Ross' Rules: Ride the Winning Horse

By this point, if you have not recognized that G. Glen Ross is a winner, then I question whether you should be reading this in the first place. I appreciate that you may aspire to greatness, but lacking the deductive reasoning skills to surmise, based upon previous journal entries, that yours truly is the Secretariat of the corporate world, I recommend you focus your attention on more attainable goals. Perhaps with a little work and lot of luck, someday you may be a HR manager.

Where was I? Right, I'm a winner. From the moment I kicked Lewis Ralston's butt across the playground, G. Glen's come out on top. I've got a bigger bank account and lower cholesterol count than every other member of my firm's executive team. My second and fourth homes are in neighborhoods so exclusive they don't show up on the tax registers and my executive assistant finished top of his class at Wharton. How many executives do you know that have secretaries with such strong pedigrees? That's right, none.

And while I could continue to list my possessions that top the "world's best," "world's most expensive," "world's most desirable," and "world's most exclusive" lists, I will not. Not because I wish not to bore you or make you envious, rather I simply have not the time or space to list such things.

However, what I will do is impart upon you this bit of wisdom: losers get nowhere. To make it in this world you must be, must work for and must surround yourself with winners. The company you keep, the teams you support and the employers you work for, all must share the common thread of success.

Why? Simple, winners attract success, wealth and beautiful spouses. And as I've stated before, all are essential to a life worth living. Through my career I've been astute enough to attach myself to some of the business world's most intelligent minds and successful companies. More important, I've been prescient enough to jump ship when the tides of success began shifting.

It's called success by association and in the business world it can be your most powerful ally. Success by association has the ability to overcome mediocrity, stupidity and a public university education. Success by association can gloss over race, gender and someday maybe even disability. By riding the coattails of success you will attach your name to the quality required of every executive. And while you'll probably never succeed to my extent, if you remember to surround yourself with winners, someday you'll be one too.