There are many successful professionals who complain about the current politicians, elected officials, leaders, etc. Some of these professionals are ready to give up their professional career and join politics but wonder how to do that.

The phrase "all politics is local" is now commonly said in the US. Following are some excerpts from the wikipedia entry on "all politics is local".

… coined this phrase which encapsulates the principle that a politician’s success is directly tied to his ability to understand and influence the issues of his constituents. Politicians must appeal to the simple, mundane and everyday concerns of those who elect them into office. Those personal issues, rather than big and intangible ideas, are often what voters care most about, according to this principle. … The concept is contrary to the notion that most people, somehow, in local elections are casting votes to "send a message" to the highest levels; instead, the principle predicts that most people will not vote for local politicians simply as a means to act on feelings about higher politicians, …  The prediction is that most people who vote, or debate issues, are focused on resolving their local issues.

Based on the above principle my suggestion for professionals who want to help people via active politics is to go to the "local level" and run there for posts such as a ward member or sarpanch. From that perspective I admire the following attempt:

What not to do?

Unless one is super famous or is a descendant of the Nehru-Gandhi family or (Biju) Patnaik family one should not think of coming to Odisha from outside, create a party and project himself/herself as the Chief Minister. 

This is a mistake which a recent professional who returned to Odisha after a long stint as an IAS officer in another state did.

One should learn from his mistake.

What has/had he done for Odisha that people in Odisha would vote for him.  As a result this person could not even win his own seat.

He should have first focused on doing something for the people at a local level, run at the local level as a Sarpanch, Ward member etc. and tried to move up from there.

I hope others learn from his mistake and the above article in Sambada highlights the right path being taken by an outsider.

An approach that may work but most likely may not!

An approach that may work is for the professional (coming from outside) to convince a recognized party to field him/her as an MP/MLA candidate. This may work, but often does not because there are already a lot of local people who have done social service at the local level for years and if the party ignores all of them in favor of an outsider then it may result in a revolt within the party. So unless the outsider is really famous this approach will not work, and again the best bet is for the outsider to immerse himself/herself in helping people at the local level before trying for a candidacy at the MLA/MP level.