A Story That No One Is Indispensable

This is the story of Andrew, an extraordinarily gifted accountant. Andrew was a nimble and ambitious young man who wanted to be successful and indispensable in his job. He finished his education with great grades, so his teachers recommended him to a reputable company. He started working there as an assistant.

Andrew was always the first to come in the morning and the last to go in the evening. He wanted to master all the areas that his company covered. His goal was to know everything and be so efficient that the company would consider him indispensable. That was why he gave everything he had in him every day.

Andrews work was actually of really high quality. Therefore, his boss decided to give him a pay raise and promotion. Just as he had done in his previous position, he performed everything in the new to the letter. But this time he worked even harder.

When he was not at work, he read about his work or tried out new strategies to be even more effective. His colleagues respected him and he did really well.

A new area of ​​responsibility

The story goes that everyone went and talked about who the fine young Andrew was. After only two years, the board decided to make him head of the finance department. There was no one else like Andrew who could fill that position.

When Andrew began in his new managerial position, he became even more obsessed with perfection. He started working 12 hours a day, not 8. He started getting inexplicable fear. For some reason, he thought everyone else wanted to get his job. After all, the salary was good and there was a lot of prestige associated with the position. Andrew began to have mistrust of everyone.

As a manager, he was to lead other employees. But the story goes that Andrew became very suspicious. He was not a good leader, he could not give a lot of advice, and he could not figure out how to give good instructions. In fact, he gave as little instruction as possible.

He thought that if he gave too much information to his employees, one of them would end up knowing as much as himself and trying to take over his job. It was not long before no one asked him anything.

An unexpected turn

The story goes that everything went well for Andrew for a few years. One day the top manager asked him to train John. John was another young man whom the firm had hired to be Andrew’s right hand man. They thought Andrew needed help because he looked overwhelmed with his workload. Andrew, of course, was not thrilled about it.

Andrew did the same with John as he did with all the other employees: Gave him as few instructions as possible. John noticed it well, but did not mention it.

Instead, he sat down to find out for himself. He decided he wanted to learn it from others from the other departments. He asked around and was able to gather enough information to fill in the gaps in his training.

After 5 years, the management announced that they were looking for a new chief executive. Andrew, who was in charge of a lot of important things, thought that now his big moment had finally come. The Executive Board decided on two possible candidates: Andrew and John.

The moral of the story of being indispensable

To the great surprise of many, the management chose John as the new chief executive. Andrew could not believe it. No other employee was as efficient as he was.

He could not understand how he could lose that battle. The board of directors explained that he was indispensable as head of the finance department. No one could do the job better than him so he could continue in his position.

Shortly afterwards, the finance department was invited to a workshop. Andrew wanted to join but could not because he had too much to do.

Unfortunately for Andrew, the other employees learned to use the company’s new computer program at this workshop. Since he had not received the training, he did not know how to use the program, and his ignorance quickly became clear to everyone. He could not adapt to the changes.

On top of this, the new software could handle many of the things that Andrew specialized in. Andrew’s abilities had become obsolete. As a thank you for his many years of service, the board found another position for him, but they did not fire him.

Andrew’s story teaches us that obsession can blind us and often make our worst fears come true.