Josh's Weekly Insights - June 3, 2026

“Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value.”

-Albert Einstein

I have been thinking about the question, “What makes a place worth fighting for while others are readily abandoned?” You will have to forgive the history teacher in me for a moment as I explain, but I will tie it back to work and why this is so important to think about as a team player or organizational leader.

Ancient ruins fascinate me so during our recent vacation my wife and I visited several of them. Some of them were abandoned after natural disasters or changes in their geographic value while others continued to be fought over throughout the centuries. The one thing that stands out about sites that are continually fought over is the fighting occurs because of their value or even perceived value by another group of people.

Now on to the part that matters to you. I travel all over the place and talk to a lot of leaders as well as team members. When I talk to leaders, many of them discuss the difficulty of hiring and say that they “can’t find good/the right people.” However, when I talk to team members a lot of the discussion is around how hard it is to find a good company to work for that values it’s employees. In both situations, the expectation is that the other side adds more value. Could we do the opposite of that?

From the employee side, what would happen if employees try to figure out how to be so valuable to organizations they serve that other companies would avidly pursue them? And from the company side, what would happen if you created an organization that adds so much value for its employees that the waiting list to get hired is stacked up?

Now for the tie in, most of recruiting is about perceived value. Employees are not completely sure about most organizations when they are trying to land a new job and are just hoping that it is better than their current organization. (A lot of times they don’t really think it could be worse.) They then get into the job and don’t feel a commitment or sense of pride in what they are doing so they don’t give their best effort to it. In fact, many of them end up coasting along collecting paychecks or worse yet, looking back to the job market.

Organizations on the other hand are often trying to fill a vacancy without putting a lot of effort into attracting and the right talent. And even if they do land the right talent, they often don’t take the time to properly train and prepare the new hire for the job because they need to get them on the job “as fast as possible” to produce.

So let me share something with you to hopefully encourage you if the message so far sounds bleak. You can create the future you want for yourself and your organization. Identify what makes you unique and special and then pour into it. People that love it will want to buy into it. Instead of looking at numbers, look at value.

Now get out there and crush your week!