A successful research career requires drive/motivation, discipline in thinking, rigor in writing, and eloquence in presentation. A successful academic will have 50+ research papers over a 40 year career averaging 50+ hours per week.
How should we pace our career? Here are some suggestions - please join in with your own..
- Be well read and well connected - read every new issue of a journal - write emails to authors whose papers you liked - attend and chair sessions in practice and academic conferences - meet presenters whose presenters you like.
- Be a productive genius -- Your dean may find it hard to give you points for innovative, never before seen research that takes years to complete and spends years in review.
- Work with doctoral students - Students are the coin of academia.
Some examples of successful (young) researchers in my opinion:
Eric Anderson at Kellogg.
Serguei Netessine at INSEAD.
Veronica Guerrieri at Chicago.