Yes, I don't like how some people try to rationalize the circus that really goes on. In reality, for most people, it's chaos, it's random and it doesn't make any sense... For a select few people everything just happens to work out; then these 'survivors' feel compelled to lecture everyone else about how everything works... In reality, these 'survivors' know nothing about how things really work because their personal experience is so far from the norm that it is not applicable to anyone else except themselves and other equally biased survivors.
This just says you didn't figure out the system but happened to 'luck out' one time. If you learn where the value is, you will know how to get recognition for any value you add (e.g. who values it and who's attention to bring it to that you are boosting it). In the case that the company is dysfunctional and doesn't promote value creators you will also get an earlier heads-up this way.
But you need quite a bit of luck just to start gaining exposure to these kinds of opportunities. That single 'luck out' event means everything; after the first major windfall or breakthrough, your experiences are distorted and they have little practical value for the average person. The bigger the windfall/breakthrough, the more true this is.
It's pretty easy to see where the 'value' is... Being exposed to people who are willing and able to give you access to that value is what's hard. It doesn't take much intelligence to find opportunities, especially if you've had some past success; then the opportunities find you.
Truly great opportunities are those that everyone else wants to be a part of; the ones that already-successful people are queueing up for... The ones that are impossible to get.
The kinds of opportunities that come out of nowhere and disrupt everything against all odds are so rare that you're better off assuming that they don't exist.
It's very surprising how rare it is for employees to find out exactly how money flows into and through their organisation. I suspect developers are the worst here. But when you think about it, it's basic common sense to understand what pays your rent and how your relative value figures in that system. And if you think of a company as a system, an automated machine for generating revenue, it starts to become hard to resist having a good nose around the contraption with a screwdriver.
That oddball dev who started hanging out with the sales and marketing people, forwards strategy and innovation articles to management, and started churning out powerpoints is the one who knows what's up. It's not just 'playing politics', it's developing deeper and wider situational awareness of the company and the market. It's stacking the odds in your favour and it's even more effective when so few do it.
