#4 Looking for the hippo in the room

This post is about work, even if it does not seem so.

Anyone who has worked for a while and moved jobs at least once should be able to say the same about success: part of it is related to your work, and a big part is related to those you meet along the way. Many years ago, someone in my office compared Corporate life to wildlife, specifically hippos'. The theory is simple: not everyone is a hippo, but we might need one close to us. There are small and big animals in the African rivers. They can be more or less dangerous or nothing at all. They can live in packs or be solitary, and that's cool as well, but the river's boss is the hippo. Those massive, territorial, and aggressive beasts like their space but are not alone. They allow certain birds to stop on their backs because a job needs to be done. The birds clean the hippos' skin, eating the parasites and insects off their backs. The birds eat, and the big fellows thrive.

In Corporate life, something extraordinary happens that does not occur in nature: little birds can turn into hippos. It is not magic but "working evolution." After a while, some of those who started cleaning other's messes get the right and privilege to have others respond to them, clean for them, and do whatever needs to be done for the big ones' well-being. It feels good to be one of those, but it usually takes time.

So, if you are not one, I advise you to get yourself a hippo. There is no shame in doing your job and getting support (and protection) from someone above. Don't think that it will solve all your issues because still, there is a part of the success tremendously linked to your job, but feel proud to connect yourself to someone who can have your back whenever needed.

Now that I have decided to change my job and abandoned an environment I knew pretty well, I feel (again) like a little bird. I became a writer trying to publish my first book because I decided to believe everything I've told many others for years: "Work should give you more than money and headaches." I chose to spend my time doing something I loved but never dared to pursue. I work now from a city cafe or my living room. Neither the waiter who brings my chai latte every morning nor the washing machine in the laundry room of my house- my partners during coffee breaks- can provide much professional support right now. I write here, join online courses, and talk with everyone I know about this project of mine because I want to make it. But I miss having a hippo. I should start a search party for one.

Dear hippos of the world, I entered the writers' room...