Get On The Short List.

Today's Marketing Cookie is about proving yourself.

My mother once told me, "If you work beyond what you're being paid, you will one day be paid beyond your work." Think about it.

When I was in college, I struggled to find any kind of work whatsoever. One day, a guy named "Dan," driving a tricked-out pickup truck with the word "Intruder" painted on the side, came on campus looking for some strong, able-bodied workers. He was clearing some land and wanted a few grunts to lift the heavy logs and stumps into the back of his truck. Naturally, he selected the biggest, strongest guys he could find.

While I was certainly eager and even attempted to persuade the man that I wouldn't let him down, I did not possess the obvious bulk and muscle my peers could offer. In short, I was excluded from the opportunity. I stood there, in my wimpy form, watching the guys pile into the back of his truck and speed away. Dejected, I began walking back to the dorm. Before I finally reached the front steps of my dorm, the pickup truck screeched up behind me and a voice called out, "Hey kid, get in." I jumped in the back of the truck and didn't even look around to make sure he was talking to me.

When we arrived on the job site, I put everything I had into the task. I was practically running back and forth between the clearing and his truck. What I lacked in muscle, I made up for with enthusiasm. As had been suspected, I wasn't able to lift the biggest logs like my peers, but I held my own by kicking, pushing, rolling, and hoisting them along with every ounce of energy I had.

The air was dead that day and the sun was in full blaze. After we had loaded and unloaded the truck three or four times, some of the "big guys" had already started to complain about how tired they were. We were all tired. There's no denying it, but I needed the work and money so badly, I reached down for something extra and kept on moving. When we had finished out the day and were being paid, Dan slapped me on the back saying, "You have a lot of energy, kid. Good job."

The next time Dan came around looking for workers, I was one of the first guys he picked to get in the truck. There was another guy in our group who was energetic like me, but he was also really strong. When Dan only needed one or two guys, he would always choose Jason over me. Until Jason got a girlfriend. Then suddenly, Jason was always "too busy" and I had finally become Dan's first call. Over the next year or two, Dan had me working nearly full time doing odd jobs for him all over Rockland County.

Four months after my wife and I were first married, Dan had learned of a caretaker position at a local synagogue. He knew them well and put in a strong recommendation for me. It would be my first full-time position, and it provided living quarters for my new family above the Hebrew School. This is where our first daughter was born, and I thought it would be fitting that her middle name be "Danielle," after the man who gave me my first opportunity to prove myself. Her name is a constant reminder of how I came up from nothing and worked for everything.

Whether you've been formally trained and groomed for the position you have, or you're an upstart with little more to offer than enthusiasm, you can still find a way to stand out, go the extra mile, and put in that little extra something. Do more than is expected, work your way onto the short list, and perhaps it will be as today's fortune says, "You are next in line for promotion."