20 Things Every Career Woman Must Know

By Emily Bennington

In today's society, there are just as many women working in the corporate world as men. For women to continue to succeed in developing their professional career; here are 20 things every career woman must know.

1. Lasting success is created by good habits, which are very often destroyed by bad excuses.
2. Hold a grudge and it will hold you back.
3. Goals are short-lived, but virtues are timeless.
4. The most important professional asset you have is your reputation.
5. When you understand there are biological reasons that explain why you act the way you do, you won’t feel as crazy.
6. Careers (like diets) don’t start tomorrow. Tomorrow’s dreams are only achieved by today’s action.
7. Sometimes having the right answer is less important than having the right attitude.
8. Not everyone will like you, especially if you have moxie.
9. Authentic outer power comes from authentic inner power.
10. Nice execs finish first. Be kind to people and hard on results.
11. The moment you use sexy to get ahead is the moment you make yourself disposable.
12. The vast majority of decisions affecting your career will happen behind closed doors when you’re not in the room.
13. There is a difference between mentors and sponsors. Mentors are concerned with your professional development; sponsors are concerned with your professional achievements.
14. You should always have at least one close contact who has achieved fabulous things beyond your wildest dreams.
15. Chaos is self-created by the choices you are making right now.
16. You’ll never criticize yourself powerful, happy, or rich.
17. Confidence isn’t having the right answer. It’s knowing you can figure out the answer.
18. You will have it all when you don’t try to be it all.
19. The secret to productivity is to stop doing things that are comfortable and start doing things that matter.
20. Regardless of your career path, there’s no direct flight and the layovers will take longer than you think.

Final thoughts: There’s nothing more important to your success than being a magnificent woman first. Because the truth is, it’s not a man’s world or a woman’s world. It’s our world, because it’s what we make of it.

Learn how to make critical decisions in your business and join the growing number of women who are getting ahead with this free AMA webcast.

© 2013 Emily Bennington. All rights reserved. Excerpted from Who Says It’s a Man’s World: The Girls’ Guide to Corporate Domination, by Emily Bennington (AMACOM, 2013). Used with permission of the publisher.

About the Author(s)

Emily Bennington is a frequent speaker on the topic of career success. She is a contributing writer for Monster.com, a featured blogger for The Huffington Post, Forbes Woman, and US News and World Report and author of Effectively Immediately and Who Says It’s a Man’s World, from which this article is excerpted.