What does it take to be successful? I guess that depends on what your opinion of success is. I have a friend who only wants to work 6 months out of the year and do whatever he wants the rest of the year. I also have a sister who work 16 hours a day as a public defender who thinks setting mexican drug runners free is how she will measure success. This book is about how to be successful at one thing and one thing only, and that is being successful at figuring out how to be a success at your job. Now I want to make one thing clear. If you are a rocket scientist, reading this book won't neccessarily make you a better rocket scientist, unless that is what is required for you to be successful at your job. The goal of this book is to help you figure out what it will take to be successful at you job. If you're a rocket scientist and you work for NASA you might have noticed that its not always the smartest person in the room that gets the job. Its the rocket scientist that understand how NASA works that gets the best job or the promotion. Now I've never worked for NASA but I'll be willing to bet they don't give everyone an IQ test and whoever get the best score gets the best job. I would however be willing to bet its the person who the managers beleive will do the best at that position that gets the position. Thats what this book is about, figuring out what your managers expect from you to give you the next promotion. Trust me if you find out what it is they want (note I didn't say what they tell you they want because more often than not you will have to read between the lines) I promise you you will get the promotion. In fact if you're going to put this book down and read only one page and remember one thing please let it be this. "Just figure out what your manager wants." Now I know there is a recession going on and a lot of us are just happy to have a job, but you can get a promotion even when others around you are getting fired. Yes it is more difficult but it is still possible. The tools I am going to give you in this book will show you how to shine in a downturn economy or in any other economy for that matter. Because beleive me if you can figure out what your manager wants and give him that when it comes time to lay people off do you think the smartest person is going to get laid off or the person who is giving the manager what they need. Its a no brainer. Now I now this all sounds really simple and if you can get it in one thought then why should I take the time to read this book. Well it is simple but I still need to give you the tools to formulate a winning strategy, because your manager proably expects a lot of different things, and if you work in a large corporation you probably have more than one manger so you're going to need to learn how to give not only one manger but several what they want and how to manage and balance their expectations. This book is going to give you the framework to put together a plan for how to talk to your mangers and figure out what you need to do and who you need to talk to get that promotion you've been looking for while at the same time making youre