When the economy took a downturn at the start of the 1990s, my career—ironically, it's headhunting—took a downturn, too. I have to admit that I wasn't ready for difficult times, not at all. But that rough patch was probably the best thing that could have happened to me. And today, with another downturn on the horizon, I'm sharing the lessons I learned with anyone who cares to listen.

In the 1980s, business was booming. My business was placing individuals in jobs in the interior furnishings industry and demand was high. But by 1990, the economy had cooled and—to put it clinically—our optimism had exceeded our circumstances. The parallels to today are obvious and, given the fall that so many took then, a bit frightening. There was a tendency to ratchet up the lifestyle, to forego thrift, to indulge in extravagance. We all did it, and the dip in the economy exposed our shortsightedness in painful ways.

My own experience coming out of that downturn was so personally profound that I ended up expanding my career into sharing with others just how I did it. What I teach (what I preach, you might say) is that the qualities of a successful employee—self-employed, white-collar, blue-collar or whatever—are pretty much the same ones you want in a good neighbor and a valued friend: perseverance, integrity, sincerity. The bottom line: if you can be a good friend, you can be a successful worker.

Is this pollyannish? Not really. Think about it. Nobody likes to work with an unreliable jerk.

On a daily basis I am asked what special skills it takes to move up in the Information Economy. My answer is the same as it was in the bricks-and-mortar economy. Apart from whatever unique training and abilities that a job requires, the fundamental qualities of a good employee are the same across all industries. Resourcefulness, honesty, dedication, kindness, respect—these will always matter, and they can be acquired without going back to school or cracking a single book. It is never too late or too early to begin practicing them.

Though I didn't start living it until later, I realized that my parents had given me this insight at an early age.

I grew up in the 1970s, the oldest son of a blue-collar family in a white-collar town. While our neighbors worked at IBM—whose world headquarters was in our little town of Armonk, NY—my father worked at the county newspaper as a pressman, pouring the lead that was the chief ingredient in newsprint. While my dad worked the presses, my mother sold children's shoes at a department store. My own first job was at the local drugstore when I was 14.

On my first day of employment, I showed up in my shiny suit, filled to the brim with ambition and angling to run the register. The owner, however, had other plans. First, he showed me and my shiny suit around the store, then he led me right past that gleaming cash register and down a long stairway to . . . the stockroom. Thus my brilliant career began as follows: When I arrived each day after school, I replenished the shelves with shampoo, laxatives, tampons and other choice items in fine disco-era hygiene and hair care products.

I was mortified. Not only wasn't I starting at the top, behind that snappy register, but my schoolmates might come wandering into the store to find their career-climbing friend stacking Kotex (as a 14-year-old boy, that particular brand of public embarrassment can cause one to reconsider just about anything). Then I remembered why I had applied for the job in the first place. There were things that I wanted and the only way to get them was to apply myself, to swallow a little embarrassment (which, thankfully, never came) and to keep foremost in my mind that my goals mattered.

My parents' ethic served me well and still does to this day. In fact, it's what I "preach" day after day to the people who call in to my radio show, who buttonhole me in airports, who write to me about their workplace crises. A successful person adheres to a few basic principles: work hard, show up on time, be polite and respectful, know what you're doing and stick with it.

People who have succeeded on the power of these principles don't stay up nights worried about "what's next." They know that surviving a downturn tomorrow means preparing for a downturn today. Fortunately, that preparation largely involves doing things that fortify and enrich your standing in the job you already hold.

I practice what I preach and I am just vain enough to believe that the rest of the world ought to, too. The things that make for workplace success are the same things that make the world a little nicer place in which to live: people who build their reputations on real achievement and honesty; people who dedicate themselves to doing well where they are, not just to reaching the next step up the ladder; people who make the best of difficult situations by changing what they can and accepting what they cannot; people who share credit, who take responsibility, who show respect and honor.

It's a simple formula for getting ahead, though not always the easiest to practice; hard work and doing the right thing rarely are. But ask any successful person and he or she will tell you that sticking to these principles comes with as solid a guarantee as you're ever going to find in this life. It's always been that way and it always will be.