Very little would get done if the movers and shakers of today had waited for someone to promote them. Tara Sophia Moor called this “tiara syndrome” in her book Playing Big, where most people just do a good job and hope to be recognized.
But the world of work doesn’t work that way. With very few exceptions (such as… royalty or nepotism), big, good things happen when people choose themselves. Promote themselves. Turn their compass off the beaten path and trundle off into the woods.
This is definitely the case in business. It’s a little cold and lonely once you break out of the norm and try “non-full-time-employee” employment. But after a few rounds of trying, failing, and recovering, you start to see yourself in a whole new light. You’ll see that you don’t have to sit around and wait for someone at work to choose you — you can choose yourself.