3 Ways to Take Control of your Career! Suggestions from Richard Branson

Richard Branson insists that as the pinkslips start flying, get off your keester, skip the bar and get down to business.

Step ONE: Whip out the address book and check in with folks to see how they are faring during this outrageous period in world history. It's in amazing times like these you don't have to worry about why you're calling! Give them a ring, drop them a note, send them flowers, take them a snack, email them an article--just be there for them adding some value and touching the hearts of everyone in your network.

Step TWO: Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for people who matter! There is no bailout, no knight in shining armor coming to rescue us. We've got to be self-reliant and the most effective way that the world's most successful people do that is by helping others in times of need. You will earn huge points when you take one step beyond pleasantries and actually provide some support to others. 'Success is earned by helping others achieve success.'

Step THREE: Get Training & Start a home based business. You need that for three reasons:

(1) It's smart to have a backstop, a fallback if the job doesn't work out. Beef up your skills in something you love and get set to start doing it.

(2) Doing a home based business gives you some sense of control and reassurance if it's based on something you love doing.

(3) If you don't know what that business should be, get a piece of paper and make three columns:

In the first, Column A, put a list of all the things you love to do. (Stuff you'd secretly do for free, that give you energy and you're willing to tell the world about).

Then in the next column, Column B, make a list of all the ways those things in Column A could be of value to others who will pay you for it.

Finally, in Column C, write down all the people you know who might advise you, or somehow could be recruited to those passions.

Nobody does anything worthwhile alone. Whatever you do, don't just sit there, as Branson demanded, extraordinary times call for extraordinary action! This may be the best time in a lifetime of excuses to get started doing something that really matters to you!!