stoop down to suck-up! Afterall, if you think about it... These ppl whom we're trying to "polish" are also employees... "Slave" to the company (albeit a highly paid 1), so there's nothing extra special to command tht respect (except those who earned it - like the dear Mike T. Then the conversations will be genuine - not suck-up materials).