It's not every person who can be satisfied by just hanging around in their same old job. Some of us folks are continually driven to seek more and better situations for ourselves. So how do you speed your trek up the ladder of success? What are the secrets to upward mobility? How can an ordinary person get extraordinary results, especially when there are forces that seem to be working against you?

I'll give you some tips that may help you up that ladder of success. These principles are tried and true strategies that you can accomplish yourself, and that may help to open up the ladder above you.

• First and foremost, be good at what you do. Work results stand for themselves and quality will reap success faster than volume will. It's never enough just to get the job done. Get it done right and make things easier for those who follow up on you. Shoddy work will hold you out of the game.

• Make it known to your bosses that you consider making them successful as part of your job description. If your boss wants some improvement in income and status, then it's in his or her best interest to serve you. Leaders of employees are motivated by success just like everyone else. Show your bosses how you can make life better for them.

• Be a leader yourself. Be the "go-to source." Make it your business to know where and how to get answers. Over time, your status within the workplace will naturally upgrade itself if people are seeking solutions from you.

• Ignore workplace politics. This can be hard sometimes but it's something you must do. If you work in a place where all promotions are based on the status of cliques and buddies, then you may need to seek another job. On-the-job performance, quality of work, adherence to schedules, availability for extra work -- these are the things that will set you apart. Focus on the principles of job quality and leave the game playing to those who will wreck themselves with it.
  

• Stand out. The story goes, that a fellow working on a construction crew wanted to move up to supervise his own crew, so he decided to make that a reality. All the other workers in his crew wore white T-shirts, so the fellow in the story chose to wear red T-shirts. Every day this fellow was the first guy on the job and the last guy to leave the site, and all through the day you could see his red shirt moving about the construction site. When the time finally came that the business owner was ready to form another job crew, he asked the red-shirted fellow if he'd take the position of supervisor. The red-shirted man accepted the job, and then asked why he was considered for the position when he had no formal schooling or experience for a leadership position. The boss told him that decision had been simple to make. He told that red-shirted man, "It's because you stand out."