I am not happy with the way I approached my first job out of
college. I was 21, and I walked in without guidance on what it’s like to be a
member of the modern workforce. I was green and felt entitled, and I know that
I burned some bridges along the way – especially after leaving Pfizer a short 9
months into the job. At the time, I thought it had all been a waste of time.

Recently, I began to reconsider this conclusion when a
friend recommended a book by Wharton professor Adam Grant. Grant is an ex-springboard diver and magician who
has spent his academic career studying work motivation, initiative and
proactivity, leadership and burnout. He’s also written “Give and Take”, a New
York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller and what I consider to be the
MUST READ book for any young professional.

The book has a simple premise: our personality at work is at
the core of whether we will rise to the top of the success ladder or if we
sink. How we choose to conduct our professional lives will shape the way our
colleagues will look at us and therefore, will largely determine how successful
we are throughout our career.

He’s completely right.

To illustrate, Grant introduces the idea of “givers”,
“matchers” and “takers.” Givers are individuals that go out
of their way to help others and they are endlessly working to make others better.
Matchers view the world as an eye for an eye – they are the types of
individuals that will return a favor if one is afforded to them, but they will
not seek out to help others unless there is a possibility of a return on their
investment. The takers are those individuals that ask for help, but never
reciprocate. They are usually more cut-throat, ruthless and often times the
type of people we see in movies – think Gordon Gekko in Wall Street.

You will be surprised to know that across all industries,
not only are the givers the best networkers, they are also the most productive,
most well liked and more often than not, the most successful. Givers are
everywhere. As it turns out, the man credited with the success of the Simpsons
is a giver, Silicon Valley’s most successful venture capitalist is a giver and the
most respected sports executives are also givers.

As I look back on my time at Pfizer, I now realize that my
boss Mike was the quintessential giver. He spent countless hours helping
employees across all departments and made sure that everyone in the office was
happy and fulfilled by their work. By putting our needs first, he elevated our
group and changed our culture. Because Mike was so kind and giving, it had
rubbed off on the rest of us. We covered each other’s experiments, went out of
our way to help each other with presentations and came in on weekends so we
could collectively reach our team goals. He made our team great. My first job
was in fact not a waste of time, but an opportunity to witness first-hand the
value of being a giver.

As our generation enters the workforce and begins the ascent
up the corporate ladder, I urge each and every one of us to be givers. Go out of
your way to help your colleagues, always be available, smiling and willing.
Don’t worry about out-performing someone in your department; instead, focus on
making everyone better. Those are the qualities that will surely get you
noticed. You’ll see that your personal success will follow.

– Alex F. 
 
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