Two questions
1. Are you indispensable?
2. Are you stupid?
Here, (2.) is an independent question. You can be stupid without being indispensable.
The reverse is not true though. If you are indispensable, there is a high probability that you must be stupid.
Still, when you appear for an interview, be it for a job, a b school or some place else, you would vociferously argue that you are an excellent team player. You might have got an award too for being a 'Team player'.
Heres the contradiction - You cant be both at the same time. So either you are Atlas or you are a team-man. If you are a team man, you wouldn't look like the man in the above picture, you would look like the man in the picture below.
Could you identify your hand in this picture, I am sure you couldn't.
A close crony of mine happens to be a champion at work. I am not sure if he is a team-man or a one-man army; I have only heard of his exploits, never tried to analyze them. Recently he quit his job to pursue higher studies. Now, in such a case, what could his firm have offered to retain him? He had made up his mind to study and was going ahead to pursue it. His firm was professional enough and it let him go. He cringes to say this to people ; Reason : the obvious question - "If you were such a champion at work, why did your firm not bend backwards to retain you"
Is it bad that your firm did not go ballistic to keep you in its fold? No.
Heres the difference -- Had you been Atlas, your firm would not only have noticed that you left but would also have cringed. It would have tried to retain you, bent backwards to do so; the obvious reason being, its pretty difficult to prepare another Atlas during your 'notice period/gardening period'. Assuming you played the role of 'a hand' (albeit an important one) in the second picture, your firm surely would have noticed your departure and missed your presence but it would not have cringed at having lost you ; because now, the globe is steady, just that one trusted hand which was holding it has moved on.
