Do you want to be the hero that saves the day when disaster strikes? Or the person that goes unnoticed but does all the little things to prevent catastrophes from happenings? If you are in IT, you should want to be the latter.

This came up in an internal meeting recently. Our top engineer used this great analogy:

"Who gets more recognition? The fireman who pounds the pavement and gets residents in her neighborhood to install fire detectors and replace batteries in existing ones, or the one that runs into a burning building and pulls out an elderly lady. The fireman who ran into the burning building may be lavished with praise in the local media, but the one who walked the streets and made sure fire detectors were working in the neighborhood probably saved more lives."

In IT, we should never set ourselves up to be heroes. No doubt, disasters will strike. There are far too many factors and unforeseen events for us to control cost-effectively. The focus of our IT skills and knowledge should not be geared toward donning a cape and pulling a "MacGyver" in the face of impending doom.

Our focus should be on monitoring, periodic maintenance, upgrades and refresh schedules. This also includes a crucial interpersonal aspect: counseling management regarding the importance of maintenance, upgrades, and making time available for preventive measures.

So strive for anonymity in IT. You will likely accomplish a lot more.