Hard Work Doesn’t Get Recognized – The Loudest Voice Does
A common theme in my professional career is that whenever I spend hours working away at something team-based, that work is rarely ever recognized. This tends to happen because I’m happy to work away on my own and I don’t always do the best job speaking up for what I’ve done. I’m always loyal to the team, so I see my work as the team’s work. But when you think like that, it’s always the person willing to speak up that gets the credit.
People will invest their time, money, and energy into a vision…a story…a persona, or a concept. But there’s rarely any attention paid to the work that goes behind it.
We all appreciate the phenomenal action movie we just watched, but we rarely pay attention to the credits when they roll. Instead, we say “Marvel did a great job with that movie.” Obviously, none of us are about to list 300 names every time we praise a movie…I’m just telling you this so you understand the reality of how the world works. The only way one of those 300 people in the credits will get their due credit, is if they make their individual work known.
Otherwise, it’s the ones with the loudest voices that benefit the most from your hard work.
This is why it’s important that all of us hardworking introverts learn to speak up for ourselves when it matters. Every one of us should have a platform to showcase our work, to tell our own stories, control our own narratives and share our own visions.
Otherwise, we’ll just end up being the person that others come to when they need to get a job done, and after that job is complete we’ll fade into irrelevance.
We also need to be selective about the jobs we accept so that our efforts are rightfully credited and compensated for. There are people with visions who lack skills, and these people will prey on the people who can actually put in the hard work needed to see their visions through.
Make sure you’re protected if you go into business with such a person, and don’t keep putting your own dreams on hold for other people’s dreams.
Protect yourself from those who want to use you for your work. Take pride in your work and celebrate it. Show the world. Document it, share your contribution, and most important of all…tell your story!
