If you’re the person everyone goes to when something breaks, that feels like a compliment.
Until you realize you’ve trained everyone to bring their problems to you.
You answer every question.
Fix every mistake.
Take the extra assignment.
Jump into every emergency.
Someone says, “Do you have a minute?”
And suddenly your entire afternoon is gone.
Being good at your job can actually make this worse.
People don’t think, “Let’s give this person a promotion.”
They think:
“Give it to them. They’ll get it done.”
That’s how capable people end up carrying work that was never supposed to be theirs.
And there’s another problem.
If you keep rescuing everyone, nobody else gets better.
Next time someone asks you how to fix something, don’t automatically fix it.
Ask what they’ve tried.
Point them toward the answer.
Let them make the decision.
When someone teaches you a task, ask:
“What usually goes wrong?”
Now you’re learning the parts that actually matter instead of just memorizing the steps.
And if someone says they only need “a minute,” tell them how much time you actually have.
You don’t have to be rude.
You just need a boundary.
The goal isn’t to become the person who can do everything.
It’s to become the person who can do important things without becoming the person everyone depends on for everything.
There is a huge difference.
One gets you trusted.
The other gets you buried.