Always Work Your Best

You never know who you are going to interact with when you’re working, both in a coworker/management perspective meaning you don’t know a lot about your coworkers to some real extent but it’s important to be a good colleague regardless. I definitely realized this recently!

The other day I was working at my side job, a place I contract for but have been working there for a number of years now. I’ve got a good relationship with the guy who’s the manager of the place and would consider him to be a good resource if I needed to use him as a reference for something by any chance.

I was talking to one of the starters of the company who is maybe COO or something, it’s hard to say because it’s not a big operation but it’s got a few dozen people who work for them, I don’t know what their titles are exactly but they are the leaders of the company. He was saying that the guy I would say I “work for”, let’s call him John (not his real name), who I knew was older and likely had a different career before he was working for this company in his management role now. John was apparently in charge of billions of dollars in revenue a year in his previous role! I was shocked to hear that and it was cool to hear! I have worked with him for almost 10 years now and didn’t know that fact, I don’t know if he was doing this originally in a transitionary role type of thing where he was working for his old job before this one but I’ve been working with him for a long time now and didn’t know this at all or even thought he would be doing something like that.

This was pretty cool to understand but what was the best thing about it is I have worked well with him and for him for years now, always being reliable and going the extra mile when asked and when needed to. He gives me the hardest assignments knowing that they will work out well and won’t get screwed up to the best of my abilities. I did all of this regardless of what his background was and years in is only when I found out this information about him. I think it’s important to have the type of work ethic, as long as you are treated well enough and not like shit, to try and do the best work for whoever you are working with or for, so that you can leave a positive impression. It’s situations like these where it can potentially pay off. I won’t treat him any differently or work differently for him because I try to do the best work that I can for him anyways, out of pride for the work that I do and the skill that I have in my role.

I see people often who treat their work as if it’s a waste of time and the people you are working for should be lucky to have you. There’s a lot of arrogance in that which I think is a shame. We often don’t know the history of the people we work with and the potential they could bring to our lives but if we work and treat others like shit that won’t bring about any benefits for us in our lives. The work relationship I have with John hasn’t changed but I have learned more about him and can try to solicit a little bit of advice from him a little bit on the ways in which we could handle ourselves and our business considering he was pretty darn successful himself, managing that much money and the amount of people it takes in order to do that!

I think it’s good to have the mindset that you really don’t know how someone’s time in your life will add or change things for you, so it’s often the best to treat as many situations in a positive and hard working mindset. I do have experience with people who are just unfortunately toxic and know that it’s not always going to be the case where someone can benefit you and your existence but overall, if they aren’t an asshole it’s a good idea to treat them well and work as well as you can with them, you never know what doors can be opened because of that type of relationship!

I think at the end of the day, it comes down to having a good work ethic but also understanding that especially in the workplace, you never know who you are going to meet or interact with but it's important to try as best you can to make a positive impression. You never know where that could lead you!