About the Author
Jim Foley, Sr.
Achieving Total Success by Staying Ahead of the Pack reflects my lifelong dedication to young adults who have completed their education and recently started their professional career. These meaningful observations, however, also apply to those who have been in their roles for a while but are now at a place in their life where they would like to press the reset button and generate additional momentum for their career advancement. The ones who are the most successful demonstrate a fervent desire to utilize their learned skills, combine them with the experience and guidance I have accumulated in this book, and proceed to earn advancement through exceptional performance within an organization. The most successful leaders over time possess an innate passion to succeed along with both a goal and an attitude of wanting to do whatever it takes to obtain a meaningful position that provides the levels of personal and professional satisfaction and financial accomplishment that produce a very purposeful life.
For over fifty years in business, mostly spent in senior leadership positions, I have had the pleasure of observing and mentoring hundreds of young people, all with distinct types of personal backgrounds and career aspirations, and they all had the same question: “How do I begin reaching the level of success that I am willing to work to achieve?” The answer is so simple if you just believe in yourself and do it. From the first day to the last, this short book is the only guidance you will ever need to get to where you want to be in your career and in your life.
The first three chapters of this book will show you how to establish and position yourself as a person who will be on the rise in life and at work. The fourth chapter comes into play when you have reached your first position in supervision or management and supports your climb up the ladder toward senior leadership. The addenda add real value as you move into your first supervisory role, where you will be looking for several additional skill sets to continue your advancement toward senior leadership. This book captures the essence of what it will take to establish and live a happy and purposeful life throughout your entire career.
What I must always remind people of is that aspiring to reach an elevated level of leadership is a rather easy vision to entertain. The persistent passion to achieve it requires a personal and unshakeable commitment. The bad news is that my 50 years of personal observation would indicate that less than 5 percent of those who start with an aspiration not backed by commitment make it to senior leadership. The good news is that if you have an interest in taking the information that this book offers to heart, you will be one of them.
If you sign up for this challenge, you can consider yourself a top 5 percenter.
