Its really so easy to distinguish yourself, that its amazing.

Yet few people ever happen upon these principles of getting ahead.

Lets take a student, a junior in high school, as an example. Ive been trying to help him to improve his grades, and over the course of the last few weeks, here are some of the pointers Ive suggested, which can be generalized to anything:

(1) Arrive early. If youre the first person to arrive in class, the teacher will notice and infer that you like her, youre interested in succeeding, and you like the topic. In fact, youll benefit disproportionately by making this small, but steady gesture, day in and out.

(2) Leave late. Again, youll distinguish yourself by not rushing off to something more important. If you linger, and by this I mean for no more than 30 seconds longer than anyone else, youll be noticed.

(3) Smile at the reward source. If youre dealing with a teacher, a coach, an administrator, or the groundskeepers, practice your smiling. Theyll feel you like them, theyll be flattered, and when you need something, theyll be there for you.

(4) Dress the part. If you are college bound, look collegiate, from the teachers viewpoint, not like some soon to be, dropout.

(5) Teach yourself. Stop whining and blaming others. If it takes a half hour or an hour to cover a single page of math or chemistry, resolve to dedicate as much time as it takes. The task is still finite, and you can put it behind you, providing you do whatever it takes to get it done.

These five practices can take you far toward achieving success anywhere, in anything.

Lesson over!