Once by chance my low wall cubicle was moved to a high traffic corner people tended to stop and have short conversations at, and I suddenly found frequent chances to join in. I also put a public candy dish on my desk. In eighteen months I went from a pm to a division head (it was a small company). Having never been a coffee drinker, I had never realized how much work and career building is done not at the desk but in office hallways.

The most instructive lesson came years later, when my profitable division was sold out from under me to fund another division with great potential that was hemorrhaging cash. Left me scratching my head for a long time.