The belief
My value isn’t only me. It’s the relationships I’ve built with people I trust: engineers, writers, designers, musicians, athletes, entrepreneurs, artists. If you need something I’m not good at, I probably know someone who is, and I’ll send you to them.
Where it comes from
I’ve believed some version of this since my twenties. In 2014 I told my mom that my higher power was the people around me, which is why I surround myself with people who build me up. In 2016, choosing my next job, I wrote that I needed to trust the people around me as much as they had to trust me, and that I had to earn it.
How it shows up for me
I choose work by the people more than the work. When I can’t do something well, I name someone who can, and I credit them when they do.
I also dread most socializing. Keeping relationships alive takes energy I don’t always have, and some good people have drifted away because I didn’t reach out.