P: Know your goals, then carve your topic into subparts -- the spokes which you are a hub on. Then court the best individuals in each subpart individually; this will take time.
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\nQ: Understand that most academic fields are dominated by fewer than 100 powerful people. Early in your career, you should get to know as many of them as possible — but not until you've mastered the literature (particularly the papers they wrote!) and developed some ideas of your own. If they get to know you and conclude you have no ideas, you're finished.
Q: Specialize. Get known for something. It helps visibility. Brilliant, restless people who work on several topics simultaneously usually do not achieve as much visibility as those who plod along in the same area for many years.
Q: Finish your Ph.D. as quickly as possible. Don't feel that you need to create the greatest work that Western civilization ever saw. Five years from now the only thing that will matter is whether you finished.
Q: Change your career or move every seven years.
Q: Learn grantsmanship. Educate yourself about who provides money for your type of research.
Q: When you do something noteworthy, ask your college's PR department to publicize it.
Q: Write most of your articles for refereed journals. Papers presented at meetings get you funds to be a world traveler. However, even if refereed, conference papers don't really count for tenure, promotion, or salary raises.