The Climb – Part I: Before You Read

I strongly debated on whether or not I wanted to post this guide. After a long period of contemplation about how it would affect the Autonomi brand image, the message it portrays, and how I anticipate the public to respond, I decided to move forward and put this up for the world to see.

I originally wrote this piece as part of a previous venture in the self-improvement community. At that time, I’d realized that there is an epidemic of misinformation regarding how things work, and what people are actually doing on a day-to-day basis to improve their position in their careers. The vast majority of what you find through standard research are surface level “tips-and-tricks” that mean nothing, and the content that does go deeper has been modified to ensure that readers do not get offended.

In this series, I have sacrificed nothing. A lot of what you will see in the following pages can easily be regarded as sociopathic, manipulative, or otherwise toxic in nature. The fact of the matter is that in all but a vanishingly small percent of organizations, that is the game. I have written this series with one and only one goal in mind: to be as real as it gets about what you need pay attention to and the actions you need to take to climb the corporate ladder.

Let me the first to say that I do not condone the way that the average hierarchical company operates. In fact, I despise it so much that I started Autonomi to actively combat the situations and sociological frameworks you will read about in following sections. It is the very structure and dynamics that you are about to learn about that inspired me to leave the corporate world and dedicate myself to exposing and transforming the way that businesses operate at both a systemic and interpersonal level.

The information I have laid out here is powerful. Quite frankly, it’s the elephant in the room about the workplace that we have all chosen to either ignore, or accept as a “necessary evil” that comes with working in the corporate world. Many people who read what is to come will experience a cognitive dissonance so intense that they will attack both the arguments I’ve made and my persona with visceral ferocity. To say that this breakdown is polarizing is an understatement.

I wrote this piece for an extremely specific person: the ambitious young professional who is ready to start their journey toward financial and personal achievement. The individual who is “talented” and knows it. The one who was sold on a dream that they very quickly realized was not reality. The forward-thinking individual that forms their own opinions. Who doesn’t understand how people cannot see what they see so clearly, and who was blindsided by the reality of what it means to be a “successful young adult” by society’s standards.

If that’s you, I am very excited that you have found this piece, as it is going to help you immensely in the pursuit of your goals. Although I’d be remiss if not to say that if you are unwilling to play the game as I have laid out here, you may need to get more creative with how to earn your living.

If that isn’t you, I look forward to our upcoming debates.

The truth isn’t always pleasant, and it’s time that we did something about the uncomfortable truth of how power and status work in our society. That is why I have released this writing. If reading this offends you and you are in a position of power within your organization to do something about it, good. I sincerely hope that once you calm down you will look into our service offerings, because when I say we are trying to make “working” better for everybody. I mean it.

Time to rip off the band-aid and expose the corporate world for what it is.