Success Rule Book

The Difference Between Those Who Do and Those Who Might Have Done

What makes the difference between Those Who Do and Those Who Might Have Done?

1. Putting In The Hours. If you don't put in the hours, you won't get the outcome you desire.
2. Working On Things That Matter. You can do many things. But you do not have the time or money to do all things. So, work on the key opportunities available to you, the key problems that confront you, the things that really matter.
3. Actively Contributing. Spend time spent on making something happen. Merely thinking, consuming, reading, planning and learning accomplishes nothing on its own. One needs to take action.
4. Being Proactive, not merely Reactive.
5. Being Daringly Ambitious. The willingness to tackle gigantic, intimidating feats that nay-sayers protest "can't be done".
6. Completing Projects. Working till pay-off. Disciplining oneself to complete existing projects before starting new ones of a similar or lesser importance.
7. Being Narrowly Focused. Ruthless concentration on key objective. Ignoring all distractions.
8. Taking Calculated Risks. Life's uncertain. To play in the game of life, one must live with that uncertainty. Those who do not, are condemned to sit on the sidelines whilst the risk-takers collect their reward.
9. Piggybacking on Others Achievement. Using the work of others as your foundation. Seeking the help of talented, experienced and the knowledgeable experts. Entering strategic partnerships. Get the job done, without attempting to reinvent the wheel.
10. Accepting No Excuses. Never allowing obstacles, bureaucracy or lack of resources to be used as excuses. Nor letting office politics or image building divert from your main objective.
11. Being Self-Confident. You are capable of being world-class, and of thrashing your thoroughly mediocre and complacent competitors.
12. Trusting Own Judgment. Disregarding the skepticism of coworkers, industry pundits and friends who say all your new venture is pointless and doomed. They're too risk-averse, unambitious, pessimistic and short-sighted. To achieve great things, one must be willing to ignore the nay-sayers, and silently say to oneself  "no, you're wrong. Watch me and I'll prove it".
13. Always Searching For Opportunities. For under-served market niches and major new trends. For new technologies that could meet existing needs better, faster or cheaper. Drop less important tasks to seize these opportunities.
14. Being Decisive. Making a decision, then taking action.
15. Being Pragmatic. Working with the system, not wasting time and goodwill fighting bureaucracy, unhelpful people, incompetence, unfairness, limited budgets, unrealistic deadlines, office politics and government meddling.
16. Knowing How To Sell Ideas. To get major projects achieved, one must get ones boss, colleagues, investors, staff, and customers to buy into the idea. Don't leave this to luck. Sell them on the idea.
17. Picking Heroes and Mentors Wisely. Do-ers inspire and motivate themselves by looking up to those who have accomplished a great deal, raising their sights beyond the normal comparison peer-group of friends, coworkers and old school mates. Experienced, talented and knowledgeable mentors can help you avoid many pitfalls.
18. Continually Learning. Always increasing knowledge, to increase capabilities and productivity.
19. Being Reflective. Taking time for 'blue sky thinking', to identify trends and keep yourself aware of the bigger picture.
20. Working Smarter, Not Just Harder. Leverage technology, outsourcing, research, best practice, the experience of experts and commercially-available solutions.
21. Looking Ahead. Anticipating and preparing for future problems, opportunities and challenges.
22. Investing Time In Key Relationships. Your success can be helped or hindered by your boss, your colleagues, your employees and your customers. Build and maintain good relationships with all those whose help you may need. 

So, there are many factors that explain why some people accomplish far more than others. Contrary to popular opinion, high-achievers' success isn't just down to luck, backstabbing and workaholic tendencies. There are other factors at play.

The big rewards in life go to those who get things done, whilst working on things that matter. If you want that big house, that great car, and all the other trappings that go with it, you've got to learn to be someone who get things done. And you've got to systematically put that knowledge into regular use.

Grab a pen and paper, look through the 22-point list, and think about your work, examining where you have room for improvement. I suggest you come up with a list of next actions, and schedule them into your diary.

Learning to accomplish more isn't just about the money. Your time is finite, and every hour you invest in your work takes you one hour closer to your death. You owe it to yourself to make that time on this earth count.

Starting A Business Isn't Rocket Science

You Can Make Money Doing Anything

In a capitalist economy, you can make your riches doing pretty much anything.

Or to be more exact, you can make your riches owning and managing a company that does more or less anything.

Starting a company: the forgotten alternative to live as a cubicle slave

Non-entrepreneurs look at the market place and say 'but there's already a company doing that'. They fail to realize that their own 'product', their labor, is no less open to competition. In fact, the competition is often more serious.

On several occasions I recruited temps to work on projects I was overseeing. For just one position, there were over 70 applicants within 24 hours. This was for a position paying approximately $13 / hour. Almost all of the applicants could have done the job. Frankly, can you think of any other space where there are over 70 competitors ACTIVELY competing for business at a given price point?

Most schools and parents preach 'study, get qualifications, get a job, and hope for promotion'. They forget to mention the alternative path of starting your own business. A path that isn't necessarily more difficult.

Getting started as an entrepreneur is a lot cheaper and easier than you would imagine.

For example, do you have the next 5 minutes free, and $99 available on your credit card? Well, let me introduce to you Wild West Domains Inc http://www.wildwestdomains.com/ . For $99, they offer you a web hosting business in a box. They delivery the service, bill the customer and handle customer support. There's no inventory. All you would need do is market the service, and deposit their check. You could do it. In fact, anyone could do it.

Even if you don't fancy having your own web hosting company, there are valuable lessons here:

• You can afford to start your own business
• You could start a business quickly, and easily
• Outsourcing and reselling can enable you to deliver a broad range of quality products/services from day one of trading
• You don't have to give up your day job to start your own business. Some businesses take little time and are compatible with full-time work
• Your business doesn't need to have to offer original products or services. It can happily exist by selling me-too services

I do not expect you to set up a business today. But I do expect you to fully comprehend that you COULD set up a business today. And I hope that understanding brings you closer to the day when you do set up your own business.

Marketing - Part 1 - Build a better mousetrap...

"Build a better mousetrap, and the world will beat a path to your door." - misquote of a misquote of a comment by Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Build it and they will come" - misquote of a phrase from the movie Film of Dreams, which is about a man who builds a baseball field in an Iowa cornfield.

The above phrases have entered our culture. Sadly, those aren't just misquotes. They're also mistaken.

If you expect the world to beat a path to your door, you'll be waiting a very long time.

The world is not psychic. If your company's potential customers do not know that your company exists, or what it sells, you won't sell anything. You may have the best product in the world, but that won't help you one bit. The world is full of companies with great products that are having their butts kicked by competitors with inferior products, higher prices, but superior marketing strategies. Firms with great marketing and adequate products will almost always beat firms with adequate marketing and superior products.

So don't insist on product perfection. As soon as you have an adequate product, start marketing it right away. If the market thinks your business plan sucks, it's best to find that out before you've invested your time and money gold-plating your lead balloon!

By marketing early, your business plan can be tested and refined. You'll develop a small customer base on whom you can experiment, testing cross-selling and up-selling strategies. The customers and prospects you encounter can provide you with valuable insights that will help you set your prices, hone your marketing messages, and develop product features your customers will value. Whilst you improve your product, these new customers will pay your overheads, marketing and product development costs.

Many start-ups spend too much time perfecting their product, and not enough time marketing it. They say to themselves that if only they were to create something special, their delighted customers would recommend it to friends and colleagues, and success would be assured. Recommendation-based business models make great copy in business magazines when they work. But most of the time they work too slowly, or not at all. So you're better off selling an imperfect product, and reinvesting the profits made in marketing and product development, than hoping the marketing will take care of itself.

Here's a story that really brought this home to me. Serial entrepreneur Dan Sherman wrote an e-book, which he published for free on one of his web sites. What could be more attractive than free? Well, Dan's a savvy man. He decided to charge for the e-book and invest the money raised into advertising. The result? A fifty-fold increase in traffic. The reduction in the percentage of visitors viewing his product (because of the charge) was more than made up by the tidal wave of new visitors finding his site because of the advertising. More people read his e-book, despite it costing more! Well targeted marketing works. And it can pay for itself.

Back in 1999 US company Shanje Inc (then called PairNet) was providing hosting of an unlimited number of web sites for $30 per month. Few people in Britain had come across it. Savvy school boy Andrew Michael decided to take out ads in British Internet magazines marketing his company's inferior and more expensive copy of Shanje's business model. His firm was less established, and back then had inferior technical expertise. His company Fasthosts Internet Ltd continued to spend its profits on full page ads in UK Internet magazines. The firm, set up in a bedroom in 1999, now has a turnover of over $40m, revenues growing by 40%+ pa, and an estimated value of $80 million dollars. Shanje isn't worth anything close to that.

Why did Fasthosts eclipse Shanje? Not technical knowledge. Not Pricing. Not business experience. At least, not then. The key difference, that made all the difference, was Marketing.

Well managed marketing is a net profit generator, not an expense. It pays for itself by increasing sales. The sort of money you personally want to make in business will only come from owning a business that has millions of dollars in sales. You'll get those sales through marketing.

I hope that in this post I've convinced you to market early, and often, and to take marketing seriously.

As you start the business that will make you rich, I suggest you split your time and resources in the following proportions:
20% - idea evaluation and market research
10% - product/service sourcing and creation
5% - legalities
5% - fulfillment
60% - marketing and selling.

For once you have a good business model and an adequate product or service, there is a larger pay-off to be had from marketing and sales than from other area on which you could focus.

Update: 10th May 2006 - Fasthosts has been sold for £61.5m ($114m)

Should v Fancy: Your Key Life Choice

The life you are experiencing right now, is the result of thousands of free choices you have made in the past.

Your salary, your job, your working hours are the consequence of the choices you have made in the past.

The quality of your relationships? Those are the consequence of the choices you have made in the past.

Your weight and fitness? Yep, the consequence of your past choices.

If you're not happy with your job, your salary, your weight or your relationships, then you must learn to make better choices.
Most choices boil down to a simple question. Will you do as you SHOULD do, or will you do as you FANCY?

For example, will you blow all your income each month, as you fancy, or forgo and delay expenditure - saving money, as you should?

Will you study and put in overtime to further your career? Or will you spend your time on unproductive but enjoyable activities - as you fancy?

Will you choose the tasty meal you fancy, or the healthy that one you should eat?

Examine those areas of your life with which you are dissatisfied. You will find you have failed to do what you should have done, and instead you have done as you fancied.

At the time, you rationalized your poor choices, saying to yourself "it's only temporary" and that you would do the right thing 'soon'. Only you didn't.

You told yourself that the decision was small, and didn't matter. What you fancied was harmless, and the outcome of what you should have done would have provided but a minor benefit. Yet those benefits mount up, and the harm of 'what I fancy' soon mounts up also.

It soon mounts up to a job that does not interest or stretch you, a salary far below the one you could be earning, obesity and in retirement - poverty.

The benefits of those poor choice are short-term, but their adverse affects in the long term are huge.

'It's a bad time for me to make this stressful change in behavior' people say to themselves. But for them, there will never be a good time.

If you're to become the outrageously successful, talented, and rich person you could be, you have to grow the balls to do as you SHOULD, not as you FANCY. Sure it's tough, but after a short while you start to get the pay-off

In an ideal world you would fancy doing what you should be doing.

Back to the real world, life doesn't work like that. We all have things we would LIKE to do, that are at odds with what we SHOULD do. And vica versa.

A key trait of the successful is they do what they SHOULD, not what they FANCY, even though short-term this is not in their interests. They study or work, rather than socialize with friends. They save, rather than spend all their salary each month. They go to the gym, rather than watch TV.

Now some of the successful actually like the good activities. What they ought to do, and what they fancy doing are in close alignment. However most successful people don't like their successful actions anymore than you would.

Those thin toned gym-goers? Most dislike the hassle of going to the gym.

The committed workers who are on top of their game - and still in the office at 8pm? They don't want to be there.

The academically successful? They would rather be out drinking and socializing with their friends than studying and doing boring assignments.

Most MBAs, CPAs, ACCAs loathed their studying to get that qualification. I have yet to meet an ACCA who doesn't hate with a passion the study they had to do to pass their ACCA exams.

The point is that the successful hate doing as they ought almost as much as you would. But they knuckle down and do it, despite all that.

For a long time now you have, like most of the population, picked what you fancied, over what you should do. And you are suffering the consequences right now.

Looking forward, you're not where you want to be.

You know where you want to get to.

You know what you should do.

Learn from your past mistakes. From now on, choose to do more of what you should, and less of what you fancy. It will get you where you want to be. Wealth, enjoyment, health and freedom are worth their price.

So what choice will you make - SHOULD or FANCY?

Motivation For Those Working Late

Sometimes you have to work late. This post is for those times.

But No-one Else is Still Working!

That says more about them than it does about you.

You're willing to go the extra mile, they're not. It's that simple.

You're willing to get things done to a better standard, and leave time to deal with unexpected problems. They're not.

You get more done than the slackers who leave on the dot of 5pm.

You have more tasks than others, because you're proactive. You're someone who looks for things you could do that would move your organization towards its goals. You're not a sheep who merely does the work you're told to do.

You understand that you are the person who best understands how and where you can add value.

Many of those whose empty desks now surround are missing their deadlines, missing their targets, failing their customers and failing to grasp countless opportunities to do a better job. You know that's true. So don't judge yourself by the hours they keep. You have higher standards.

But I'm Bored

Not everything in life is exciting. It's sometimes necessary to do things you should do, but don't fancy doing.

If you put off the work till tomorrow, it won't suddenly become more interesting. It won't suddenly disappear.

Stop whining about the task. Tackle it now, and you can get it finished. You'll then be able to move on to more interesting tasks tomorrow.

But I'm Tired!

Get yourself a caffeinated coffee, or Red Bull - now. Keep a supply of caffeine tablets in your desk.

But I Have Stuff To Do At Home!

If you REALLY wanted to do that stuff, you would have done it already.

Besides, that stuff's less important, less urgent, and less fulfilling than it seems to you right now.

It's easy to say 'if I weren't here, I'd be at home and I would get x, y and z done'. In truth, you probably wouldn't.

I Fancy A Break!

Then take one. A short one. Then get back to the work.

End Thought

You're here for a reason. To get that task done. It's been sitting on your to-do list far too long. Now is the time for you to take action.

Just imagine the outcome of your work, what you will have achieved, what you'll be free to move on to do next. Soon you'll have finished the tasks at hand, and tomorrow you'll have forgotten the hardship of this hour.

You can complete that task today. You should complete that task today.

Now do it. Get to work.

Your Education Isn't Over. Prepare Now For The Tests That Lie In Store

[Forewarning: This is a long post]

Your education isn't over. That you may have finished school, college, or your professional exams is irrelevant.

To earn a higher salary, get a promotion, or run your own business successfully, you will need to educate yourself continually. You must increase your knowledge, gain experience, and continually upgrade your skills.

If you don't do that, you'll be stuck in your current position. Your job will become routine and dull. You'll stagnate.

And you won't get promoted. You won't get offered a better job. You wouldn't deserve to be offered one.

And if you were offered one, you won't know enough to do it well.

As a child, your teachers micro-managed you. You were told what to learn, when to learn it, which books to buy and which lessons to attend You were set specific tasks and given externally imposed deadlines by which to complete them. You were told what work you would have to do at home, after the working day.

You're an adult now. There's no-one there to set you homework, no-one to test you, no-one to check up on your progress. You've got to do all this yourself.

And you've still got a lot to learn.

You'll need to learn Strategy, Sales, Marketing, Product Development, Logistics, Customer Service, Negotiation, Law, Micro-economics, Research, People Skills, Writing, Design, Creative Thinking, Logic, Project Management, Purchasing, Market Analysis, Time Management, Risk Management, Human Resources, Psychology, Humor, Active Listening, Presentational Skills, Financial Analysis, Statistical Analysis, Business Development and Business Financing.

You will be frequently tested on many of these areas. It won't be a formal sit-down test, with a big neon 'test' sign flashing above your head. It'll be far more subtle.

You must prepare now. Do not let the requirements creep up on you, leaving you to suddenly find yourself with an evening to prepare followed by scary hours of 'winging it' badly the next day.

Many people fail to grasp the opportunities that are presented to them because they have failed to prepare for them.

A promotion comes up, but they haven't got the skills needed for the job.

Or they see or hear of a job they would like, but they can't apply as their lack of knowledge stopped them from volunteering for tasks at work that would have gotten them the necessary experience.

Too often the warning of an impending test comes only after it is too late to prepare. That's why you must prepare in advance, learning more than you 'need' at present. For by the time the 'optional' becomes 'necessary' it will probably be too late. You must actively be planning ahead. Find out what you need to learn - and what experience you must gain - in order to do your job better, so you can get the career you want.

The areas I have listed would cover most of what you would need to shine in any situation you encounter. A working knowledge of those areas will make you invaluable to your employer and to your colleagues. It will ensure that when you set up your own business, it'll have every chance of being successful.

The knowledge will help you understand the needs and concerns of your colleagues and customers. It will help you tailor your work to fit their needs. You'll be able to spot work you could do for them that would be of great benefit, but which they have not requested. Work that could increasing your value to the firm.

The knowledge also acts as your insurance. If you know how others do (or should do) their job, you'll be better able to recognize liars, the incompetent, and those who are 'winging it'. You'll be better able to spot when people are attempting to manipulate you or fob you off with red herrings. You'll be able to spot your boss's mistakes and omissions when they briefing you, and to compensate for them.

Your self-initiated study program should start with the areas most critical to your job; the ones that could improve your performance, reduce your errors, improve your effectiveness and the timeliness of what you do.

Next, it should cover the knowledge needed by people in the organization with which you interact. Your boss, your colleagues and your direct reports. The better you understand their roles, the better you can tailor your work to meet the needs of the 'customers' you serve.

Few jobs offer continual, substantial, on-the-job training. So you'll need to be continually investing in your education, OUTSIDE working hours.

You must put together a plan to gain the knowledge you require. Prioritize your learning, and start learning this week!

Sell To Your Boss

Selling skills aren't just for sales people. You too can benefit from learning and applying them in your home life, and at work.

In a must-read article, Michael Hyatt, the Chief Operating Officer of a large publishing firm, offers tips on getting your boss to agree to your plans:

I urge you to read the full article, now. Here's an abridged version:

   Selling your boss is critical to your success. If you can’t get your boss’s approval when you need it, you are not going to go very far in your career.... Here are six keys to getting your boss to say yes.

1. Meet your boss’s needs. The boss doesn’t care how this will make your life easier.... He’s concerned about his needs and the needs of the company... frame your proposal in these terms.... if your proposal promises to [aid those]... you’ve got [his] ear. If not, you’re likely dead before you start...
2. Pick Your Battles. Don’t take a swing unless [you're] confident [you'll] hit the ball. You will develop a reputation [that] will actually make it possible to pre-sell your boss before you ever say one word. He’ll be thinking, If John is recommending this, it is worth seriously consideration... he has thought it through and asked the tough questions.
3. Do your homework. [think through and summarise the recommendation, the background info, the rationale, the timetable for implimentation, and the financial impact.]
4. "Bullet proof" your proposal. First, think of every question your boss could possibly ask...Make sure each key question is answered in your [briefing]. Play devil’s advocate. [Plan how to handle every objection. Write it on a crib sheet.]
5. Make the pitch. Schedule a time to make the pitch ... when your boss is likely to be the most receptive. Maintain eye contact. Stay alert to the signals. Re-state the recommendation. Know when you are done.
6. Accept responsiblity for the outcome. If your boss says, "no," go back to your desk and engage in a little post mortem analysis. What went wrong? What could have been stronger? Where were you unprepared? How can you do this better next time?

What Are You Willing To Sacrifice?

Do you want to avoid work that's difficult, tiring, stressful or boring in favor of the easy, relaxing and interesting work?

Well, of course you do. So does everybody else.

Most people choose the easy path, the one that avoids voluntary study, working late, coming in early, applying self-discipline, and seeking new challenges that force growth. Instead they spend their spare time watching TV, socializing with friends and going to the gym.

Of course there's nothing wrong with that. It's their life to live as they choose. Or to waste.

Those who take the easy path would like the extraordinary life, the big house, a great salary, a thin and toned body and a job where they get to do what interests them. But they aren't willing to make any meaningful sacrifices to get it. So they unwittingly push their dreams out of reach, and forgo their potential.

It's such a waste. By sacrificing just some of their time outside work, watching a little less TV, spending a little less time socializing, they could have radically improved their life. They had a dream life that waiting for them, just there for the taking. But as they continually neglect the pursuit of their dreams, those dreams edge out of reach, leaving a mediocre life that's comfortable, but one tenth of what it could have been. A life that's merely 'okay'.

Are you making the same mistake? Are you betraying yourself and your potential?

Here's how to tell. In the past year, how many times have you come in an hour early for work, or worked past 8pm? How many hundreds of hours have you spent voluntarily learning new skills and gaining new knowledge since you finished school/college? Has your salary doubled in the past five years? Is your job more senior than it was four years ago?

If the answers are disheartening, it's time you realized that the success to which you aspire is always going to be a pipe dream, unless you buckle down and make some sacrifices.

Hell, isn't your dream worth that sacrifice?

If your not the sort of person that is willing to make significant sacrifices to make your dream life a reality, this blog isn't really suitable for you. You're not serious about success.

If you are the sort of person who says they're willing to make sacrifices, it's time I called your bluff. What are you going to give up, in order to make your dream a reality, starting from today. How much extra time will you spend each day learning new skills and gaining new knowledge? How many extra hours will you be spending at work, to get on top of your workload, speed your delivery of results, and turn the quality of your work from 'good' to 'fantastic'?

Don't be gutless, here. A sacrifice has to made, whether you like it or not. Either you're to sacrifice the big opulent house, great salary, fit sexy body and the fantastic life, you dream of having. Or you're to sacrifice things that aren't even in the same league of importance to you, things you enjoy but that don't really matter.

You've got to sacrifice one or the other. You can't have both. You will frequently kid yourself that you can, but a quick glance at your previous attempts to have both will confirm that it's not been possible. A quick calculation of the yearly cost (in time, money, etc) of your 'enjoyable activity' will show that your 'harmless' activity seriously impacts your ability to reach your desired goal, that it slows you down significantly.

Visualize the activity you'll be cutting back or giving up, and put it side by side with your dream. Which will you choose? Which matters most? You can't have both. So which will you sacrifice?

That put things in perspective. The decision of which to sacrifice is simple and it's necessary.
So, get a piece of paper, and write down the following,

By sacrificing I'll make the following goal a reality for me:
... by the following date:
To help me achieve this, I'm going to give up the following activity/past-time/hobby:
And this one:
I'm going to reclaim the following number of hours / dollars I spend on these activities each year:
I'm going to spend this much time / money learning new skills and gaining new knowledge including the following topics that will help me reach my goal:
I'm going to spend this much extra time at work:
I will put in the extra time to turn the quality of my work from 'good' to 'fantastic' on these tasks that await me:
I'm going to volunteer to do the following tasks that will stretch my abilities and force me to grow:

I'm going to make these changes, starting right now.

If you haven't got a piece of paper in front of you with the above on it, STOP WHAT YOU'RE DOING, and get one RIGHT NOW. You need to commit yourself, on paper, to what you're going to do. A vague aspiration in your head (that you'll forget about) just won't cut it.

Pick up a pen, write the commitment. Then sign it. If you're committed to making the sacrifice, you'll be willing to sign a written commitment to make it. If not willing to write a simple commitment, the chances that you'll be willing to make the sacrifice are minimal. You'll just drift, continually sacrificing your opportunities to realize your dream, in favor of enjoyable time-wasting. But, hey, it's your life to fuck up.

If you haven't got a written commitment in front of you, within the next three minutes, I don't want you to ever return to this web site.

Understand Your Job

I've four questions for you to think about...

1. Why shouldn't your job be made redundant?
2. In what ways are you better than the person who would replace you (if you were fired)?
3. What are your key achievements in your job?
4. What have you done in the past month to materially improve your performance?

If you can't answer the questions convincingly, you deserve to be fired.

Are You Getting The Wage You Deserve?

You accepted your current job, as it was the best thing to do at the time.

Times change. Since you were hired, you've gained experience, industry knowledge and have become better at your job. The market demand for people with your skills may have changed in favor. So the economic value of the work you do - and the work you're able to do - will have changed.

Yet, I bet your salary hasn't been adjusted every year in line with the market rate for your job. Instead, everyone in your company, your division or at your seniority level, will get an x per cent rise in their base salary this year. The x is arbitrarily chosen by management. The rise they offer will almost certainly be different to the rise you could get by moving to another firm.

If your current job is not making full use of your experience, knowledge and skills, and those assets are in demand and relevant to your work, then the chances are you could get a better paying job elsewhere.

If you're going to put in your 40 or more hours at work each week, you might as well get paid the going rate for that work.

I want to caution you against being a 'loyal employee'. The world is full of good people who have been at their firm for years. They like their job, and are quite good at it. They feel loyal to their company for providing them with an income. They are nice people, but their behavior is harming them.

They don't understand that their employment is a business deal. It's a mutual agreement between self-interested parties, acting in their own interests.

Their company pays them, but it's not out of benevolence. Employees owe no 'loyalty' to their employer. Both parties should be in the deal for what's in it for them. When the deal ceases to be the best on offer, both parties should be willing to move on.

Sadly, there are millions of mugs who believe in 'company loyalty'. They are the ones who foolishly believe that the company will look after their best interests, rather than its own. They are the ones who end up earning less than the market wage, and being taken advantage of by their 'benevolent' employer, deliberately or unintentionally.

Employers don't assess the going rate for each individual job each year. It would be too much hassle. Instead, they only become aware that they're underpaying someone when that person leaves, or threatens to leave. Were they to replace the actual or potential leaver, they find that the market rate for the position is materially higher, and that if they want a person with the right skills, knowledge and experience, they'll have to raise the salary of the position.

Let's be blunt. If you're employer isn't paying you what you could get elsewhere, you should request a raise, or walk.

Now, time to get down to specifics. I want you to check the market salary for your job.

US: http://www.monster.com/
US: http://www.careerbuilder.com/
US: http://hotjobs.yahoo.com/

UK: http://www.monster.co.uk/
UK: http://www.topjobs.co.uk/
UK: http://www.jobsite.co.uk/

Do it now.

Then figure out what you should do.

Will you ask for a raise? Will you apply for another job?

If you're being paid the going rate: what skills, knowledge and experience do you need to move up to the next level?

However your salary measures up, there's something you've now got to do, and your reward will be an increase in salary.