Andrew Carnegie's Fantastic Secret To Job Success

Andrew Carnegie was an immigrant who started out in low paying jobs and then moved his way up to owning vast fortunes. This happened because he discovered the secret to job success.

Mr. Carnegie liked to walk through his steel mill and greet the people who worked for him. It didn't matter what their positions were, he felt each person was doing an important job and wanted him or her to know that. Because of his care and concern for his employees, they were not afraid to share their ideas with him.

One day Mr. Carnegie struck up a conversation with a janitor who was sweeping the floor and asked him how his day was going.  "It's okay, Mr. Carnegie" the man answered, "but it would be going a whole lot better if you would let me sell these metal filings instead of throwing them away, and let me keep some of the profit."

The next day that janitor had a new, higher paying job, and the metal filings in the mill were no longer thrown away, but recycled for further use. 

Andrew Carnegie's secret to job success has 3 keys that are sure to help you get hired or promoted into the job you want.


Key no. 1 - You Must First Hire Yourself
No matter who signed Mr. Carnegie's paycheck, he felt that he worked for himself. When given responsibility, he made decisions as if he were in charge and the success of the company rested on his shoulders. As a young man he sold himself on the merits of what he could do for his employer.

You should consider yourself the president of your own personal services corporation. Your services are the products you sell. If you want to make more money, then it is up to you to make yourself worth more.

You need to believe in yourself and be confident in your abilities. You do that by accepting responsibility to train yourself and learn the job well. Take the same interest in the success of the business as your boss would and you will not only get hired, you might become the boss some day.


Key No. 2 - Pay Attention To What Motivates People
Human nature is the same; the things that motivate you will most likely motivate your boss. 

Mr. Carnegie was motivated by kindness and respect, so he showed them to others. The janitor was motivated to earn more money and he gave Mr. Carnegie an opportunity to earn more too. 

Employers want to increase their business success. They want to hire you (or pay you more) because you are willing help them to achieve their goals.

Look for ways to demonstrate how you will benefit your boss, from using words that demonstrate you care about others, to finding ways to be more effective and efficient.


Key No. 3 - Doing Your Best Now
Mr. Carnegie believed in the saying, "If you do your best now, it will prepare you for more later." He acted as if he was being watched, even if he was working alone. 

Harvey Mackay, best-selling author and CEO of Mackay Envelope Corp. speaks at many universities. His best advice is to consider preparing for your next job in your current job. He tells of how he finds out how well people have done their homework on his company before he interviews them. He says that if they don't do it well for themselves, he can't expect them to do it well when they work for him.

The surest way to succeed in getting hired (or being promoted) is for you to expect more of yourself than others expect of you. When you are better than the next person, you will be the first to be hired or advanced. The universal Law of Compensation will never fail you. 

Many people fail to do well because they have SECOND-BEST-itis. To them, second-best work is good enough.

You can rid yourself of SECOND-BEST-itis by becoming the best at what you were created to do, for only you can. No one starts out the best. When you set a goal of being the best, then through hard work and determination you will rise to the top and become very desirable.

Andrew Carnegie made it to the top of the business world 
because he followed the secret to job success. You will always have a job you enjoy and that pays you well when hire yourself first, pay attention to what motivates people, and do your best at every job.