Yesterday, I wrote about subjecting yourself to situations where you are the little fish being necessary for growth. But what happens when you now become the big fish in that pond?
Well we really only have 3 choices:
1) Eat all the other fish in the pond. This is analogous to the rockstar/stud/ninja/<insert other buzzword> who expects everyone around them to kiss their ass and worship the ground they walk on. Hopefully, I don't need to let you know that this is the wrong choice.
2) Find a new pond. Just because your surroundings initially provided a challenge and facilitated growth, doesn't mean that it always will. That is why many of the successful companies in Silicon Valley make it easy to switch teams and projects; they know the great employees are constantly seeking to learn and face new challenges, so it is much better to keep them within the company on a different team, than to have them go to a different team outside of the company.
3) Help out the small fish and give back to the pond. When you are the small fish, your only job is to learn and not mess stuff up too bad, but after a point you must begin paying it forward. More experienced powerlifters bring the newer guys under their wings through coaching, angel investors sit on boards and help to groom the next generation of entrepreneurs, and software engineers contribute to open source projects . And let's be honest, being the big fish feels amazing, so pushing the smaller fish will in turn push you, if you want to keep that title.
Switching ponds isn't always an option, but bringing others under your wings(or should I say fins?) is.
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