The Kaccha Limbu effect

Have you ever seen a little boy try to play with the bigger boys on the playground? They always shoo him away or give him a place to play on the side where he won't really interfere, and at the same time he is in the game... a win-win for everyone, right? Well not really. that little boy was never given a chance because he was little. He wasn't given a chance, maybe because he didn't speak up. That little boy is always called "Kaccha Limbu" i.e. "the one who isn't good enough" But he showed up!!! that alone takes a lot of courage!!! Have you ever felt like that, felt that you don't want to try something because you are afraid of making a fool of yourself... Because you are afraid of what other people will think of you? Especially in a work setting, you are afraid of how will it affect your career/professional life? I would be pleasantly surprised if the answer to this question is a resounding "No" At the same time, if you were forced to do something, be it peer pressure, or simply you telling yourself, "Look I need to do this, I've been afraid too long" That moment, would you give it your 110%? When I put myself in that situation, I feel, Yes, if I have to try something I'm not comfortable with, I'll give it my best shot, so what if it doesn't work, at least I tried... But if you are the bigger kid on the block, will you let me? Am I still talking about kids playing? This looks like a leadership issue to me... This looks like an inclusion issue to me... Yeah, this just took a more serious turn... We award and reward our top performers, and we should, they have earned it. How often do we reward the ones that are willing to try? I know I am guilty of this, I've always said that I am available for anyone to reach out to me and talk to me. But I've never really empathized with the nervous ones, with the ones afraid to speak up, with the ones who are not sure if it's a safe environment to let their guard down. Simple advice right? drop your guard, say what you want and it's done. Not at all, that's crappy advice. It's easier said than done... So here's me turning a new leaf, this is to all those with a "Kaccha Limbu" side to them. I am here to connect, I know you may not want to reach out, so I will share whatever I know on a subject of your choosing. Let me share some examples of places I can attempt to do some research and help share knowledge: Eg. I have been a developer for 5 years and I have only worked with HTML and CSS, but my job demands that I work on ReactJS/NodeJS/MongoDB package it all in Docker, and deploy it on AWS behind a Load balancer and VPC and I think my head will explode. Eg. I just started web development and have tried learning ReactJS, but I just don't get it. I just don't understand how to go ahead with it. Eg. I have been working for 8 years and have only worked on whatever my project asked me to work on, now everyone wants me to do so many extracurricular activities and I don't know what to do? Eg. I joined my firm during the pandemic, but I don't know what to talk to a leader/senior about when they say, "Reach out to us" and "connect with us" Literally, anything else you can think off Now how do we play this out for those interested... Fill this form with your question (its 100% anonymous): click here In this, you can choose to give me your email address or just leave it anonymous. Note: for the anonymous entries, I will attempt to do articles for these, but I can't guarantee any timelines For those of you who are still not sure if it's okay to ask a question, use a temporary mailbox service (mailinator.com / getnada.com) - I will reply to the question as soon as I can to that mailbox (note they clear out every day so you will need to keep checking if its one of these)