Third Commandment Of Government Contractors: Thou Shalt Start As Low As Possible

(This article is part of a 10-part series for the blog of Public Contracting Institute called, "A Government Contractor's Ten Commandments.")

If all we knew about Washington was based on the dramas we watch on television or the stories reported in the media, it would be easy to conclude that everything that gets accomplished is based on who people know. Make no mistake about it, knowing the right people can be a very helpful thing over the course of a career in Government contracts, and that is one place where experience trumps raw intelligence. However, experienced executives also know that they simply cannot keep going to their same contacts (senators, congressmen, political appointees) every time a problem arises — at some point they will have used up all their credit.