Linkbuilding, PR, and SERPS- A dilemma or a blessing

Majority of webmasters caught in dilemma of building links or not. Some says Google will slap them for having not related links with other sites. Some says it is a blessing that we have opportunity to build links to get appreciation. What I am going to say is not my personal thoughts but I have gathered it visiting several popular blogs. Majority of newbie webmaster think that it is a dilemma but later they found it a blessing(This is what I think).
PR and SERPS?
Here you need to clear your vision. What you want to do? Establishing a good PR is entirely a different thing rather than having good Position in Google Pages(SERPS).
Here you can perform different tasks to attain desire results.

I shall not go in detail but just list the resources or tasks to do for both.

What should you do for PR!
1. Directory submission(build your link)
2. Article Submission
3. “Do Follow” blog Commenting
4. Photo Blog Commenting
5. Signature Posting
6. Social Bookmarking Submissions
Yes follow all above listed and you will have a good PR
What Should you do for SERPS
1. Decide which are your keywords first of all for which you want to get good position
2. Use those keywords everywhere on your online presence with your link. It is called Anchor building
3. You must have good content on your site with keywords density at least 5%
4. Don’t go for highly competitive keywords in start.
5. Drive traffic to your site (that is as important as other aspects)
6. update your blog at least twice a week at least.