You may be an officer, a manager, or an individual contributor carrying out these programs and projects.

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The blogosphere has been all abuzz lately over whether the super-smart individual contributor is better than a great team.

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In the second quarter of 2010, David Koch was the biggest individual contributor to the Republican Governors Association, with a million-dollar donation.

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Ballmer is now the largest individual contributor to Defeat 1098.

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Many of us have the desire to achieve more in 2013, and if you are in a leadership capacity of any kind, even as an individual contributor, there are few things that you control that will help you to achieve those goals as much as improving your leadership ability.

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For others a manager may address how failure is a means to an end, and while no one sets out to failure, learning from the experience can make the individual stronger and a better contributor.

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In his new book Tradestream Your Way to Profits, occasional Forbes contributor Zack Miller examines some of the changes that have occurred, and some of the ways that individual investors can profit from them.

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