Learnings from my first job!!

So after 2 years and 7 months I quit my first job. First job like every other first in life is definitely very special - it is your introduction to living life on your own, learning the important corporate lessons, making the big mistakes and growing up. I wanted to write down my biggest take aways from this job so that I can continue to apply them in my roles moving forward:

1. Collaboration and not competition brings out the best in people - I think to a great extent my previous company is good at driving the collaborative culture in people (yes, there are always some people and incidents which upset this belief but by large it is prevalent in the whole organization). Being a sales environment and still being able to maintain the team culture is something I value in the organization. Where competition might bring out the best in a few individuals, collaboration tends to bring out the best in the team as a whole. Competition also tends to make the environment much more political and saps out the energy which could have been used in more productive tasks.

2. External factors should not impact your performance - To me this is the single most important learning from my first job. Maintaining the stability of the mind and focus at all times no matter what goes on in the organization or in the individual's life for that matter should not affect performance. It is definitely difficult to achieve and I see so many people around me struggling with this however, I believe that if one can master this art, one can be a consistently good performer.

With these couple of learnings, I am all ready and excited to start my next job in a couple of months' time. Also, looking forward to the break and all the time with family & friends.