Why you don't fit in at your company

Over my career I’ve worked for a number of companies, as well as my own startups. And while I invested a good number of years working for others (as an entrepreneur with 1 really big and important customer – which is how I define it any time I am employed, as we all should), I always found that I didn’t quite fit in. I never really fit the bill. Sure, I delivered, I think I even over delivered on many occasions, But I was always a problem child.

I hope for your sake you feel this way too. While it can be uncomfortable at times, it is the muse trying really hard to tell you something, and that something is this:

You are an exotic bird.

Therefore you do not belong in a cage. Therefore your output (egg) is rare. It is possibly a different colour, size, shape and taste. It’s unusual, and so they don’t know how to deal with it. It is not what they expect, and they panic and don’t know how to cook it, or sell it. If they did, they might realise your eggs are worth much more money in the right market. But chances are they’d rather sell the same eggs, to the same people they sold to yesterday. You’ve laid some of these eggs over time, but it turned you inside out…. It wasn’t really you, even though you proved you could do it. When you showed them your natural exotic output, they didn’t want it. Instead they wanted the same eggs being laid by everyone, everyday. They just wanted more of them, and at a cheaper price than yesterday.

If this feels like you, you’re not alone. And if you do manage to escape the coop, and find, or better still, build the right nest, know it will be worth the effort. Exotic birds get paid a lot more for their eggs once they are in the right environment. But in the wrong environment, they are just seen as defects.

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7 thoughts on “Why you don't fit in at your company

  1. Laynie, My honest advice is that they don’t deserve what you’re capable of if they don’t see it. Move on to more fertile soil where your seeds of greatness can germinate and bear fruit that all can feed on. Changing people is hard, changing location is not so hard. We are not trees with fixed roots – so we must travel and discover new ground 🙂
    Steve.

  2. Brilliant post, I so relate to this. I did my time in the battery hen farm, and if not careful, it may break you. Also, it took me about 2 years to recover, and to re-program myself.

    So, do your time (there is lots of stuff to be learnt…), and be thoughtful to escape before it’s too late.

    Sam, @samotage

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