Illustration of a person taking initiative, an upward arrow, and a glowing road—symbolizing how agency and ownership lead to high-growth careers.

Forget Job Titles — Agency Is What Makes You a Star

Starting your career is like stepping into a vast, competitive arena. Those early days shape your mindset, determine your trajectory, and influence whether you climb or stay stuck.

Two powerful sources — Yoni Rechtman’s Be a Star or a Janitor and Theodore Roosevelt’s iconic Man in the Arena speech — reveal a core truth: success isn’t just about skills or luck; it’s about what you own and how you act.

And in that sense, I made my own luck.

Agency Before I Knew the Word

Reading Rechtman’s article, I realized I’d been embodying agency from day one. I was proactively solving problems beyond my written role, stepping up across teams, and creating value without ever knowing this mindset had a name. I earned recognition and reliability because I acted like a Star – an owner.

Rechtman’s “Star” metaphor captures a simple truth: the people who rise early in their careers behave like owners, not operators. They widen their scope, create value beyond their roles, and see gaps as opportunities.

In contrast, the “Janitor” mindset isn’t about humility – it’s about compliance. Doing what’s asked, no more, no less. Safe, contained, forgettable.

I learned this by watching: peers with similar skills plateaued, while those who took initiative quietly built credibility, trust, and impact.

The difference wasn’t talent. It was agency.

The First Fork in a Career

Your early career is an invisible fork:

You can wait to be told what to do (and get good at it).
Or you can learn to see what needs to be done (and get trusted for it).

The first builds dependability.
The second builds trajectory.

That realization shaped my leadership approach later – mentoring others to shift from janitorial compliance to proactive ownership.

The results were unmistakable: dependable, self-directed teams that delivered where others hesitated.

The Man in the Arena: Courage Over Compliance

Years later, I revisited Theodore Roosevelt’s Man in the Arena speech.

This time, it landed differently.

It is not the critic who counts… The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena…

Man in the Arena speech

Roosevelt wasn’t romanticizing risk; he was defining agency before the word became modern.

To act despite imperfection, to take ownership of outcomes, to fail visibly — that’s what separates the doer from the commentator.

And that’s what the early career truly tests: not your resume, but your relationship with risk.

From Compliance to Agency: The Growth Mindset in Motion

Psychologist Carol Dweck’s research on the growth mindset offers the mental scaffolding behind this shift.

When you believe ability can evolve through effort, you stop waiting for permission to stretch.

Agency is simply the behavioural face of that belief.

Studies consistently link autonomy with higher motivation, creativity, and resilience (Career Innovation; Weinstein Spira).

In contrast, low-agency environments breed dependence; and in fast-moving workplaces, dependence is decay.

Vulnerability: The Emotional Core of Ownership

Brené Brown calls vulnerability “the birthplace of courage.”

That’s what agency really demands: the willingness to act without guarantees.

Taking ownership often means stepping into tasks you may not yet master, exposing gaps in knowledge or confidence.

But as Brown notes in Daring Greatly, that exposure is what earns trust and respect.

True agency isn’t bravado. It’s emotional maturity in motion; doing what matters even when it’s uncomfortable.

Agency in Indian and Global Workplaces

In India’s layered corporate culture, this mindset carries nuance.

Initiative must coexist with respect for hierarchy; boldness must be balanced with empathy.

But those who navigate that balance become cultural bridges; respected for courage, not dismissed for overreach.

In global firms, ownership is currency.
In Indian firms, it’s quiet revolution.

And both contexts reward those who don’t wait for authority to validate their impact.

Habits That Compound Ownership

Agency isn’t a personality trait; it’s a practice.
It compounds through small, repeated acts of ownership.

  • Volunteer for tough projects. Pick up what others drop.
  • Ask “why” and “how.” Curiosity is agency’s raw material.
  • Deliver without drama. Quiet reliability builds loud trust.
  • Learn relentlessly. Apply new ideas before being told to.
  • Own both wins and mistakes. Accountability is respect in action.

As Colin Powell said in his book, It Worked for Me: In Life and Leadership:

Success is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure.

It Worked for Me: In Life and Leadership

Every act of agency is a small investment in that formula.

The Final Choice

Whether you work in a startup or a multinational, the fundamental choice remains the same:

Will you wait for ownership or will you take it?

Being a “Star” or a “Janitor” isn’t about your title or tenure.
It’s about how you show up when no one’s watching.

The spirit of the Man in the Arena is simple: get in and fight.
Agency is daring greatly.

And that’s how ordinary careers become extraordinary journeys.

Further Reading & References

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