Click here for an Introduction to Sigmund Freud's Division of Mind Theory.

Now that you have identified your inner desires and faced the constraints of society, you must act. But how do you balance personal drive with the greater good? How do you execute?

The Ego: Take Your Vision And Build Your Dream

Learn

Learn as much as you can, ask questions and absorb everything. Knowledge is the tip of the iceberg. Each person has a comparative advantage: something that they specialize in. Ideally, this is what they are best at. This is the area you should focus on. How fast can you pick up new tricks? The key is to develop complementary tools that you can apply from one situation to another.

Separate Need To Know From Nice To Know

There are certain tools that you need to know like the back of your hand. There are other tools that you can access at any time to make an informed decision. Learn how to differentiate the two in order to avoid information overload.

Be Versatile And Remain Independent Of Others

Remember the Game you have been engaged in? Hope you do. Make sure that your tools can help you win. Can you upgrade them?

Open Your Blinders

Be aware of open doors beyond your field of vision. Develop a multicultural knowledge base and outlook. Whatever you do, do not be ethnocentric.

Opening up to other people is important because in the complex world of international deals and cross border agreements, you will often have to rely on foreign jurisdictions. Shutting off the line of communication will mean that when you do need foreign assistance, your call will fall on deaf ears. When George W. Bush came into office in 2001, he stated that the US was back on a path toward isolationism. He stated that he was not interested, like his predecessor Bill Clinton was, in nation building and foreign policy. He voiced his desire to get out of the Kyoto resolution despite international criticism.

His worst nightmare was realized on 9/11. On that day, his isolationist policy no longer made sense and he had to make a 180-degree shift. When he needed international support, he expected foreign governments to forget about his previous position.

Remain Determined

It is easy to lose focus and motivation. There is also nothing wrong with doubting yourself from time to time. When you put your head down on your pillow though, keep in mind that when you wake up, you can change everything based on your performance on that day. Your best performance is always yet to come.

Stay Positive

The number one rule in life is to be positive. No one should be overly optimistic. After all, a realistic look at life is key to surviving and thriving in business. However, the same way that most people prefer sun to rain, most people you meet and interact with will prefer positive individuals that brighten up a room.

Since group settings are common in business, you have no choice but to put the right foot forward and walk into the room with a positive outlook.

Change is inevitable in corporate life. Sometimes it is a technical innovation or upgrade that requires extensive training. Many experienced employees accustomed to the old technology may seek to throw in the towel and give up. This is when it is twice as important to remain positive and lead by example.

You will be seen as an agent of change and a candidate for a promotion. A reality of the business world though is that seniority is king. So no matter how quick you may be, your ride to the top could be slow. You can compensate for the lack of experience by mastering technology.

Successful people can take a negative and turn it into a positive. If someone has become a thorn in your side, take their negative energy and do something bold so that they have no choice but to change their attitude.

Negativity Breeds Negativity

If there was ever a case where negative spin came to haunt someone, perhaps it was President George W. Bush. When Bush entered the White House, he spent considerable time putting the economy down. Perhaps the economy was well on the path to recession. Perhaps he wanted to criticize the Clinton administration. Whatever it was, he felt that the economy was poor. The economy was indeed showing signs of fatigue but his role as Chief Executive requires him to remain upbeat. The same way that the Federal Reserve Chairman can influence the market, so can the President.

With his negative spin on the economy, Bush was sideswiped by the adverse economic effect of the 9/11 attacks. No one could have ever predicted the tragedy but when Bush went out afterwards and tried to convince consumers, analysts and the media that all was well with the economy, political pundits were skeptical based on his previous assertion. The lesson is simple: always be positive because it can get worse, much worse.

Stay Confident

Being positive is easier said than done for a leader. Soldiers may remain positive in war because they have a great military commander motivating them.

While confidence is key in business and sports, it is crucial in the military. Lives are at stake. Having any hint of trepidation may prove to be your undoing. Throughout the Afghanistan War, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld came across as the most confident player in the conflict. Even when facing tremendous uncertainty, he remained stalwart. Was his confidence born after 9/11?

His pedigree would suggest not. Educated at Princeton, Rumsfeld moved up the political rank throughout the Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford era. He then excelled in business as the Chairman and CEO of General Instrument Corp. and as the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Gilead Sciences, before being appointed as the head of Defense.

If you want others to have confidence in you, then you must have confidence in yourself first. Vince Lombardi said it best: "Confidence is contagious and so is lack of confidence, and a customer will recognize both."

New England Patriots backup quarterback Tom Brady is a good model to follow. When the 2001 season began, the former Michigan University Wolverine and 6th round draft pick caught the attention of many offensive players. Despite being the backup to the highest paid athlete in the league, Drew Bledsoe, Brady walked around like he owned the team. This is not to imply that he was cocky, but it signaled that he was confident in his ability and comfortable in his own skin.

His confidence reverberated within the locker room and onto the field to the extent that some players speculated how he would respond if he were at the helm of the offense. When starter Drew Bledsoe went down to injury, Brady led the team to the playoffs. In a game against the Oakland Raiders, his confidence was clear. Playing in snowy New England, Brady engineered a brilliant comeback against the favored Raiders in the second half to lead his team to the AFC Championship game.

Grace Under Fire

The quality of grace under fire will play a large role if you intend to make it to the top. Yahoo! hired Terry Semel because he was one of the few people who could keep his composure when the rug was being pulled from beneath his feet.

But perhaps no one better exemplified grace under fire than President George W. Bush after the 9/11 attacks. Cynics can claim that the event could have brought out the best in any leader, but President Bush managed to reassure the country while prescribing an effective response.

Trust

If you have faith in yourself, others will put their faith in you. This is the lesson you need to learn in business. No one will hand you the ball on Super Bowl Sunday if you doubt yourself.

The key is not to have blind confidence in anything you do but rather to determine where your comparative advantage lies in order to exploit it.

Motivation

Dream big to accomplish big. Aspiration has to do with ambition while accomplishment has more to do with execution. Between the two is motivation. But not everyone in a group, class, company or country is going to be motivated by the same thing. In business, money, success or respect may be motivating factors. The key for you is to understand what drives each person and capitalize on it.

Ambition will never bear fruit if one is not positive, but in order to realize your dream, you need to be realistic enough to motivate yourself and those around you. Some people are positive so they will need less motivation. Others are realistic and may need varying degrees of motivation. A third group will be negative and pessimistic: how do you motivate them so they do not infect the first two groups?

Many great minds fail to accomplish a goal not because they are not ambitious, but rather because they lack motivation. If you plan on waking up at 4:20pm everyday, you will soon realize that most of the day has gone by.

Even if your father can offer you the world on a silver platter, you will only achieve what you strive for on your own merit.

Execution

If the idea of taking something from concept to reality seems to reappear often in this book, it will in your future as well.

Execution is far more than the desire to get something done; it is the ability to get the job done. Anyone can wish to accomplish a goal but few can execute their ambition.

To get the job done, you must break up the goal in small steps. From there, treat it like a project that you must complete in stages. The key is to set aside ample time for each step so you do not get far behind and lose morale. However, you cannot give yourself too much time because apathy will set in.

While it is very important to manage expectations, you should also set some parameters and voice your goals. This is encouraged more in personal life, school and private business. Empty promises made by a public company can lead to dismissals because stakeholders are implicated.

In Stephen Covey's book 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, he talks about prioritizing and doing important, non-urgent matters first. This ensures that you are allocating your time to important matters but not at the last second. Every time that you are rushed, your performance will suffer.

So what happens when you execute over and over? How can one avoid being complacent or arrogant? Set your sights on radically new challenges that will add to your skill set (toolbox) and expand your knowledge base.

Timing

Timing is essential. A musician that plays off cue is a pain to listen to and will never see his or her career take off. Athletes that have no synchronicity will fail to help their team or win the competition.

In business, timing is crucial when it comes to releasing sensitive information about your company. In investments, company information can drive stock prices higher but can also cause protracted litigation.

Marketing is all about timing. Apple stages an annual convention entitled MacWorld in January, at which point the company launches new products. Many critics question the practice, as January is the slowest period of the year. Sales take a hit upon launching the product but also lose steam by the time the lucrative Christmas season comes around.

Entrepreneurship comes down to recognizing trends in the overall economy, seeing which will last and then coming up with an idea to capitalize on them. Once there, you then need to formulate a plan and execute it.

How well you time yourself will impact your career: calling people for letters of recommendation, scheduling job interviews or inquiring about job openings will always be a matter of being at the right place at the right time.

This is also applicable in school. Skipping a class where groups are formed may make the difference between going down in history as Ringo Starr or Pete Best.

Be The Consummate Professional

Greg Moore was a rising star on the Indy Car Professional racing circuit. Scheduled to race for the coveted Penske team while still with Players Forsythe, Moore never got the chance due to a fatal crash during the last race of the season at Fontana, California. Moore had an injured wrist and although some urged him not to take the risk, the proud Canadian driver could not let someone else race in his final event with the Players team.

Despite the tragic mishap that claimed his life, Moore was the consummate professional according to those that knew him best. Did Moore accurately assess the potential reward and take the appropriate risk? In hindsight, probably not. But at the time, the reward of one last race with Players was too great to pass up.

Unfortunately for you, you do not have a lucrative racing deal signed. So how can you get one?

Do Not Be Close-Minded When You Are Looking For A Job

You need not start at Goldman Sachs to end up there. This Game is more about growing in a non-linear way than moving in a straight line. Go about finding work based on what your strengths are and not based on salary, company and title.

Piece Of The Puzzle

The last thing you want to do is to step on senior employees. What you should do is find out how everyone operates in the greater picture, find a hole and fill it.

You're Not Special

No matter how great you think you are, someone can replace you. If no one can, they will change your job description and slot someone in that works with you in the position. There are always people waiting to fill the ranks and move up.

Build Step By Step

Each phase of your career will be different. So do not seek to duplicate a past experience, try to compliment it.

Understand Your Weaknesses

Superman may have been the Man of Steel, but he knew not to mess with kryptonite. Make sure you know what your kryptonite is and avoid it like the plague. Chances are that you will not have any one thing that is lethal but have many factors that could be detrimental. Understand them and take control of your development.

Know Your Audience

Know whom you are speaking to before opening your mouth. Familiarize yourself with a company before an interview. If you can, find out who will be interviewing you as well.

Leave Your Integrity Intact

Integrity entails being honest, ethical, fair and adhering to a code of conduct that you believe in.

Broadly speaking, it also means not selling out, not letting others walk all over you, speaking your mind and defending your ground but also admitting you are wrong.

Integrity is demonstrated in numerous ways.

Muhammad Ali will probably never be used as an example of humility. After all, the man that "floated like a butterfly and stung like a bee" once stated: "When you're as great as I am, it's hard to be humble." And Ali was indeed great: a three time heavyweight champion of the world, he was chosen as Sportsman Of The Century by Sports Illustrated as well as BBC Sportsman of the Century.

But Ali was always an idealistic social critic. Upon returning from the 1960 Summer Olympic Games in Rome with a gold medal, he tossed it into a river to bring attention to the racial divide in America.

At the height of his career Ali decided that his convictions were more important than boxing. He refused to enlist in the Vietnam draft and sacrificed some of the best years of his athletic career. Vilified by many, hated by some, Ali said no to the war in Vietnam. In May 1967, the World Boxing Association suspended his boxing license and revoked his title. To add insult to injury, he was sentenced to 5 years in prison for violating the Selective Service Act. He was released from prison on appeal and returned to the ring with a vengeance.

Decades later, integrity was manifested in a different form. In 2002, guitarist Wes Borland was sitting on top of the world as a member of Limp Bizkit. After several years of chart topping albums and top grossing tours, the guitarist shocked his bandmates, fans and industry executives by announcing his departure from the band. Months later he stated that he "could have probably gone on and still played the part of guitar player of Limp Bizkit, but musically I was kind of bored. If I was to continue, it would have been about the money and not about the true music, and I don't want to lie to myself, or to them or to fans of Limp Bizkit."

Perhaps that is why he shocked bandmate Fred Durst. Everything seemed rosy to the singer and as a result, Borland had no choice but to start anew.

Be Fair

In business and relationships, things must be 50-50 to last. Similar to the concept of the yin and the yang, anything else will lead to a conflict.

Be Patient

Enjoy each phase because the next one will be different. The first reason to be patient is that you should enjoy and savor what you are doing at that very moment. Leave the worrying to others. Leave excessive ambition for your dreams. In life, seize the moment and try not to look ahead too much. A career is not homogeneous but a succession of unrelated steps.

Avoid Mistakes

Another reason why being patient is good is because you tend to make mistakes when you rush. Do your research, devise a strategy and follow through.

Be Grateful

When Antowain Smith faced his former team, the Buffalo Bills, as a member of the New England Patriots, many reporters rushed to get a quote from him. They must have been expecting a brash and arrogant response. But it was not the case with the mild mannered running back. He said that he had circled the date of the game but had no animosity. After all, some of his friends were still with Buffalo and it was the Bills that gave him his first shot in the National Football League (NFL). He held no grudge. This is how you should tackle negativity and turn it around.

Be Classy

Another good example of class took place when New Orleans Saints running back Ricky Williams was traded to the Miami Dolphins in March 2002. Williams set 20 NCAA rushing records with the University of Texas Tech and was touted as one of the best athletes to enter the National Football League (NFL) draft.

You can perhaps understand why then coach of the New Orleans Saints Mike Ditka decided to trade away his entire roster of draft picks in 1999 in order to draft Williams. While he did rush for 1,000 yards in each of his seasons with New Orleans, Williams was an unmitigated disappointment.

At the press conference after the deal with Miami, Williams said all the right things. He could have lashed out at the Saints, at Ditka and at his teammates but he chose the high road. By 2002, Williams was more mature and a better player. He was happy to be in Miami, but he would miss New Orleans. After three years of adjustment, Williams understood the league and the media. Best of all, he avoided any talk about renegotiating his contract.

On a side note, his original contract was negotiated by a representative of a sports management company owned by rapper Master P. The contract was laced with incentives at a very low base salary. No surprise then that Williams hired a new agent, powerhouse Leigh Steinberg, to rework the contract going into the 2002 season.

With his comments, it was clear that Williams understood "the NFL as a business, as a game, as a way to pay the bills." This is how you should view your career: it is a Game, it is a business and a way to pay the bills.

Have A Vision

Whatever you do, understand that you need to have an idea of where to go before you put the key in the ignition. While you should not carve in stone a goal that you cannot control, you should seek to lay down the foundation to your dream house once you are prepared to get serious. But a house is never easy to construct; you can lay down a foundation made up of quicksand or you can pour the concrete, wait for it to harden and then build up.

Be Committed To Excellence

You cannot expect those around you to give their all if you do not. So never settle for anything but the best. Vince Lombardi applied this to sports as he did to life: "The quality of a person's life is in direct proportion to their commitment to excellence, regardless of their chosen field of endeavor."

More on Sigmund Freud's Id, Ego and Superego Division of Mind theory.