The Main Character Trap

When we first start out—or even a few chapters into our careers—it’s easy to get hit with "Main Character Syndrome." We see the path as our story, our hustle, and our rewards. But here’s the problem: when you’re the only one in the spotlight, you end up leaving everyone else in the dark.

I’m not saying you have to carry the weight of the entire world on your shoulders. It’s more subtle than that. When you’re obsessed with your own "productivity" and ignore the team around you, you drop the ball on your most important job: Ideas.

Think about it. It’s impossible to compete with yourself to come up with something truly world changing. You need other people to challenge you, to riff with, and to build things that people actually want to be a part of. I always tell people to find their lane and own it, but you have to navigate it in a way that makes others want to follow you.

A lot of people think the "career game" is linear—that if you just maximize your individual output, you get the max reward. But it doesn't work like that. It’s more like the Theory of Limits in calculus. You’re constantly approaching this goal, but your "limit"—your actual potential—is defined by your mindset and how you specialize, not just how hard you grind.

At the end of the day, a "winner-takes-all" mentality is a ghost town. If people feel like their contributions don’t matter because they aren’t the "Main Character," they’ll eventually just stop showing up. Even if they aren't the main plot, they need to know their scene matters.

I don’t have all the answers, but I know this: playing the game just for yourself is a lonely way to win.