1. Take 100% responsibility for your life and your actions

Big business can't hide at home after a mistake. Google doesn't ship a bad product and shut down. They own it and get the job done.

You're at that job because you chose it. You live where you live because you stood there. Everything that happens to you was created by you. Not your momma, your boss, your circumstance or your neighborhood. Accept it. Now change it.

2. Always look for opportunities

Opportunities are everywhere — including the job you avoid looking at. Can you create a solution that cuts cost, helps employees, helps customers?

At my resource center I built a procedure that put every emergency answer in one folder. Nobody told me to do it. I emailed the whole department when it was done. Bosses implement without waiting for approval. Less than a year later I was promoted.

Find the problems. Then create the opportunities.

3. Up your integrity

This should really be number one. Start doing what you say. A big part of integrity is saying no — if you don't have the time, don't commit. Your word is all you have.

4. Start your self-development strategies

Become a morning person. Get acquainted with a journal and start writing goals.

5. Focus on growth

Financial, spiritual, economic, mental. Maximize the time you spend on things that raise your skill and your value. Big business tracks it with spreadsheets, graphs and numbers — you should too. Map your progress with projects.

Employees worry about finishing tasks on time to get paid and not get fired. Owners worry about keeping a steady stream of orders and projects flowing to keep the company running.

6. Think long term

Find the one thing you are good at that has value to the company — something that can be packaged and sold back to them for profit or monthly income.

7. Manage time

80/20 rule. You don't need to break your back if you work smarter. Allocate your time like a boss, get things done, no excuses.

8. Reframe the exchange

You are adding value to an organization, not selling hours on a clock.

9. Keep operating like the owner

Every day you run yourself like a company, the job becomes training and the paycheck becomes capital. That is the whole game.