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Entertainment celebrity figure Anna Nicole Smith’s face and life has been posted, literally and figuratively, all over the media outlets in recent weeks. This is due to her unexpected early death and the disagreement by “loved ones” over who could take custody of her body for burial purposes. Perhaps you only knew a tiny bit about Smith before such as she was once featured on the cover of Playboy magazine, modeled Guess jeans or that she had been widowed by a wealthy older husband. And now you probably know more about her— whether you wanted to or not (that is if you have a running television in your home that’s on a lot.)

So what lesson can you possibly learn from the Smith coverage or Smith herself that will help you in your career and at work?

What you can learn from Smith is the traits of “perseverance” and “assertiveness” to use at work and in your career and life. You also can learn about “focus” and “goal-setting”.

Smith had a plan for her life that she focused on and persevered toward attaining. She started life as, to put it simply, nobody that anyone had ever heard of. She lived her childhood, teen years and early twenties in a small southern U.S. town. She didn’t particularly have any great education and she was no more of a natural genius than you or I. Her appearance was typically average back then. And her home life was perhaps a little on the dysfunctional side of the “average dream family” but not newsworthy.

But Smith wanted to achieve celebrity status and to emulate her idol Marilyn Monroe through becoming an actress and publicly-known and photographed figure. (Whether you or I think emulating Marilyn Monroe is something to strive for in life is irrelevant. But it was one of Smith’s goals.)

In addition, we know from her well-publicized court case of the past decade that Smith also wanted the share of an estate inheritance she believed she was entitled to as a living spouse to her late husband.

You may agree or disagree with how Smith chose to live her life and what goals and personal and career opportunities she aspired toward. But you can’t argue that she didn’t assert herself and persist when it came to trying to reach her career and life aspirations. She never sat back and waited for someone to bring opportunity to her. She assertively went after creating opportunities for herself.

You will never see an interview of Smith where she is lamenting aloud with phrases like “why me”, “why did they pick her and not me” or “life isn’t fair”. She worked within her means and abilities and knowledge while continuously growing and learning.

Smith never sat back and waited for someone to come to her defense of her opinions. She voiced them. Nor did she wait for other people to set goals for her or to put in motion the steps to reach those goals. She definitely wasn’t helpless. And she didn’t sit still. That’s why she IS a “household name” to many people (like her or not).

Smith was watchful for and open to opportunity. She grabbed hold of some of the business opportunities that did come her way. She took calculated risks to achieve her business and personal life goals. Sometimes she failed—even publicly. But that didn’t stop her from getting up and trying again. Sometimes she had more people, even strangers, saying negative things about her than positive things. That didn’t stop her from striving for her career and life aspirations either. Smith was persistent.

And Smith was assertive. She made it a point to reach out and network with people she wanted to know or that could assist her with her career goals. Sometimes she was successful; sometimes she wasn’t. She networked. She didn’t live and work “in a vacuum.” And she did meet people who wanted to work with her or hire her.

Some people have casually compared Smith’s life to a “train wreck”, suggesting it was all over the place and out of control.

But take a closer look. When it came to her aspirations and goals, it wasn’t really…

Ultimately, Smith was thoughtful about her life, business and career goals: She planned them; she planned how to reach them; she focused on her plan and goals; she implemented and followed the plan; she persisted in trying to achieve those goals; and she asserted herself to get there. And when something unexpected happened in her life, she acknowledged it and either worked it into the plan or moved onward. 

She never quit on trying to achieve the inheritance settlement she thought she was entitled to (in spite of all the legal and judicial hoops she had to jump through and do so publicly). She never stopped trying to emulate Marilyn Monroe. She never shied away from publicity, photographers and autograph-seeking fans in her quest to be a celebrity, even when some of those appearances didn’t place her in the light she originally planned for herself.

Smith didn’t always achieve all of her goals but she did some. And guess what…as I already said earlier Smith is not even newsworthy. Smith was just an ordinary person like many of us—born and raised in an ordinary family with no particular advantage that gave her a leg up toward her goals.

If you take nothing else useful away from her story, take this and use it in your career:

1) Remember that sometimes it does take assertiveness to reach your business and career goals (whether you’re naturally an assertive person or not). You can keep your nose to the grindstone (or desk) and do an A+ job; but that doesn’t mean anyone will notice if you don’t step up and point it out and ask for what you want and need in your career and workplace. And you can wish that you’ll be better at X or get called on to do Y at work or in your association, etc., but wishes don’t happen sometimes when you don’t assert yourself. Being expectant or hopeful is not being assertive (not that the former are bad things because they’re not).

2) It takes flexibility to reach your career and workplace aspirations and goals. You have to be open to opportunities, recognize them, evaluate them and purposely choose to participate in or disregard them. And you have to realize unexpected things will happen—popping right into your well-conceived plan—and be prepared to make some turns or changes in your plans and goals.

3)  It takes planning and thoughtfulness to reach your career and workplace aspirations. It takes focus. It takes persistence. And it most of all it takes action–by you!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 7th, 2007 at 10:46 pm and is filed under Goal Setting. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.