"You don't have to lead a team to be a leader." This was a quote I heard during an event that I was helping organize for the local young professional organization. It made me realize that I have been taking advantage of opportunities that I didn't even realize were opportunities.
I'm not sure that I'd be a great, or even a good manager. I interact really well with people but that doesn't mean that I can lead a large team effectively. Maybe I would, but I've never been given the chance. However, the opportunities that I have been given have been of a slightly different nature.
I'm a technical person; my background is in computer science. I went to grad school because I wasn't satisfied with a mediocre job at a random company. I wanted something better so I went to study computer graphics. My first job out of grad school was in medical imaging. But that didn't limit me to focusing on that particular area during my employment.
What I think really differentiated me from a lot of people I've worked with is the desire to take on the hardest possible projects you can find. I'll never forget one particular release when we were going through crunch time. Sales had promised a few hospitals that we would be able to reduce our launch times for reviewing studies. Had the project not been successful, the company wouldn't have been able to realize its quarterly revenue, shortly its IPO.
When you add up experiences like this you build a reputation for yourself for being reliable and hard working. The effect won't be immediately apparent, but will definitely be lasting. In all honesty, there is so much mediocrity out there that people who rise above it rise well above it, casting a shadow over their peers.
I can say this because I haven't searched for a job since grad school. A job fell into my lap after eighteen months doing medical imaging. Six months after that I was approached to start Sharendipity. Now, having left Sharendipity I'm presented with another eye-opening situation. I applied for one job, at a company a friend works for. I've also had four other opportunities pop up as people hear that I'm moving on. My goal is to start another company, but it's a pretty good feeling knowing that something else is out there.
This is the result of five years of busting my ass, trying to make a name for myself. The people who float by in their jobs will never have these types of opportunities because they'll never get recognized. There have been so many discussions about Gen-Y and their lack of work ethic or feelings of entitlement. I don't buy it. I'm surrounding by twentysomethings who are some of the hardest working people I've ever met. And you know what, if it is the case that there is a generational lack of motivation, then good luck to those of you who are out there busting your ass because it's just that much better an opportunity.
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