Motivations behind selfish success

There is a rudimentary reason for living in economic uncertainty during the most comfortable and prosperous period in history. We can talk about why this is happening all day long, but the core of the situation is apparent: people are caring less about their communities and are instead prioritising individual luxuries and selfish ideas of success. We can see this fact present throughout modern-day business, from growing CEO wages to lying on CV's for entry-level employment. The modern-day employee, for whatever their reason, has chosen to prioritise personal achievements over the success of their workplace. As businesses rely less on social engagement and more on digital markers like KPIs, the modern employee has realised their opportunity to advertise perceived success through favourable metrics.

The role analytics play in tracking success

Analytics can be a great tool for tracking almost any employee's progress, but they only work when the metrics being tracked consider all the variables that could affect the results. A good example of where analytics are useful is when a person is tracking their weight loss. They can monitor caloric intake, exercise schedule, body measurements, and weight. From this data, they get an accurate idea of where they are succeeding or failing. Analytics that track all variables can be one of the most reliable indicators for where a person or team is falling short in their pursuit of success.

The problem with analytics arises when they are used solely as a measure of success and when the results don’t paint the full picture. It is at this point that an employee, either knowingly (with malicious intent) or unknowingly (without malicious intent), takes advantage of the data to highlight personal achievements.

I learned this lesson early on in my career. After finishing the rebuild of an online store for my employer, I was ready to publish and wanted to show off the improvements I had made. The store was better in every way - except one: Time to Load had increased. Caching and lazy-loading helped mitigate the issue, but the initial load still took longer for the user. In this case, I did the right thing - I focused on achieving the best outcome for the user and worked on implementing every possible solution to improve TTL.

But I didn’t have to do that. I could have easily cached the browser or reduced the quality of the content, which would have resulted in a perceived major improvement in TTL benchmarks. My boss, who was not very technical, would never have known the difference - and I would have looked like a winner. This would have been an easy way to big-note myself and gain favour with the management team.

Luckily, I recognised the truth of the matter: the user would have been inconvenienced by the longer loading time, and the business would have lost sales. By prioritising the user and the success of the business over my own self-aggrandisement, TTL improved, sales increased (which meant bonuses for myself and my colleagues), and I was rewarded with a raise.

Working for the greater good above all else.

When individuals forget their mission, which should always be to improve or provide for society - their mindset quickly shifts to a selfish state. This is when personal motivations take over. It doesn’t matter if it’s an employee, CEO, or a business as a whole. Eventually, pursuing selfish definitions of success creates a debt to the end consumer and opens up opportunities for competitors to provide a superior product or service.

Everyone is worse off when individuals and groups forget to work for the people outside of the consortium who benefits from their selfish successes.