Center of the Universe

We've known this for a while. No, the Earth is not the Centre of the Universe.

Nor are you.

You may be the most skilled DBA in your company. Your coding skills may be legendary (at least among your friends).

Your company may be the best, biggest, fastest-growing or the most profitable in your space. Your country (or mine, for that matter) may be the shiniest, biggest, richest, or <insert-your-superlative-here>.

It is surprising to see many achievers lose perspective after they gain a bit of name and fame. The Centre of the Universe somehow stares back from the mirror. Every time. Without fail.

I propose that this is a manifestation of cause and effect mix up. The causation and correlation confusion.

You don't win your next game because you are the world champion. It is the other way around. You must win this game, the next and the next one after that if you are to stay as the world champion.

You don't demand that the customer give you the order because you are #1 in your space. You must keep winning more business and consistently perform at that level to retain that position.

You might want to ponder over this a bit.

I admit that if you qualify to be the target of this post, you may even find it amusing, though certainly not applicable to you.

So this is really for us, the other guys. It is for us consultants who write pre-qualification criteria in RFPs. The same consultants who recommend higher technical evaluation scores for you -- on the assumption that your offer must somehow be better because you are a "global leader" or the "#1 in the country" or in the "Leaders' Quadrant".

We need to figure out the best offer on the table; not confuse that with the top company at the table. We need to determine the best product for our needs, even if it is (or not) the top product!