There’s No Competition at the Bottom

You’ve probably heard there’s no competition at the top. Our professional lives are all about starting at the bottom and escalating the ladder. There’s bottom and there’s top and those are our choices. Full Stop. What if there was some use of challenging the options and the paths we were taught? 

We’re constantly told greatness lies at the top. Winners are celebrated; finalists are forgotten. And while that may be true in some ways, the reality is richer. Life isn’t a crowded fight to the summit—it’s a long game. You work, you commit, you climb… only to discover the top is less about thriving and more about enduring. Look at careers, empires, sports legends—they reach excellence, but none last forever. Dare to look inside yourself.

Here’s where my experiences come in. I don’t claim to be special. No rare talents, no family connections, and often starting slightly behind the starting line. I wasn’t born into survival mode, but I wasn’t on a fast track either—let’s call it a minus one start. I didn’t face life-or-death struggles or need to cross borders on a prayer. I simply started a bit further from comfort.

Bottom brings complexity and real opportunity if you question the over simplified vision of up and down. You also have people in front of you, challenges might be far or near you…If you make it to the end of this post, maybe we’ll find space for a real conversation.

Some Spicy Hustle

Today I’ll pick University as a good wake-up call. I was a lazy student until I arrived there, coasting on last-minute effort. My first apartment was over an hour away from campus because rent near the university was out of reach. Down doesn’t always mean rock bottom; sometimes it just means far.

I had to raise my standards fast. My internship paid barely enough to scrape by, so I juggled studying, part-time work, and volunteering. When exam season hit, I’d run on two weeks of minimal sleep. And still, I failed. Summer holiday for me that year was three months in Alcalá de Henares with nothing but a statistics book and a nice library with aircon! Extra lessons were a luxury —it was just me and the book, grinding until I barely passed. Down doesn’t always mean rock bottom; sometimes it just means keep trying.

Temp jobs followed: construction, brute labor, and later admin work when my stupidity wrecked my back at 21. That injury marked the end of futsal, a part of my identity up until then. Down doesn’t always mean rock bottom; sometimes it just means shit happens. As I approached graduation, I started a master’s degree but didn’t finish it. Down doesn’t always mean rock bottom; sometimes it just means adapt. So I switched to full-time admin work. Decent pay, but I couldn’t help but keep hearing this thought:

“If I stay here for five years, someone younger and better prepared will take my job.”

So I saved what I could, bought a one-way ticket to London, and left. No proper English, no contacts, just a weekend visit a few months earlier. I lost six months of savings in four weeks. Injured my knee on day three. Nearly broke my ankle after finally passing a probation period as a kitchen porter.I couldn’t carry my luggage on crutches, a good samaritan helped me make it to the airport. I spent weeks recovering, and as soon as I could stand without crutches went straight back to the kitchen. Three years in hospitality taught me that Christmas is not the most wonderful time—it’s the busiest time of the year. Fourteen hours non-stop, eating a cold wrap from Tesco while carrying four bags back to the kitchen. Some days I just didn’t eat until I finished my shift. Down doesn’t always mean rock bottom; sometimes it just means make it happen.

Eventually, I built enough experience to make a career as a chef, but I left the industry. My gut told me it was the right call. After countless rejections, I made it to The British Museum, where I met great people and started self-studying what I thought was “community management.” Turns out, it was digital marketing. I seized those opportunities, delivered results, and kept moving forward. Then, I met someone who complemented me—not complimented—and together, for personal reasons, we returned to Spain.

Coming Back

Back in Spain, I re-entered a world of limited opportunities and worse work conditions. The reasons that made me leave were still there. Down doesn’t always mean rock bottom; sometimes it just means facing similar scenarios with what you’ve learnt. It was a humbling reminder that no place is perfect. Still, the experiences I’d gathered shaped how I approached this chapter. I looked sideways, found clarity in values, and kept building, walking, and trying to make the best out of the people and the good I got.

Over the years, I worked on top-tier projects for well-known companies. The memories that stay with me aren’t about brands or achievements—they’re about the people I met. The good far outweighed the bad, and their stories stick with me even now, a decade later.

What I’ve Learned

Here’s the thing: there’s always competition for jobs, but there’s also always opportunity—if you’re willing to set and review your goals and be open to redefine what you consider valuable. Maybe it’s not in your city. Maybe it’s not in the roles you imagined. 

“When you change the way you look at things, things change.” It’s a cliché from a motivational video, but it stuck with me as it was true.

For me, those three interesting years in hospitality weren’t just a grind. They were paid English lessons I couldn’t have afforded otherwise. Same attitude with a bit of self-study and move on to better positions. By the time I returned to Spain, I wasn’t just an expat coming home; I was a seasoned professional with international experience. And this can be applied to any experience you face really. You don’t have to draw a precarious plan and live abroad… although it helped me and I wouldn’t change those struggles nor any of the different ones I’ve dealt with.

Reflections at the Top

Twenty years ago for me the top was learning a profession and speaking another language. Do so for big companies and be among the best in their field. I reckon I realised I was there during a workshop break —a workshop I was leading by the way, when for whatever reason my brain clicked and I just looked around at the people I was talking to: years of experience in their field, talented people, working for very well known companies. In less than a second my brain linked cleaning mice drops to where I was to asking myself: “So, is that it? What’s next?”.

Real top is perspective from a specific angle and reality. You see the mediocrity and beauty in every role, no matter the status. You’ll get to meet good people in rubbish jobs, exposed flaws in coveted roles and vice versa. Progress isn’t just about where you end up—it’s about the impact you have along the way and what makes you good. What makes you happy.

You’ll face choices. Will you focus only on your own gain? Will you use others to climb? Will you empower, mentor, and support those around you? Your choice. I haven’t seen much of the latter—maybe it’s my bias, or maybe it’s reality. But I did consciously decide to do my part, grain of sand, on it.

…and at the Bottom

The bottom isn’t what you think. It’s not just struggle and despair. It’s complexity and opportunity—if you’re willing to question the oversimplified vision of “up” and “down”. Challenges might be far ahead or right in front of you. Bottom is not the bottom; it’s what’s beyond the story you were taught and, most probably, you are still told. Daring to look behind the curtains.

The point isn’t to glorify struggle or to sell you some nonsense about pulling yourself up by your bootstraps. It’s simpler than that: this is how I coped and still cope. Think about what’s challenging you, and maybe you’ll find something useful. Life isn’t about buzzwords or self-help products. It’s about reflecting on what matters, finding clarity, and being of real help to yourself and others. In the end, when you started reading these lines you did so at the top, now you are at the bottom (!). Then you can go back and question and reflect what makes sense from what doesn’t to you. That’s the real game changer.

References:
Post Header GIF found on www.thisIsColossal.com

The post published is a very mixed – messed up?, of personal notes, drafts and loads of sparring with Chat GPT, Claude, Gemini and Mistral. Loop of back and forth until decided to publish.

After a week of countless versions, when I decided to publish, my mum shared a video with the family of Yoann Bourgeois performance about life. And I thought, once again, it clicked with the topic at hand. Her words: “el éxito no es siempre lineal” – Success is not always linear. Who am I to disagree?
Found it on Youtube on Mathieu Stern channel: Yoann Bourgeois Captivates Audience with Powerful Performance About Life ( Original Video)