But overall, it also becomes a matter of ur own accountability to yourself – if you are doing work you really do care about, then it’s not only about pleasing your boss but also producing the best quality work that you can…now the question becomes how do u get the recognition for the work. and for that i agree with a lot of people who already commented. you have to be able to sell yourself/your product to get people to pay attention to you but then your work and your product will have to alsooo speak for itself!

appreciate that in any theatre of life…politics, work, social circle…etc. people seek power. rarely overtly as our society wants us to be these gregarious congenial types. natural for myself and perhaps you because of our shared cultural background. (a beautiful thing) ok so here’s where i’m going…

you don’t schmooze. but they schmooze. they play the “game”. maybe you resign to the protestant work ethic (dare i say the habesha work ethic) work hard, goto school, get a good job, keep my head down, etc. (generalizations) you become brilliant in your field… your work produces accolades,millions,whatever. others take the credit. i’ve seen this time and time again. countless inventors have had their work stolen. edison vs. tesla.
understand the deviousness of these people. don’t let NOT shmoozing hinder your aspirations.

all within ones own morality and ethics. but remember not everyone shares your ethics.

“There is nothing very odd about lambs disliking birds of prey, but this is no reason for holding it against large birds of prey that they carry off lambs. And when the lambs whisper among themselves, “These birds of prey are evil, and does this not give us a right to say that whatever is the opposite of a bird of prey must be good?” there is nothing intrinsically wrong with such an argument – though the birds of prey will look somewhat quizzically and say, “We have nothing against these good lambs; in fact, we love them; nothing tastes better than a tender lamb.”

Friedrich Nietzsche

don’t be dinner

It is interesting how right now I am trying to do the exact opposite of what u sayin here. Most of ma professional life I played zero politics. To some extent it worked. U gain respect and also good bosses really notice who works hard and who can be trusted. So, if you have the right kind of boss, you dont have to suck up. In fact if u do ur job and dont suck up and stay confident, u win in the long run.

So, I agree that nothing beats hard work. But I think I have learned that you have to build some relationships in order to showcase what you are worth especially to people who dont work closely with you such as your bosses boss, or that VP you would like to work for etc….