A man may fish...

 

"A man may fish with the worm that hath eat of a king, and eat of the fish that hath fed of that worm" - Shakespeare, Hamlet.

I was thinking about that quote as I have been doing my yearly listen to Simon and Schuster's The Christmas Carol narrated/read by Patrick Stewart.  I am always amazed at how long we have understood that it is wrong to pay someone less than the value of their work.  It is also interesting that we have felt that the reason folks are poor is solely the result of that individual.

Now, mind you, I do think there is a layer of personal responsibility to pulling yourself out of poverty, but it is also a combination of personal drive, help and support from others, and luck (right place right time, know the right people, etc...).

I tried to think about the times I was poor and struggling.  Yes, there have always been times when monies were tight and times when it wasn't.  I remember working 2 to 3 jobs to bring in monies while I lived in Hawaii.  Let's face it, you don't get rich as an enlisted Marine.  I have in my time wondered how bills would get paid and food purchased, but luckily there has always been enough to keep my head above water.

Was I great when I first starting off (post Corps)?  I spent a lot of time searching for technical work and understanding the effort it was going to take to get a foot in the door of a decent company.  After realizing that cracking the employment market in Hawaii wasn't working for me, I just started my own company.  At first this was so that I could work with another consulting company and help expand their coverage.  Within about a year, the folks I was working with left for the mainland and I took over their clients and started adding a lot more clients to the list.

It was a good time to be in the consulting world.  Companies were just beginning to transition from sneaker net and the internet was just about to become more important.  You see, I wasn't great (don't get me wrong, I am a good consultant and I am pretty good with tech trend), I was at the right place at the right time.  Also, don't get me started on all the year 2000 work.

The choice to stop trying to find work with a single company and go out on my own was all mine, but influenced by the environment and the economy of the early 90s.  However, all that work, teaching myself emerging trends, and crash coursing self-employment is what gave me a second base to jump start a life of IT work.

I don't think anyone would say that I was lazy, unsuccessful, or that I didn't attempt to find my full potential.  I mean full potential is basically perfection which is a lofty goal though unachievable.  I am not saying don't try, just don't let the drive to be better consume you at the expense of those around you (I've been there - it isn't pretty).  

The point is I can, without hesitation, say that there is no way I would have done this alone and no one does.  I had a ton of support, people that I immediately worked with, and some of the best partners and employees that anyone could ask for.  The way I say it, a team of people helped pull me up by my bootstraps.  If I didn't have bootstraps, I can guarantee one of those folks would have bought the bootstraps.

You see, we do things better together and even when we think we did it alone, if we give it a good amount of thought we know better.  We may have taken on the most risk, we may be the single point of focus on failure, but when you are successful you almost never do it alone.  Think of a successful large project you planned or lead.  There are always folks working, assisting, reviewing, finishing, and failing all through the time the project is running.  When it is complete, you can stand up and say "look what I did", but I for one, have never seen a large project where only one individual could be credited for the entire thing.

I think where my brain is going today is that you can be good, you can even strive for greatness, but with the help of others, you can be better, much, much better.

I'm good (MMGA)

- JJ