How Did This Happen. How Office Politics Can Impact a Career

Are brains enough for you to be successful in Corporate America? Can you keep your head down, do your work, and have a long career with a Fortune 100 company? I thought those were the rules for Corporate America. I came from an underprivileged background, growing up in a single family home in Puerto Rico until my mother remarried, and my parents were thrown out of their home. They decided to sell everything and go back to Pennsylvania to pursue the American Dream. At the age of five, I remember sleeping on a mattress in a small apartment and eating oatmeal every day for a year for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.It was in that moment that I decided that I wanted more than this, and the only way to possibly get out was through an education. I worked hard, learning English and Spanish at the same time, and never taking a break from studying. It paid off . . . so I thought. I had my choice of colleges, and was the first person in my family in the US to go to a top school. I chose the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. Graduating from Wharton, I had over one hundred interviews and my pick of jobs. I was on top of the world.I spent almost five years in forensic accounting working with Fortune 100 companies before going full-time to the Stern School of Business for my MBA. I thought I was unstoppable! Hard work . . . simple formula, right? Well, not really. I joined Pfizer Inc., the number one pharmaceutical company in the world, and I slowly started to unde...