Stedman Graham lectures and conducts seminars for businesses and organizations around the country. He has authored 10 books, including two New York Times bestsellers, You Can Make It Happen: A Nine-Step Plan for Success and Teens Can Make It Happen: Nine Steps to Success. Move Without the Ball is a collection of principles that teaches students that sports are a part of life, not life itself. Stedman Graham teaches that in the 21st century your talent and skills above all else will define your value. Here are some of his tips about how to achieve corporate success.

• Make yourself valuable by having a passion for what you're doing as opposed to just trying to get a job. Hopefully you've prepared by aligning your college courses with your career interests. You also hopefully had some prior work experience and did some research around your passions. This is what will separate you from your competition and will make you a valued member of the organization.

• You can increase your job security by knowing the business that you're working for, knowing the business and organization inside and out – this will keep you securely employed.

• Networking and attending company events are very important because your success in your company is going to be about the relationships that you build. Many times people have to like you before they promote you, so if you can find ways to increase your social network, professional network and build good relationships, that's going to give you a huge edge.

• The first three months on your new job and your first evaluation are very important. During your introductory period you will want to create the kind of image you want others to have of you. If you can create an impact during the first three months it gives people the opportunity to evaluate you in a positive light.

• A "standout employee" is one who has more energy than anyone else, who is focused and knows how to get things done!

• To make a good first impression you should be interested in the work you do and be able to execute and understand the company's big picture. This will give you a vision of your possibilities. Be results oriented, and interested in the work that you do. Build good relationships, be results oriented, and above all be positive.

• Mistakes happen. You handle mistakes by telling the truth. Truth and trust are two of the most important things that you can bring to your job. People can teach you the business, but if people don't trust you, you'll never get to the next level. You always want to get better, to get beyond your failures. When you are moving toward a vision bigger than yourself, you're always going to stay in the game.

• Moving from the classroom to the work world entails a big change. Being able to get knowledge about your industry and reading as much as you can about the world of work and things that pertain to that particular job will help with the change.

• As a "newbie" on my first job I learned some key lessons. I learned that I needed to be consistent, to develop some consistency in what I was doing – not do things that I wanted to do. I was a basketball player in the European pro league for a number of years, served in the Army, and then I worked in the prison system. I realized that I had to stop trying to do what I wanted to do and to serve the needs of the organization that I was working with. This is one of the key elements to success at the beginning. You need to figure out how you can be helpful to the organization versus advancing your own agenda. Do the work that's required. And if you create excellence in the work, you'll always get to the next step. Success is a series of small steps. The more steps you complete, the more success you have.