If you were to survey 100 six and seven-figure entrepreneurs, I'm almost positive that over 85% of them would say that among their secret weapons to success, includes taking time away from working in their business to spend time on personal development.

I can recall when I was an employee and the company I worked for made it part of our goals and performance appraisal to spend a specific amount of time each year to grow ourselves personally.

According to a recent government study approximately 2.4 million college graduates are unemployed. Records show that this is the highest unemployment rate for people with a bachelors degree or higher since 1970. This is quite discouraging for many college graduates who are taught that the key to success & obtaining a good job depends on receiving a college education. I’m certainly not undermining the importance of a college degree & I would encourage any young person to pursue some form of higher education. However, I am suggesting that a college degree is NOT ENOUGH. To thrive in this economy, there are certain skills required, and unfortunately the traditional education system is not adequately providing our children with these skills. Here are some of the critical skills that are often overlooked:

Willie Sutton, the prolific 1930’s U.S. bank robber, who some have estimated pilfered over $2 million during his 40 year criminal career, was asked the question, “Why do you rob banks?” He retorted, “That’s where the money is.” Although his criminal activities were misled, his logic was quite deliberate and can be applied to pursuing getting hired now. To increase your chances for getting a job in 2011 and beyond, you need to look to the job market sectors with the greatest amount of growth and opportunity: The “Hot Job Sectors for 2011 and Beyond.”

There are an estimated one billion global users of the Internet, with social media networking as one of the most popular Internet phenomena of our age. There are an estimated 600 million users on Facebook, 106 million on Twitter, and over 90 million on LinkedIn.