For my first three months of working full-time as an employee, I decided to be a supporting actor. It seems like a reasonable thing to do in any new job, but especially if it’s your first one and in a new field, it is well to be humble.
Knowing I was the smallest cog in the machine, I joined many conversations with “I’m here to help.” It has proven to be a good attitude. Not just for building relationships and keeping myself grounded. Surprisingly, it has also kept me in good spirits.
When you’re here to help, the results don’t matter. What counts is that you contribute as best as you can. Once the chips are down, did you genuinely support the endeavor? Did you make other people’s lives easier or harder? Were you a team player or did you try to do it all on your own?
It’s easy to end the day on a high note when you’ve given what you can give. Whether the thing succeeds, the meeting gets postponed, or the whole effort is canned altogether? All of this will be of little consequence. The problems most people get hung up on will float gently over your head like clouds passing on a sunny day.
At some point in the first year of a new gig, most people might start to wonder what’s next. “How can I get promoted? Where’s the next rung on the ladder?” Let’s see what I think in six months. But I have a feeling I’ll be here to help for a while.
If you want to be on top, you’ll have to fight your way through the snowstorm to get there. But if you want to be happy, all you have to do is make the world small.
