Nothing Out of the Box About it!
My heart is filled with admiration these days when I hear or read about the people coming up with great ideas changing the world or people working on their startups (which have grown like weeds recently) after something great struck in their minds which has potential to grow big. But I also feel insignificant and can’t stop questioning myself that what am I doing that is adding value to someone’s life including mine? I scratched my head to come up with ideas but that helped little. If only it was that easy! Later some ideas did come but when I googled I realized I got late in arriving at those. Someone is already on it. Wow, my idea got stolen before it came to me! No big deal, we all know that life is full of disappointments. So after few failed attempts of trying to change this world I gave up. I accepted the infertility of my brain in the department of idea generation and moved on.
This feeling is not alien. And I don’t blame myself for feeling like this. I am conditioned to think this way. We all are. I can’t even count how often I have heard while growing up that you are almost there! Just few points short of reaching 100%, just one position below #1, just a little short of 100%. Great job but push yourself a little harder to reach the top! Sounds encouraging? Yes it sure did and I kept pushing myself thinking that probably I am not pushing myself hard enough. Probably others can see my potential more than myself! And it didn’t end in school. It followed me everywhere I went. Its not uncommon to hear in our performance appraisals at work like: “your hard work, attention to detail and dedication is your strength but you need to step up and come up with great ideas which can take product to the next level”. Your hard work is always appreciated and valued but I always wished the sentences ended in appreciation. Why there is always a big BUT following every sentence of praise and worthiness? It’s like someone is reminding you that you have been the perfect parent for an adopted child but don’t forget that you are not the biological mom. So please step up.
Why working hard, following directions diligently and meeting deadlines is not enough? And for once if you manage to please others by reaching the milestone set by them, I wonder if its worth the effort when you are not feeling pleased yourself. For some, achieving 90–95% is effortless but achieving last 5–10% is not less than moving a mountain. Every ounce of your energy gets squeezed.When there are other people who can do that with much less effort, let them do that and we can do what we are good at. Which is to support their great ideas!
Imagine everyone in the team coming up with their respective ideas and there is nobody like us willing to work on them, take directions, troubleshoot when something goes wrong, ask right questions, design and sometimes redesign and make your idea our own by sharing your vision. Mediocrity is underrated in our society. Unless you are not doing something exceptional in your field, your hard work might go unnoticed. Your willingness to follow others is considered your weakness. Only you know you are learning something new every waking minute of your life. Your contribution to the task might fall short in the eyes of people evaluating you. But trying to mimic others to be someone you are not is an exercise in vain.
Instead put a spotlight on the fertile areas of your brain that enable you to put your skills into use and contribute towards someone’s else idea reach its fruition. Any idea in its infancy is just an idea. Its like an embryo that needs support and care to come to life and becomes what it’s meant to be. And we provide that supportive environment right from the point of it’s inception to where it reaches outside the door to serve its purpose. Only when the intent of the idea is fulfilled its greatness is talked about. So what if we are not the brain behind it, we held hands and witnessed its journey, pulled it through rough waters, closed all loopholes and helped it cross the finish line expecting nothing in return. So what if we didn’t think out of the box, we are the ones who listened, implemented and saved it from crisis. So what if we didn’t go through the pangs of a child birth, we went through the much bigger pain of molding and shaping the raw material into a refined product.
So when someone tries to pull you out of your ecosystem, please think before you say yes as we can thrive when we stay where we belong. It has nothing to do with taking risks but knowing what you can do best and then taking risks will serve you better. I have no qualms in saying I don’t belong in the board room. I am happy taking notes and when I babysit your idea, you may work on other ideas as your idea is safe in my hands.
