How to Play the Young & Ambitious Card

Do you want to experience career success at a young age?

Do you want to be the youngest person at your office? You want to make your coworkers scratch their heads because you're getting paid the same as them at half their age with a fraction of their education? You want investors and established business people to open their checkbooks to you even though your track record in business is pretty much non-existent? Well, you need to learn how to play the young and ambitious card. 

Playing the young and ambitious card doesn't mean you don't work hard or that you don't educate yourself, it just means that you take the path of least resistance to a successful career. 

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In our society, we see all these young people, recent college grads, and unemployed "victims" of the economy who could drastically change their position in life if they shifted their mindset and changed their practices just a little. With no college degree, I had the following jobs before I turned 25 because of my expertise in playing the young and ambitious card: mortgage broker, corporate advertising account executive, marketing director of an entertainment company, nightclub marketing manager, personal & business banker.

Warning: Using these 13 methods and mindsets to play the young and ambitious card will get you jobs you don't deserve or bring you deals that are too big for you. So be prepared to grow, adapt and learn (fast!) to rise to the challenge or you risk damaging your reputation.

Be Very Coachable

The one thing everyone hates is a rookie who thinks they know it all. Now that I'm a little older (I am writing this article at the wise old age of 26, LOL!) I sometimes find myself on the opposite side of a table of a person playing the young and ambitious card. With that perspective, I can tell you that seeming coachable is more important than seeming smart. Emphasize that you are very coachable, eager, and capable of learning mastery of whatever business you are in. If you find someone who is successful and can be a key to your advancement, stroke their ego a little by asking them to mentor you because you know that they are 'the best in the business' (Tell them this). Make sure in your interviews or meetings you inform people that you are coachable.

Personality

Young and ambitious people make an electric first impression. Here's the trick to this: get your personality out early and often during the first meeting or interview. Obviously, practice a little common sense though. If your interviewer is super serious, don't be a goofball.
Practice Personality Mirroring: Successful people who've arrived in life will a lot of times show favor and give great opportunities to someone who reminds them of themselves when they were younger. This is a very powerful dynamic that you can use to your advantage. When you meet someone like this, carefully observe the unique aspects of their personality and then mirror these things back to them.

Have a B.E.H.A.G

Have a Big Hairy Audacious Goal; here are a few examples
• Being a millionaire by a young age
• Writing a bestselling book
• Getting on TV or being recognized for a spectacular achievement
• Owning a successful business
Remember that people usually overestimate what they can do in one year, but underestimate what they can do in 5 or 10 years. So set a spectacular 5 or 10-year goal and tell everyone you meet about it.

Read the Classics

Go to a bookstore or library and pick up some of the classic books on business and success (Or better yet, get them as audiobooks!) Here are a few I recommend...
• Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill
• The Art of the Deal by Donald Trump
• Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki
• Good to Great by Jim Collins
• The 4-Hour Work Week by Tim Ferriss
The majority of genuinely successful people credit these kinds of books as being a major influence. By reading them, you will begin to instill a mindset that will attract success to you at a young age.

Quote Stuff

From each book you read, pick out at least one insightful line to quote. This is actually one of the most powerful things you can do to impress people; it shows you are coachable, have your mindset in the right place, are actively improving yourself, and are wise. Here are a few of my favorite quotes, feel free to steal them!

"What the mind can conceive & believe it can achieve"
Napoleon Hill
"You are more likely to die of indigestion of too much opportunity than starvation of too little," & "Good is the enemy of great."
Jim Collins, Good to Great
- "When making decisions I listen first to my gut instinct, then I get everyone's opinion on the matter who I respect. Then I mentally leave the decision. Don't think about it for hours or days. Give my subconscious the opportunity to analyze the decision. Then when I am in a clear state of mind I return to the decision and go with whatever my gut instinct is." - Paraphrasing the billionaire decision-making technique by Donald Trump

"I count him braver who overcomes his desires than him who conquers his enemies; for the hardest victory is over self."
Aristotle

"I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times... It's not the daily increase but daily decrease. Hack away at the unessential." - Bruce Lee

Using quotes is an easy thing to do that makes you seem significantly smarter (Along with actually making you genuinely smarter!). I also recommend the website www.BrainyQoute.com.

Use "Sir" or "Ma'am"

A simple way of giving yourself an edge in your career and business is to use the phrases "Sir" or "Ma'am." These phrases are a simple, yet powerful way of showing respect to other people and demonstrate yourself as a high-value person. What's interesting is that when you use these phrases, people will frequently refer back to you as either sir or ma'am, which communicates that they see you as a higher status individual. It's also a good idea to refer to people from time to time as Mr. and Ms. with their last names. While it carries a little formality, people have a great affinity for hearing their last name in this way.

Dress the Part

This is very, very important; make it a point to be the very best dressed person in the office. It's said that you should dress for the job you want, not the job you have. I'm going to take this a step further and say dress like your boss's boss. I recommend hitting Express or Forever21 and getting several of the sharpest professional outfits you can find.

For Gentlemen: a few tips to look extra sharp:
• Learn the Double Windsor knot. This is the robust, manly looking necktie knot that you see on sportscasters.
• A lot of times you will look great in a suit jacket off the rack, but make sure you get your suit pants tailored to the correct length of your legs. Your pants should not bunch up around your ankles because they are too long.
• Buy a few cufflinks shirts and get some cufflinks for them.
• Buy a decent-looking watch – definitely not something with a LED screen.
• Iron your shirts.
• Make sure to get shirts with collar stays.
• Buy a couple of pairs of decent looking shoes and then take care of them. Dress shoes are kind of like a Japanese car; if you maintain them, they will last a long time and provide excellent service. Make sure to wash (I just use water & soap) and shine your shoes at least once a month.
• Get your gig-line straight. This means that if you are wearing a tucked-in button-down shirt, the buttons line up with the zipper of your pants (photo).

For Ladies: Well, women's fashion is a world of its own that I am not an expert on, but here are a few pointers
• Dress as stylishly as you can without it being a distraction at work.
• Pick up some nice lady suits.
• Forever21 and Express are your best friends.
• Buy a nice watch - in general men have more discriminating tastes in watches than ladies, so it's a great way to make yourself stand out.

Practice Power Body Language

• Confident Stride - As you walk; inhale deeply so that your chest rises slightly. Move your shoulders back. Also, slow down your walk some, feel your center of gravity and visualize yourself gliding.
• Room Entry - When you walk into a room, stand in or near the doorway for a moment and survey the scene. Most people, when entering a room, will march directly over to a bar, table, or whatever. This makes you stand out and commands attention.
• Take up Space – Keep your legs spread (just for gentlemen!), keep your shoulders back with your arms spread out if you are going to put your hands together.
• Mirroring - This is a body language technique where you mirror the body language of the person you are interacting with. If they put their hands on the table, put your hands on the table. If they rest their elbow on their seat, rest your elbow on your seat. Mirroring should be used with strategic timing though, do not mirror them 100% of the time. Mirror them to build rapport when they say something you like.
• Using your hands – The power position for your hands, while sitting at a table, is together with your fingertips touching (photo).
• Upper Back Pat – In more social settings, as you are passing by a friend or joining a conversation circle, lightly pat your friend on the upper back or shoulder. This is a casual way of showing affection that also shows your dominance. Think of a proud dog owner lightly caressing the back of his noble hound. Make sure there is some verbal communication to go along with this. This is more for social situations and less for the office.

Ready. Fire. Aim (NOT Ready. Aim. Fire)

This is the opposite of what people describe as analysis paralysis; when you embark on a new endeavor, you focus on action, making progress, and resist the temptation to over-plan, over-analyze, and second guess. The quintessential example of this is the entrepreneur who gets a good idea for a business, determines (through brief research or experience) it's a sound idea, and then launches a business and starts getting customers. Contrast this with the entrepreneur who gets a good idea, spends a week writing a mission statement, creates a 50-page business plan, creates a monster spreadsheet of financial projections for the next 5 years, hires consultants to educate him about the target market, then spends 2 years trying to raise venture capital. Now there are times to take the long and analytical route, but ready-fire-aim is a winner's mentality.

Embrace Your Risk Tolerance

As a young, ambitious person, risk is your friend. At your age, you could try something completely crazy, experience epic failure, go broke, declare bankruptcy, ruin your credit and then rebuild your whole life and experience the American dream. In fact, you could go through epic failure multiple times and still bounce back to greatness and accomplishment. Remember, before Donald Trump had a successful TV show and a global real estate empire during his midlife he was almost completely ruined by hundreds of millions of dollars in personally guaranteed debt, Ray Croc acquired the very first Mcdonalds restaurant in his late 50s and Hugh Hefner had 7 Playboy bunny girlfriends while in his seventies.

Act As If

Strike a balance between the coachable attitude of an apprentice and showing some cockiness. Success and confidence have a symbiotic relationship with each other. Try to place yourself in the mindset of a person that has already accomplished what your vision is for your life.

Show Integrity

While you are pursuing success with passion, you face the risk of sacrificing your ethics for an easy gain here or there. This is the most serious risk you face while young and ambitious. Success is sure to come to the person who can find a balance of ambition, passion, and integrity.

Focus on Creating Value

A lot of young people think success is about making money by being smarter or working harder than everyone else unless you're the kind of person that wants to live a rollercoaster life of sporadic moments of happiness that kind of mindset doesn't lead to success. The mindset of a winner is someone who looks to create value in the world.