Enlarge the position you already occupy; put originality of method into it.

Fill it as it never was filled before.

Be more prompt, more energetic, more thorough, more polite than your predecessor or fellow workmen.

Study your business, devise new modes of operation, be able to give your employer points.

The art lies not in giving satisfaction merely, not in simply filling your place, but in doing better than was expected, in surprising your employer; and the reward will be a better place and a larger salary.
When out of work, take the first respectable job that offers, heeding not the disproportion between your faculties and your task.