One of the most precious qualities an employee can possess is this: genuinely serving their superior from the heart — willingly taking on their burdens, willingly stepping up to solve the problems they face.
People with this level of altruism are extraordinarily rare. In my experience, those who carry this quality advance in their careers with remarkable speed.
Such people — when working as employees, they serve their superiors wholeheartedly; when they become bosses, they serve society wholeheartedly.
Ask the ordinary employee to do a little more for their superior’s sake, and they’ll say: “I’m only getting paid this much — why should I do all this?”
Promote this spirit in public, and people will call you a grind-culture enforcer, a mouthpiece for capital.
But take the long view: highly altruistic people will, in all likelihood, receive generous returns from society.
A person willing to serve others gains far more opportunities to develop themselves in the process. As they give, they continually receive in return.
Those who focus only on themselves, however — by being stingy with their effort, they forfeit opportunity after opportunity. Their own capabilities are more likely to stagnate.