The first two jobs I had after graduating from university taught me that if I wanted to succeed then I had to ensure that my work colleagues do not beat me. This is where the journey of fighting other people began, I did this for the next seven years. I believed that if I wanted to be successful I had to be better than everyone around me so as you can imagine I did not make a very good team player. In one of my jobs I gained a lot of respect from senior management so much so that the chief executive of the organisation would even respond to my emails but I still felt the need to fight people who were at the same level as I was. I found that there was this culture of fighting your corner and wherever I went I found myself fighting my corner. A year ago I changed employment and I had a line manager who was a year younger than me and was also fighting his corner, it think I fought with him more than I fought for the things I wanted. I had gone in with the intention to learn new skills but very soon I found myself fighting other people and a few months later fighting for my job in the department and after months of struggle I made a decision to leave an organisation that had served me so well. I did not leave in glory all because I spent a lot of time fighting other people instead of fighting for things that I wanted. When i got a new job I walked in there without telling people about all the things I do outside work, they do not know Frank the author or Frank the speaker, they just know Frank their colleague and life is so much easier.

It is very easy to get caught up in the business of fighting other people instead of fighting for the things that we want, we spend a lot of time fighting other people. Fighting people took me away from the big picture, I went for that job because it was the step I needed for my next level but fighting other meant that I stepped away from that step, The truth is that a lot of people will not succeed simply because they are always focussed on who they can fight instead of what they can fight for. Fighting other people might make you look good if you win but it will not benefit you in a long run. If your focus is on fighting people, you will find that there is always going to be someone to fight but if you focus on fighting for the things that you want there are always going to be people who will fight for you.