We like to think of ourselves as unique and special. Like somehow we’re better the person next to us. Like we’re indispensable. At a job, for example, we like to think that we do so much, that the company we work for would fail if we were not employed by them. We like to think that nobody can do the job that we do, and the company would never even think about firing us because they would lose so much.
That couldn’t be further from the truth. The fact of the matter is that we are all the same. Sure, there are some people who can do certain things better than someone else, but even that is just a matter of opinion.
I recently got fired from my place of employment. I worked for the company for four year and was always under the impression that I was indispensable. My illusion was so great, that at times I had been offered alternate employment and refused because I didn’t want to “quit” and leave the company with nobody to do the work. I told these prospects that I would need a month at least, to allow my current company to find an employee and allow me to train said employee. This was my failure. The day I got fired, this company didn’t think twice about letting me go.
It was a Monday morning, and as I showed up to work, my boss was there and wanted to have a “chat.” After about thirty minutes of talking, he fired me, and then I went home. No notice. No training of new employees. Just gone.
That incident made me think hard about my loyalties. For four years I was absolutely loyal to a company that didn’t give a shit about me. I passed up on, what could have been, great opportunities because I thought that I mattered, and at the end of the day I didn’t.
Overall it will be a good thing that this happened, but during the times that it sucks, it sucks bad. But it made me realize that the only person in this world that you need to be loyal to is yourself. If an opportunity comes your way, you need to forget about anyone else and take it. If you think that you owe something to someone and it prevents you from grabbing the opportunity, you are failing yourself. Because when it’s all done and said, nobody gives a shit about you, except you.
