Han Ngo

I was working at a tech startup called CloudJay (former Lifebox JSC). Our team has nine including engineers and business development. As we’ve known, there are many factors to make a successful business and teamwork is one of them. In my opinion, this is the most important.

The startup, in common sense, is founded to solve people problems, real problems; to provide works for society, also to bring values and make money. That is a thing that people called the vision, team vision, company vision. As the team member, you should understand it clearly, love it or hate it and follow it, make it your life, your working purpose. A team does not need employees but contributors.

The team still need heroes, and there should be an ‘I’ in the team but the only way to make the boat go fast is perfect coordination, it also means perfect teamwork and synchronization. The skill set is essential, but it isn’t important as vision and coordination. The ‘I’ must be unselfish and think about the team first. As a team member, it’s important to remember that no one is perfect; everyone has something that they could improve upon, including yourself. So, be supportive. Offer constructive criticism. Listen, listen, listen. People who always talk, but never listen will be stunted in growth. Remember that everyone knows something you don’t know.

We effectively have an environment in which competition and collaboration co-exist and feed off each other. Competition, synchronization or collaborating perfectly; make the boat go fast is always the main point. Remember, even if you work harder than anyone else, if you lose synchronization, you slow the boat down.

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*They told me there is no “I” in the team.*

I am an athlete.
I am an individual.
I am strong.
I am weak.
I have desires, hopes, and dreams.
I have goals.
I have fears.
As a team, my opponent will never see my weaknesses.
Only my strength, never my fears, only my goals as they unfold before them.
I am not afraid that my team will see my fears, my hopes, dreams, or desires. 
I trust them to an unlimited level.
I am not afraid that my team will see my faults, because
With them I can overcome my faults, with them I am 
fearless, with them I have hopes and dreams.
With my team I am not weak, I do not have the strength
of one athlete, but many, combined, focused, 
And dangerous to my un-united opponent.
I become my team, and my team becomes me.
I do not judge, and I am not judged.
I have a goal, and the team has a goal.
The team goal is my goal.
All that matters is that the team reaches its goal.
They always told me there is no “I” in “Team”.
They were wrong.
I am the team.
I became the team.
The team became me.
The team becomes an entity unto itself.
The team is strong, creative, compassionate, caring,
Authoritative, disciplined.
The team absorbs “I”, and then there is “I” in “Team”.
The “I” becomes part of something much more powerful.

They were right there is no “I” in “Team”,
But there is “Team” in me.