I Am an AND Guy
Someone said it to me years ago and it stuck: stop forcing yourself into either/or.
His point was simple. Most of the time when you think you’re facing a choice between this or that, you’re not. You’re just not yet seeing the path to both.
I heard it constantly in my sales career, and said it myself more than once: Does the organization want me to take care of my clients or go after new business?
Wrong question. That’s like asking whether you should be a good spouse or a good father. There’s only one right answer: you figure out how to be both.
The either/or framing feels like it clarifies things. It doesn’t. What it actually does is send you looking for someone to blame for having to choose. The organization. The situation. The timing.
Nobody’s the villain. You just haven’t found the AND yet.
This matters more now than it ever did. The pressure to pick a lane is real.
Being an AND guy isn’t about doing everything at once. It’s about refusing to give up ground you don’t have to give up.
Most of the AND is still there. You just have to go find it.