The Dangers of Being Good at Something
Can being good at what you do work to your disadvantage? Seems illogical. But consider this. How do most of us value a person’s effort? Based on his ability and skills? Or based on the time he put in? Check out this video for an example of how the same locksmith was perceived differently as he got better at his job. Why do so many people value the time and effort put into the task more than knowledge, skill and efficiency? (Except for those rare cases where the person can visibly demonstrate those qualities). At some level, I think that mindset is a legacy from our childhood where effort and sincerity were valued highly. Nothing wrong with that in childhood, of course. But as adults, we forget that we are expected to be somewhere between good and excellent at what we do, not hard-working-but-unsuccessful at our job! The other reason could be because the activity itself is invisible to us. So we never realize that the guy who did it faster may have come up with a new way of doing things...