The good news is that you're finally out of the ivy walls and finished with homework and exams. You have graduated and onto or already installed in your first job. The bad news is that you left the cloistered world of the campus behind and entered the real world. You have a whole new set of issues to deal with, obstacles and opportunities to navigate. Most important-if you are to achieve the success you are seeking-is to challenge much of the conventional wisdom, the workplace cliches, that others have filled your head with and deal with the truth as it is.Unvarnished. With this in mind, consider the following Management Manifesto.

1. Wash your brain of Consensus Building. It is for elementary school teachers. Every time someone tells you they want to engage in consensus building, walk out the door and tell them you have real work you to do.

2. Reject everything that comes to you packaged as Conventional Wisdom. The fact is, Conventional Wisdom is an oxymoron. Once it is conventional, it is yesterday's fish.

3. Unless you are recruited by the NFL, forget about Team Building. The really successful business people -- think Steve Jobs, Phil Knight, BillGates -- develop The Big Bang ideas and then pass them off to a team to dowork.

4. Never accept No for an answer. 100% of the time when people tell yousomething can't be done, it is because they are too dumb or too lazy to doit. Go out and prove them wrong. Imagine what the Naysayers said when Walt Disney said he was going to build the most popular resort in the world on swampland in Florida.

5. Never fool yourself into thinking that hard work alone brings success. Maybe for donkeys but not for humans. To race past your peers, you will need:

• Combat Eyes.
• Serial Skepticism.
• Cartoon Imagination.
• Monster Ambition

6. If you think about someone else's motives too much, you are in their heads to such a great extent, they have a right to charge you rent. Once you liberate yourself from the shackles of what others may think of you, you will be free to soar as a manager and leader. You'll be able to utilize the full potential of your intellect, drive, and creativity. But you know something? People rarely do this, because they're afraid of what others may say or think. That they're crazy, inappropriate, or unprofessional. And they will go home having a "bad day" because they had to endure the slings and arrows of the people they pissed off. Pissed off? Why? Because they took a stand. An unpopular stand. A stand that, right or wrong, earned them ill will. Bad blood. Dislike. But neither they, nor you, should give this an iota of thought. To do so is the kiss of death.

7. You need a Killer App. A Killer App is the stuff that warriors I have worked with have honed to a science. It is their differentiator. It is Teddy Roosevelt's "big stick"and Ronald Reagan's skill as "the Great Communicator." It is why they win. It is how you can win. (No, you may not have all of the traits of the legendary leaders in your DNA, but you can begin to understand where you fall short and make a conscious effort to raise the bar.)

8. The bigger the company or business unit, the longer it can postpone the effects of poor management. But most leaders fail because of the following factors:

• COMPLACENCY
• DECEPTION
• FEAR OF A BAD DAY
• FAILURE TO ACT

To prevent this - and to achieve perpetual growth - you have to declare war."Why?" you ask again. If you are really serious about getting ahead (if you're not, you should get a job with the Postal Service), you have to don your battle jacket and attack these obstacles/roadblocks/gremlins because every day you play Mr. Rogers, they are attacking you,and they are winning!

9. Strong leaders (and, in turn, exceptional managers) establish a compass for their people to pursue in the course of their work and provide themotivation to exceed established goals. Can you honestly say you do this? Are you proud of the way you take the hill? Are you confident that you can get the job done - in a way that elevates you to new levels of success? Or is it just the opposite? You have just looked in the virtual mirror and come to the realization (perhaps grudgingly) that you are not a leader. The time has come to change that. To declare war on yourself. The question is, if you are not a born leader, how can you develop the skills that are essential for extraordinary management?

10. Get out of the office and take a hike. Allow yourself to think how you can raise the bar on your personal performance. Be prepared to Declare Waron everything you do that is fine, good and mediocre. Unless it's great, it sucks.

Article by, Mark Stevens, the bestselling author of "Your Marketing Sucks," "Your Management Sucks" and"God Is A Salesman." Stevens is CEO of MSCO, a global marketing firm, who has advised many clients over the years such as Estee Lauder, Virgin Atlantic, Guardian Insurance, MONY, Giorgio Armani, Starwood, Intrawest, etc. Stevens delivers more than 40 speeches annually and is a regularly featured media commentator, lending his insights and opinions on Fox Business Network, to the Associated Press, on CNN International, BBC Radio and Bloomberg TV.