When it comes to work advice and tips on how to get ahead in business, it's easily to become bogged down in a wearisome quagmire of jargon.

What does "core performance" really mean, after all? Or "thinking outside the box" (as this person quips - forget the box, just think). 

So it comes as a huge relief when someone manages to cut through the dizzying chit-chat, and says it like it is.

Step forward New York City-based graphic designer Adam J. Kurtz, who has created a series of wonderfully simple and refreshingly sensible business tips for Design Sponge, a website that's bursting with fresh ideas and inspiration on work and life in general. 

Kurtz is the author and artist behind creative journal 1 Page At A Time and his Instagram feed is testament to his witty, concise and visually powerful bank of work.

His series for Design Sponge is titled "Simple Steps For Success" and breaks down different elements of success, of any kind, into easy, bite-size tips. His ideas are broad enough to impact any area of life, but we've chosen to read them as getting ahead in the workplace.

You could either use his steps - outlined in child-like writing on brightly coloured blocks - as a means of judging whether you're happy in your current career, or for deciding whether it's time to follow your own path with an individual project or business. 

Take a look at the first four steps of his success concept, below, and check out the rest here on Design Sponge. 

Artwork: Adam J. Kurtz