Lady Gaga's Guide to Career Success

Lady Gaga has much to teach you about approaching your career in a way that leads to wild, undeserved success. The reason you might be unemployed, underemployed, or unsatisfied in your career is likely because you are following 20th-century ~~wisdom~~ rules about getting ahead. They are primarily linear, based on the assumption that you work for success you finally deserve. Wrong. Success in the 21st-century results from what can be interpreted as the Lady Gaga Career Guide:

Take risks, lots of them, but in a safe manner by framing them in time capsules with alternatives if they don't work out. Lady Gaga's father Joseph Germanotta allowed her to drop out of NYU's Tisch School for the Arts and focus on becoming a performance artist. The time frame was one year. That was as long as he would pay her rent. If the dream didn't become reality she agreed to return to Tisch.

Carefully select role models, studying them for what you need to learn about your line of work. Lady Gaga deconstructed David Bowie, Queen, Michael Jackson, Madonna, and Donatella Versace. The challenge is not to become so impressed by masters in your field that you slavishly imitate and don't find your own imprint.

Aim big. Lady Gaga noted, "I don't want to sound presumptuous, but I've made it my goal to revolutionise [sic] pop music." Failure is okay. In fact, putting disasters in play is increasingly considered a necessary rite of passage.