Exchanging Competition for Contribution at Work

A new job meant a chance to focus not on how I could shine, but on how I could help others to.

Photo by Emma Matthews on Unsplash

I’m starting a new job tomorrow. I’m not nervous; I’m curious. For the first time ever, I’m not walking into a new job hoping to prove they had made a good choice in hiring me. Trying to prove myself has always led to an over-indexing towards ego and selfishness and I just don’t feel like doing that anymore.

This isn’t to say that I don’t care. I care a lot. I care about contribution. I’m very interested in supporting the people on my new team, my new boss, and the mission of the organization. I just don’t think I need to DO anything to prove that. I think they’ll feel it, because I feel it. As Roald Dahl wrote in The Twits, “. . . if you have good thoughts they will shine out of your face like sunbeams . . .” Or this from Conan O’Brien, “Work hard, be kind, and amazing things will happen.” I trust in these amazing things because I know I will work hard. I know I am kind. But I had to build this understanding over time, and I wasn’t a quick learner.

I remember the first day of a job I held many years ago. No doubt I looked eager when I asked my boss, “What can I do to be successful right now?” He said something like, “Just do things. I’ll tell you when…