Life is a disappearing staircase.
Let me explain.
Each time you are ready to take the next step, all the steps that you have taken before vanish. I, myself, recognize this during my transition from high school to college. I kept myself occupied in high school. I was captain of my tennis team, Executive Vice President for New York State’s FBLA (Future Business Leaders of America), Vice President of Interact, and completed research about reducing our consumption of polyethylene. I remember coming into college and talking to new people about things that I have done. Surprisingly enough, people were interested about the things that I did but weren’t blown away (I definetely was when I looked at my resume 😂). This was probably a combination of arrogance and over-confidence. People kept asking me what I wanted to do in college. How I would contribute to campus? It felt that all of the leadership and work I did in the past was irrelevant. I still had to start from the bottom. This is where my metaphor of the disappearing staircase comes from.
Talking to my parents, even the receiving a degree after 4 sometimes 5 years of grueling work is often overlooked in the workforce after first or second job. Each step that you take, you end up having to work just as hard to prove yourself to your new group of peers. This discouraged me. Why work so hard to be involved on campus when you go into the workforce and people just don’t care. You might be the president of an organization on campus, but in real life, people will just say “Yeah, he was the president of some organization. Cool what else?”
To be completely honest, I’ve done the same exact thing. I’ve had interview people for a leadership role and I often find myself dismissing people’s past accomplishments very quickly. I am trying to figure out is this something that happens that I am doing wrong or are the candidates not explaining their accomplishments well where I find those experiences valuable.
To combat this inner doubt and fear, I am trying to pursue something that is more lasting, something that has a longer life. One way is to use Medium as a platform to express my thoughts, but also using twitter to learn more about my interests in virtual reality. What I really is want to work in the real world. I’ve learned a lot more during my times at SalesLoft about graphic design, content marketing, and sales than in school.
On the other hand, I do see value in taking leadership in student organizations probably not for the same reason as other people. Many students use this leadership as a resume booster and show “leadership” or “communication skills”. For me, I want to try different leadership styles, micromanaging or full-out delegation. I want to use these experiences to improve my Emotional Intelligence (EQ). Test what works with what type of people and how they respond to you.
I’ve learned to not be discouraged about this disappearing staircase because it keeps you humble and always thirsty for improvement. While others may not value all the steps that you have taken in the past, you have definetely reached greater heights than those who haven’t taken those steps.
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