How to Keep Your Dream Job

 1. Live closer to your workplace.

 2. Befriend and know about the children of your office manager/secretary. (Understand that I don't say this to make the secretary feel better. The secretary in my office gave me advice on which airports to use, where the cheap buses were--and if  I could the ball rolling by listening to a story about her daughter's Peace Corps experience, which was fascinating by the way, then all the better. It makes me wish I had talked to her double the amount of time that I did.)

3. Get to know the janitor and maintenance staff (You'll be a better worker if all your stuff is working, particularly *every* lightbulb. Brightness is key to being alert and focused.)

4. Use a desktop computer and a good keyboard.

 5. Take a walk and get sunlight every day at lunch.

6. Join a gym. Work out regularly.

7. Aggressively network and cultivate relationships with people in your office over coffee/beer/lunch or any common activity that they or their family enjoy:
  Ask:
What's your background?
How's your family?
How'd you get into this job?
Made any major decisions lately? (Warren Buffett's wife always asked this to people she met; it was part of her remarkable ability to get to understand people at their core very quickly.)

8. Find two or three solid mentors, whom you look up to.

 9. Remember people's birthdays (you can find them on Facebook). Leave at least a physical note; take them out to lunch if you can. Bring a simple gift.

10. Get info on using the fax/scanner/copier on the first day.

11. Bring your own nutritional snacks, meals, and drinks for work so that you can make yourself at home as soon as possible.

12. Get there ten minutes early.

13. Read things in paper form whenever possible; get away from the screen! Be human.

14. Know your role and why you matter to the operation: if this is unclear, be assertive in finding someone who can clarify; trade publications and choice Twitter feeds/podcasts are often better explanations for the societal role of your vocation than people in the office. However, they should never be a substitute to getting working definitions or explanations from people you work with.

15. Start betting pools in the office.

16. Go on a monthly adventure.

17. Get a good look at the stars every two weeks. And have a conversation with someone you care about while you're doing it.

 Remember what the renowned political scientist and economist Robert Putnam says: "Social networks are a kind of capital."

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