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How to be a good employee

There is work that I know how to do and it has to be done every day forever. This is relatively easy. It takes discipline and a resistance to boredom.
Problems have to be solved and their solutions have to be implemented and it usually doesn’t work best the first try.
The punishment for wrong thinking is being condemned to only doing work that requires no thought.
Solving problems with everyone watching and back seat driving is harder. This is especially tough if other people have the power to give you orders you must obey.
Good solutions involve compromise and that invites people to complain and criticise. This takes confidence and thick skin.
Most real world problems involve incomplete information so that a terrific solution could fail through no fault of my own.
Resist the temptation to order people around without their consent. My solution may be optimal, but I still have to sell it. This is true even when I am the boss.
Believe it or not, someone else might have a better idea than me.
The gold standard for any team is respect in the midst of crises. When I win this time and he wins that time, this is not an invitation for a parallel pair of I-told-you-so’s. When does it end? Before it starts.
Surprises happen. Accidents happen. Shit happens!

Here's what I used to do:

When I see a goal in the distance, I close my mind and go straight for it in a rush in order to enjoy the burst of satisfaction upon arrival.

And here's why it was irresponsible:

I neglected the possibility of seeing a better prize and switching plans en-route or modifying this plan as needed
I didn't consider that someone might trip me up because it was so obvious where I was headed
Rushing anywhere is reckless
I ignored the fact that the direct path to a goal may not be the best one
I didn't ask for help, I didn't discuss my plans with others and I didn't care that my single minded rush was curious and might harm someone
I go berserk if I am interrupted
All notions of teamwork are lost in this process
I didn't consider that I might have been mistaken somewhere and the goal couldn't have been obtained that way and all would fail
Perhaps the one goal could have been broken up into sub-goals each carrying its own independent reward rather than one single burst of satisfaction. The former is healthier.

I'm much smarter now. Ya live, Ya learn!