Upwrite Press Blog Be a Star at Work

When I was a child, school was like a factory. Subjects crossed student desks in discrete periods of time, and we worked individually to master them. Every test was a solitary effort. Even group activities like sports and music celebrated the individual champion-the star.When I graduated, I got a job at an actual factory. Work crossed my table in discrete pieces, and I labored alone (talking was forbidden) to accomplish it as quickly and accurately as possible. If I managed to beat the standard time, I could even earn a piecework bonus. Again, individual effort was the norm, and stellar effort was rewarded. However, when you gaze upward at a night sky, it's obvious that true stars don't work alone. Constellations are composed of many. The band of the Milky Way consists of 300 billion stars. Similarly, even the US flag has 50, representing the joint efforts of 50 separate states, of some 320 million citizens.It wasn't until I landed a job in publishing that I learned the benefit and joy of working as a team, each of us tackling what we do best, relying on one another. It wasn't until then that I discovered the fiction of the solitary writer was just that-a fiction.Conceiving a topic doesn't happen in a true vacuum. Even composing a draft is a dialog between a writer and an imagined reader. Editing is done by another person entirely. Proofreading is usually the work of several. And when it comes to business writing, even the initial draft is often composed by multiple writers.So when you write, be a true star. Don't expect to light the sky alone. Rely on others in your quadrant to help get things arranged in clearest black and white. When stars align, great things can happen.-Lester Smith