Going Places

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My name is Becky Norton. I am the youngest vice president at the Kerry-Lanston accounting firm. This is large accounting firm in the southeast. A couple of years ago a publishing company wanted me to write the steps of how I rose so quickly. You know women are always at the bottom, never ahead. That book was publishing about a year ago. All they wanted was my name, and I got a million dollars for it. You know the type of book. The “you can make it like I did.” Kind of book.

I told people to work hard, look for opportunities, and never take short cuts. Well I guess I should say that the ghostwriter wrote that because the only thing I wrote in that book was my signature at the book signings. I made it on the New York Times bestsellers list for a few weeks before being replaced by the next guy’s book saying the same damn thing. The book was probably written by the same ghostwriter.

A college age girl came up to me a little while ago and said that my book had changed her life. She was trying to follow in my footsteps. She asked me, “What else can I do to succeed?” I honestly felt for the girl. I decided that it was time to stop lying to the public and give them the real deal on how to succeed. I told her, “Throw that piece of trash away and wait for the next book that will tell you the truth.” And this is the book you are now reading.

They always told me that if you work hard, and if you study, you will get ahead. My mother told me to “show those men by working harder than them.” Well, that is a load of bull. While you are working harder, the owner of the company is with the top brass playing golf. When it is time to lay off, the guy who was working harder gets laid off as fast as the one who was surfing the Internet all day.

They tell us that myth to keep us working for God knows what. I laugh when I look at my former classmates who took that to heart. You know the people who got straight As and kissed the teachers butt. They end up in middle management and kissing the directors ass hoping to move up the ladder. Meanwhile the folks who know the game jump over all of them. I learned the game.

I don’t mean to be mean, but everything they told you about getting ahead is a bunch of bull. They teach kids if you work hard and succeed and get good grades or do good work, it will eventually pay off. Well they lied.

It is not surprising. The teachers are a bunch of underpaid and disrespected people. Why would I listen to somebody making 40K a year who is spending their own money to buy crayons for half of their class? If you want to get ahead stop listening to anybody and start looking at what successful people do.

College ain’t much better. We pump out stupid assholes with straight As in Russian literature and religion. They used to say that the person who made straight As works for the one who dropped out of college. Well in real life grades have nothing to do with it. As or Cs it is about whether you learn the game. Ain’t nobody worried about your transcript in the real world. All they want is competent people who know the rules. If you don’t learn the rules, you will be serving fast food regardless of your grades.

But I am getting ahead of myself. If you are going to get ahead you are going to have to learn who has the power. Then you have to learn what you have to give him or her to get ahead. To be blunt, you have to learn who to touch, who to kiss, and who to screw. You must be competent, but competent is all that is necessary. And never, ever, do what I did that has severely limited my upward mobility. Never, ever fall in love. Love is your worse enemy.

This book is a chronology and stories of how I took as my credo, “Going Places.”

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