…that was when I carried you…

I have always been a team player. I don’t know where it came from (though possibly reading “The Adventures of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table” far too many times) but I’ve always enjoyed working in a group. My role in the group doesn’t tend to be ‘follower’ and there is always … Continue reading “…that was when I carried you…”

I have always been a team player.

I don’t know where it came from (though possibly reading “The Adventures of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table” far too many times) but I’ve always enjoyed working in a group. My role in the group doesn’t tend to be ‘follower’ and there is always the tension when more than one ‘non-follower’ is in a group. But this tension is what creates great work. You need to have multiple people with vision explaining their points of view. And I, for my part, have boundless enthusiasm for good ideas.

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Back, a hundred years ago, there were multiple visionaries in our little creative group. The thing that set me apart from the rest was in what happened with the ideas. The ones I created (The 23rd Letter, SpaceNinjaCyberCrisis XDO, Zombi) made it to publication (with the exception of a few which, to this day, I just can’t finish). But no other ideas made it to the stage where they could be sold.

And it wasn’t that I forced others to only work on my ideas. In fact, I expended a huge amount of effort on others ideas but, in virtually every case, I never felt like the effort was appreciated. The feedback was never entirely clear but it seemed like I was stepping on toes by being enthusiastic. And when your contributions are unrewarded or worse, rejected, you stop doing it.

Good teams need to have that mix. In fact, the point of a team is to have members able to lift and carry for others when things get maudlin. I reckon this is the primary reason for pair-bonding in humans. We need to rely on someone to keep good results consistent. And it’s just as important to take it in turns to inspire each other.

I miss working with others on new products. It’s probably the thing I miss the most in the whole world. Working alone is like being in an echo chamber. Working with others is exciting, challenging – even if it’s not always productive. It’s not always fun either – but sometimes it’s the best.

0 thoughts on “…that was when I carried you…”

  1. As one of the group who was not bringing other product ideas to the table, I cannot comment directly on feedback problem you experienced, but you certainly had a drive to get things done, as evidenced by the RPGs the group got published.

    Perhaps the problem was people having a different sense of urgency on things? Two enthusiastic guys in sync – happy days, One enthusiastic guy, one cautious guy – confused signals.

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