From doorman to board room -Elizabeth Garone

• 

Improvise your way to success…

Leading others? You’ll need to force yourself outside your comfort zone, says Fred Cook, chief executive officer of public relations firm GolinHarris. Cook knows a little something about that personal challenge. While he now heads a firm with about 50 offices worldwide, Cook’s previous jobs include: record executive, Italian faux leather salesman, junior high substitute teacher in an inner-city, cross-country tour guide, cabin boy on a Norwegian tanker and doorman at a four-star hotel.
An eclectic mix, yes. But the best time to take chances is early in your career, Cook said.
“When you reach the top, everything you say and do will be scrutinised by the press and the public,” said Cook, who recently penned Improvise: Unconventional Career Advice from an Unlikely CEO. “Luckily, on the way up, nobody pays much attention, which allows those of us who lack the standard business prerequisites to improvise.”
For Cook, savvy improvisation helped him land an early job as a tour guide. First, he crafted an interesting and intriguing resume which carefully reshaped his exploits “as a cabin boy, doorman and chauffeur,” he said. “I packed my suitcase with a dozen guidebooks about stops on our trip that I’d never visited. I discovered that with a little preparation and a lot of creativity, I could confidently lead people through unfamiliar territory.”
For Cook, improvising is about “creating something special from whatever ordinary ingredients happen to be available”.
This should be a mandatory business skill — no matter what the career stage. “When technology, economics, and politics change as often as Facebook profiles, being president of a company or a country is a lot like being a tour guide who doesn't know exactly where he’s going,” he offered. (Image credit: Fred Cook and Logan Futej)

Culled from Yahoo Celebrity