Excellence as Camouflage

I know what you have built. I have been building something similar since I was a boy in Sengera who learned that being exceptional made you easier to keep.

The work is real. I believe that. The skill is real. The care you bring to it is real.

But somewhere underneath the excellence, there is a person who has not been fully introduced. Not because you are concealing anything shameful. Because the excellence got so good at representing you that it became easier to let it do all the talking.

What the excellence cannot say is: I am also uncertain. I am also tired. I am also carrying something I have not yet put down. I also need to be known by more than what I produce.

This is not weakness. This is the part of you that makes the rest of you make sense. The excellence needs this person. The excellence was built by this person. Let them be in the room together.

You are more than what you have accomplished. That is not a comfort phrase. It is a clinical finding.

— Job