Business: - The core value of a company is its assets (market & placement, employees, financial situation) and its ability to execute iterating upon a product.

Business: - The core value of a company is its assets (market & placement, employees, financial situation) and its ability to execute iterating upon a product. If a company is in a changing market or is a startup the value is nearly wholly driven by the later. There are hacks around this, but they are rarely pretty or pleasant. This is "the" hard problem in making money. - Big corporates are almost entirely dysfunctional. It beggars belief but its true. The simple fact is the markets are so mature that they don't need to do much beyond a few basic, core, routine actions. All they can do is fail from here, so everyone inside are afraid of doing something wrong instead of failing to do something. - Always, always go the extra mile for people, loose gracefully, be nice - even when the situation is completely unfair. Your time will come, and when it does you will have gained an undervalued but lucrative chip. The moral high-ground :) - In addition to being the right thing to do, playing nice and paying it forward are great strategies in business Personal: - Given a task find out its context/goals. You may have been asked to do the wrong thing. - For most, your mentor's will have the largest impact on your career. Find good ones. - Don't be responsible for surprises. If you see something strange - shout. - Be methodical in whatever you do: Analyse. Record. Measure. - If you need a raise ask, but have your line in the sand. - Read, research. Know your stuff. - Ask questions. Speak up.