7 Tips To Get Long-Term Success

Executive coach Michael Melcher shares his insights for carving out long-term success and fulfillment.

- Vinita Katara And Sachin Rajan

The career path for Stanford Graduate School of Business alum Michael Melcher has been anything but linear: He earned a BA in 1986 from Harvard College, served as a foreign service officer for the U.S. government, earned JD and MBA degrees at Stanford University, worked as an attorney with Davis Polk & Wardwell and D.E. Shaw, and was even the CEO of an internet startup focusing on immigration issues. He’s also a speaker and a writer. He’s the author of The Creative Lawyer: A Practical Guide to Authentic Professional Satisfaction and has written for several publications

Today, he helps leaders and professionals navigate career transitions as an executive coach and a partner at the firm Next Step Partners. “When I was at Stanford GSB, I had certain ideas about what my career might be,” he says. “Some of those turned out to be true, and some did not, and some I couldn’t imagine. I’d never even heard of my career in the early ’90s. And if I had heard of it, I might not have seen a direct connection between what I was doing and what I’m doing now. It illustrates how careers change, how they develop, and how much uncertainty there is.”

Melcher recently shared with an audience at Stanford GSB his new approach to managing your career and tips for achieving greater long-term success and fulfillment.

BE A STEWARD FOR YOUR CAREER