Ownership is not a set of rights, it’s a state of mind

Professionalism is the gap between what you want to do and what needs to be done.

And if you want to create significant value at your organization, specialize in doing the work that nobody wants to do. Train your opportunity filter to scan the landscape and think, well, somebody’s gotta do it, so it may as well be me.

My mentor used to think about this kind of ownership from a customer service prospective. She would remind me:

Your clients are never going to do it, but they will love that you did it for them.

It’s part grit, part anticipation, part generosity, but all initiative.

Bezos famously noticed in the late nineties that web activity had increased that year by a factor of more than two thousand percent. That jolted him awake. He knew that somebody was going to make a fortune from the phenomenon, and he thought, well, it may as well be me.

This is a common log line in entrepreneur stories. Read interviews with startup founders, corporate executives, inventors, innovators and investors, and it’s always the same moment of conception. Someone realizes that someone should do something, but they remember that most people will do nothing, so they hire themselves, and that changes everything.

Is there work out there that nobody is willing to do that you would love doing that would be useful to others if you did it? Hire yourself. Fill that hole in the marketplace. Keep trying and your effort will eventually be rewarded with good outcome.

There is no guarantee everyone will love you for it, or even notice, but the internal result of building your muscle of grit will payoff no matter what.

What if you dumped a pile of responsibility into your own lap?