I've found difference between people who are winning at working and people who aren't, is difference between passing another year at work and gaining another year of work experience. Those who build their experience build their futures. And, you can build experience without changing jobs.

Building experience is about depth, diversity, challenges and learning you gain by offering best of who you are at work. It's about seizing and creating opportunities. And it's about continual self-improvement and constant self-feedback.

You know you're gaining experience when you problem solve your own mistakes; learn to use knowledge building blocks to handle more complex issues; make contributions more valuable than year before; acquire new skills by venturing outside a comfort zone; embrace new ideas or technologies; or recognize you don't know as much as you thought you did as you begin to see a bigger picture.

People who try new things, push envelope, pitch ideas, offer innovative problem solving, take accountability, and never stop learning and making a difference, are people gaining experience and building their work future.

(c) 2004 Nan S. Russell. All rights reserved.

Sign up to receive Nan’s free eColumn, Winning at Working, at http://www.winningatworking.com. Nan Russell has spent over twenty years in management, most recently with QVC as a Vice President. Currently working on her first book, Nan is a writer, columnist, small business owner, and instructor.

Joe Rubin, Director, FundingPost: “The majority of VCs told us that it is ‘business as usual’ and there will not be much of an impact. At FundingPost, we believe that impact will be felt at CEO level – where a founder of a startup sees potential for a home run in their exit.”

Jack Carsten, Managing Director, Horizon Ventures: ”The firms that invested in this company are going to be ‘rescued’ from poor returns, as it is one of only successes in sector. That might influence LPs to reinvest in Internet centric funds...but I doubt it. Public and private valuations tend to move together sector by sector, even though this often does not make logical sense. So if Google IPO valuation holds up over time, it can become a benchmark for exit valuations. On other hand, if it tanks, it will only reflect badly on sector - greedy VCs cheated public again....”

Chris Roser, General Partner, Roser Ventures: “The IPO market always has an impact on venture investing in regards to higher valuations more open IPO window. The question is how much Google will influence IPO market and to extent it is successful, I believe, it will contribute to a good IPO market.”

3) Do you feel that this will heat up M&A space - with Google now having "currency" for acquisitions and Yahoo and Microsoft racing to compete?

Joe Rubin, Director, FundingPost: “The majority of investors felt that only a few companies would benefit directly and that M&A space has improved this year independently.”

John Shulman, Managing Director, Allied Capital: “There is no doubt that M&A will heat up. It is happening anyway and this will only accelerate velocity of activity.”

Jesse Lawrence, Associate, Updata Partners: “The IPO may heat up M&A activity within search and related sectors, but should not have a significant effect on other software sectors.”