Page 224 - Executive Warfare

EXECUTIVE W ARF ARE

of your financial obligations—at least temporarily—without a steady pay-
check from some organization, you may end up taking a job you don’t
want and then staying in that job because you don’t want the tenure to
seem too short on your résumé. You may well wind up sacrificing three
years of your career only to find that
you’re off track when you are ready to
move on. Don’t cultivate habits that will
BUILD A
make you dependent.
REPUTATION AS AN
Second, work out a plan in case you
EXPERT IN SOME
lose your job. I always had a plan for
AREA. WRITE
what I would do if I got fired, and it
ARTICLES. GIVE
never involved sand or water or sun.
SPEECHES. LET
Make sure, as you develop your skills
REPORTERS QUOTE
as a general manager, that you also
YOU.
develop some particular marketable
skill. For example, I could start a brand
management consultancy tomorrow. Build a reputation as an expert in
some area. Write articles. Give speeches. Let reporters quote you.
Then, if you do lose your berth, you will be able to convince at least a
handful of other organizations to pay you for advice and counsel.
If you’re good, and I’m assuming you are, at least one of those organi-
zations will eventually decide that they are paying you too much as a con-
sultant and offer you a big job with them. It happens all the time, and that
is a very pleasant position to find yourself in.

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