You are your first product, so positioning yourself in the market, as an individual is extremely important.
Portia Isaacson, Founder Future Computing
It’s not only about why and how companies add value and innovate. It’s about how suppliers, contractors, employees, and ultimately all of us must do the same thing. We all have to add value.
A person must continually invest in themselves to increase their skills and knowledge, create, maintain, and grow relationships, and expose themselves to new ideas in their field and other fields.
A person has natural abilities, skills and talents that they need to build upon – they need to find the right fit for themselves. It is a rare employer that tries to find the right fit for an employee. In today’s buyer’s market employers find it easier to replace an employee that doesn’t meet expectations.
A person must continually invest in themselves to increase their skills and knowledge, create, maintain, and grow relationships, and expose themselves to new ideas in their field and other fields.
Specifically, you are a product with value. A product is a value-added good or service that someone buys. It may be a solution to a problem, a thing, meeting a need, a profitable idea, or an effective method to do something. Just about everything you’ve read about products in this chapter, you can apply to yourself.
Life Lesson Earned: Be ethical at all times. Learn and implement the ‘Practices’ listed in this book. Be totally objective. Know your technical, subject matter very well. Be a generalist, but also a specialist in several areas. Know at least one industry sector well.