What if we changed the prize we were competing for?
There’s a normal game going on every day. The name of that game is to outdo others in getting credit. Most people are too polite to acknowledge this game out loud. But it’s happening. In your workplace. On your street. Maybe even in your home.
You see it when people position themselves and their teams as the heroes of a story. You see it in the pronouns people use, emphasizing “me” and “I” and “our team” over others.
This is normal. But normal is so often boring. Normal won’t change anything.
The humble change-maker flips the competition. She looks around and gives credit everywhere she can. No, she doesn’t pander or make stuff up. She’s too real for that. But she is generous with her eyes, seeing excellence and endeavor wherever she can find it. And she liberally gives credit with her words and actions.
She even gives credit to her competitors and critics. Not as a tactic, but because she’s the kind of person who sees and admires excellence wherever it’s found. Even in people who aren’t super generous in return.
You can see how revolutionary this person is. He’s upending a script that says that you have to take care of #1 at all costs. He’s moving way beyond happy platitudes and is taking concrete actions that build bridges and ennoble all around him.
What impact could you have if you were this person? What value would that prize have for you and for your world? We’d love to see it. We need to see it.
