I have a younger brother who has been driving for the deputy director for several years.

Later, the leadership was promoted, and he became the director.
The first thing after the promotion was to remove my brother from the driver position and assign him to the internal affairs office.
That’s the office responsible for filing, running errands, and registering office supplies.
Doesn’t that sound pretty uncomfortable?
After being a confidant for several years, not only was he not given a higher position, but he was also “relegated” to do the most miscellaneous and unnoticed tasks.
If it were someone else, they’d probably be cursing inside, thinking this is a betrayal, a warning, a signal for you to get lost.
My brother didn’t say a word and reported to work the next day.
And then he was completely stunned.
When he was driving, with familiar routes and good vehicle condition, everything was smooth sailing.
Now? Criminal files, administrative files, hundreds of filing cabinets, one wrong number, and someone has to work overtime until midnight, going through dozens of case files from the beginning.
Delivering an urgent document to the city bureau, traffic jams like parking lots, he locked the car and ran two kilometers himself, rushing to deliver the materials at the last minute.
He never complained.
He just kept working steadily, bit by bit.
If he didn’t know something, he’d take a small notebook and ask old colleagues.
For those afraid of making mistakes, they’d look at the paper three times before entering data into the computer, then check again after input.
Once I asked him if he was tired.
He said, “Tired. But more reassuring than driving.”
He used to serve a leader alone, now he feels he’s serving the frontline brothers of the entire bureau.
This work is the foundation; if the foundation is crooked, the building will collapse.
The director occasionally passes by their office door, but doesn’t say much, just asks, “Getting used to it?”
Until one time, the bureau was conducting a special operation, requiring a large amount of supplies and materials.
My brother led two people, working through several all-nighters, making sure all logistical support was flawless—plans, lists, equipment, everything clear.
At the summary meeting after the operation, the director was the first to praise their internal affairs department.
That’s when many people finally realized.
Before a leader truly uses you, what they give you isn’t usually a more glamorous position, but a dirtier, more tiring, more troublesome task.
He’s not looking at how talented you are; he’s looking at how “reliable” you are—whether, when no one is watching, no one is praising, and everyone thinks you’re being “neglected,” you can still handle the most trivial and messy tasks beautifully.
The real opportunity in this world is never about picking a ready-made fruit, but about being given a piece of rotten land and seeing if you can grow a tree on your own.