There are four keys to success in making yourself more valuable, marketing yourself more effectively, and moving yourself ahead more rapidly in your career: specialization, differentiation, segmentation, and concentration.

1. Specialization is your ability to channel your talents and abilities into a vital area that is of measurable value to your company or your customers. Your selection of an area of specialization is a critical determinant of your long-term success. What is yours?
2. Differentiation is how you set yourself apart from others on the basis of your superior performance in one or more areas. Your ability to differentiate yourself on the basis of high-quality work probably is the most important single focal point of your career. Just as a company must have an area of excellence or competitive advantage to survive and thrive, you must have at least one as well. What is it? If your customers and coworkers were asked, "What is his or her area of excellence?" what would they say about you? In what part of your work are you outstanding? What do you do better than anyone else? Where do you perform at a high level of effectiveness?
   If you do not yet have an area of excellence, you must begin immediately to develop one. Consider both your abilities and your company's or your customers' needs. What should it be? What could it be? What is your plan to become outstanding at what you do? And how will you measure your level of excellence in a particular area of knowledge or skill? This measure becomes your standard of performance, your focal point. This is where you mark the "X" in your career. This is where you focus your attention.
   Becoming excellent in a critical skill area can do more to advance you in your career than perhaps any other decision you make or action you take.
   
3. Segmentation is the ability to determine the people and organizations in your work life that can most benefit the fastest from your performance in a particular area. In segmentation, you define your most important customer clearly and then resolve to satisfy that particular customer better than anyone else.
   Often, you can change the entire direction of your business or your career by changing the definition of the customer you are going to focus on in the future.
4. Concentration is your ability to focus single-mindedly on serving your specific market segment with products and services that are excellent for that individual or organization.
   These four strategies—specialization, differentiation, segmentation, and concentration—are the essential focal points for achieving extraordinary results in your company and in your career.
   Ask yourself, "What one skill, if you developed it and did it in an excellent fashion, would have the greatest positive impact on your career?" Whatever your answer to that question, write it down as a goal, set a deadline, make a plan, and begin working on developing yourself in that area until you master it. This is the real key to career success.