Here's an often-praised pathway for career success: Get a great college education at a top school, follow with a graduate degree at another fine school, learn as much as you can by working under a wonderful mentor at a top organization, keep an eye out for opportunities, and start your own company with a terrific idea. But that pathway isn't available to very many people.

Take a poll asking which leaders have the best track records, and you'll produce a list of those who have had the most written about them. That's an inaccurate perception: The best-known leaders are seldom the most accomplished ones; rather these celebrity leaders excel in gaining attention.

If you are an unrecognized leader who performs well, how can you gain the recognition and influence that you deserve?

Some people might advise hiring an expensive public relations agency, employing a ghost writer to prepare articles for prestigious publications, and taking public speaking lessons.

It's a challenge being a teacher: You must learn your subject, gain expertise in teaching, develop plans for every class, continually improve what you do, organize a room full of students, and grade lots of papers and exams.

With time, expertise and preparation improve. Teachers can find, however, that their initial enthusiasm wanes; as a result, their students may not be inspired as much as would be ideal.

Many people want to become business and organizational consultants while serving in another role. Why? People who work in such consulting have a chance to work on important questions, earn good pay, and make a positive impact on our society. The preferred pathway into consulting for most people is to go to a highly esteemed university, do well in business and organizationally related courses, and be hired into a brand name consulting firm.

Many people join large successful organizations because they are searching out opportunities for learning, promotions, and stability in a career ... especially at organizations that cherish employees and help them develop. Even people who think they might later want to own and operate businesses often value the opportunity to first learn from working at a well-run company.

As a professor I'm always surprised by the gaps that brilliant students have in their knowledge of how to be effective in practical ways. Such students have already accomplished much; after all, it takes a special kind of aptitude to do well in the most difficult areas of knowledge. Perhaps because of having that rare gift some highly intelligent people are encouraged to focus solely on the most challenging subjects.

Many people look only to gain 5 or 10 percent higher performance. When they focus on such small opportunities, vastly bigger profit sources will often be ignored. Based on working with executives around the world, I've come to realize that seeking breakthroughs needs to balance incremental improvements.

By a breakthrough, I mean a 2,000 percent solution, any method of accomplishing what your organization does now with zero-to-four percent of the current time and resources, or accomplishing an increase of 20 times in results while employing the same or fewer resources.

A well-known consumer goods company was struggling to improve profits. Each quarter, it had a harder time meeting budget. To reach those goals, huge discounts were offered to retailers to take goods they didn't need yet. The next quarter, retailers needed even larger discounts to take even more unneeded goods. This habit was taking the company down the drain.

A motorist asks a farmer for a glass of water. The farmer obliges, using a hand pump to draw water from a well. The pump handle turns close to a board, and the farmer curses as he scrapes his knuckles against it.

Motorist: "Why not move that board? It serves no purpose."

Farmer: "It's been there since my father's time. If it was good enough for him, it is good enough for me.

You see your father fall to the ground. A stranger runs to him and grabs your father's neck. Afraid that the stranger is choking your father, you pull the stranger away. Only then do you notice that the stranger has been loosening the tie around your father's neck to help him breathe better. Oops! Your action had delayed giving your father the resuscitation he needs to save his life.