Ownership and Batman
What it means to go the extra mile
Hey there 👋
Welcome to another issue of Arc - the writing sandbox.
Did you check out our recent post? Thank you all for being readers and subscribers - it means a lot for all our efforts.
Let’s get into today’s topic.
People often ask,
“What makes someone really good at what they do? What makes someone excel?”
And my usual go to answer is -
Get really good at doing the work, showing the work, and improving the work.
Execution -> Documentation -> Reflection
It’s a loop, not a line.
And what ties all this together is usually one theme - Ownership.
Owning what you are supposed to do.
Without anyone telling you to .
Ownership doesn’t begin when someone hands you a task.
It begins the moment you stop waiting to be told.
Not when you get the promotion.
Not when you’re added to the Slack channel.
Not when your name lands on a roadmap.
It begins when you decide.
And most people never flip that switch.
Ok enough Ln post formatting, let’s switch -
What Does it Mean to Have ‘Good Ownership’?
You’ve probably seen this if you’ve worked in or around startups. Someone joins the team. They’re smart. They’re capable. And then…they wait. For the Jira board to update. For someone to assign the next task. For “alignment.”
When things stall, you’ll hear things like:
“No one told me that was urgent.”
“The design wasn’t finalized.”
“I didn’t want to step on toes.”
And while all of that might technically be true, they’re not the real reason nothing moved. The real reason?
They don’t see themselves as owners. They see themselves as todo list completionists.
And honestly, for a lot of jobs, that might be enough. Maybe you just want to do what you were hired to do, collect your paycheck, and move on. Maybe excelling isn’t the goal - and that’s perfectly fine.
But
If you want to be the one.
The one people think of first; for promotions, opportunities, or anything that moves the needle.
The extra miles you put in quietly? They stack up.
Here’s the hard truth though: you can’t train ownership. You can’t teach someone to go the extra mile. There’s no checklist or roadmap for becoming a better owner. It’s a shift in how you see the work. It’s a shift in perspective (won’t be Arc without it innit)
What Ownership Looks Like
Ownership isn’t about being “proactive” in a cover-letter kind of way. It’s about doing “extra”. It’s about behaving like the success or failure of something lands squarely on you, even if no one else expects it to.
And why should you bother? Because if you won’t, the next person will, someone out there will always be better than you at what you do.
In practice, ownership tends to look like four things:
Owners Know What Happens Next Without Being Told
People with a strong ownership mindset don’t just focus on what’s assigned to them. They think ahead. They ask: What’s blocked right now? What will break if no one steps in? What’s coming down the pipeline that we haven’t prepared for yet?
They don’t need to be told every next step because they understand the mission well enough to make smart assumptions. Ambiguity doesn’t scare them.
They treat it like a natural part of the job, not a crisis. Even if they’re not the lead on a project, they act like the outcome depends on them. Because in many cases, it does.
Owners Reduce Friction Instead of Adding To It
One of the easiest ways to spot someone who hasn’t embraced ownership is that they throw incomplete tasks back upstream.
They’ll say things like, “Just tell me what to fix,” or “This needs more input.” They leave loops open and expect others to close them.
Real owners do the opposite. They identify confusion and resolve it. They go find missing answers. They don’t just surface a problem - they show up with a proposed solution or, at the very least, a plan to get one.
They’re not tossing the ball back into someone else’s court. They’re carrying it across the line.
Owners Know When to Lead and When to Follow
Ownership isn’t about being loud, aggressive, or constantly trying to take control. It’s about being useful. That means knowing when to take initiative, and when to defer to someone with more context or experience.
People with strong ownership instincts speak up when they notice something off. But they also know when to follow.
They take the lead on low-risk areas - bug fixes, early drafts, routine improvements - and they follow respectfully in high-risk areas like system-wide changes or executive-facing decisions.
They act with intuition, not ego.
and lastly (perhaps most importantly)
Owners Just Require Less Instruction - and Still Deliver More
The clearest signal of ownership? Fewer check-ins. Less hand-holding. No constant nudges.
People who own their lane don’t wait for a full spec. They don’t need someone to spell out every edge case or next action.
They absorb just enough context to move - and they do. Quickly.
They draft first, ask second. They default to motion, not paralysis. If something’s unclear, they still push a version forward instead of stalling until someone else decides.
And because of that, they become the ones others start to rely on. Not because they’re loud. But because they’re already halfway there before the rest of the team catches up.
You can tell who owns it - they’re already three steps ahead.
These four behaviors are the quiet indicators of real ownership. People who own the work don’t wait to be told what’s next - they see the whole field and move. They don’t create new friction - they resolve it. They don’t get stuck waiting for clarity + they go find it. And they don’t chase credit - they focus on being useful, leading where they can and following when it matters.
You don’t have to guess who owns something. You’ll see it in how they show up.
Ownership is the Vigilante Mindset
Cliche perhaps - but no one ever asked Batman to protect the city. He does it because he had the means to and had a strong reason to. If he won’t - who will.
And perhaps, real life is not fantasy, but the mindset behind every creation is human.
Ownership is like being a vigilante.
No one is asking you to go the extra mile, even I am not.
But if one day you want the comfort of knowing you truly excelled - this might be the only way.
Not because you’re trying to be a hero.
But because you know that you’re the reason the whole machine runs smoother.
That’s ownership.
The Tradeoff
And just like running around fighting crime without jurisdiction, being an owner does have serious downsides.
I have seen it with my own eyes, folks who want to do more, do better, but time and time again - they get screwed over for it. If that’s your situation, perhaps find a new home.
Like most things in life, striving for ‘excellence’ means ‘taking a risk’. Call it opportunity cost, a tradeoff, an investment - use whatever word fits.
You do these things, because you know, in the larger scheme, if all goes well, things will work out for you.
If you pull it off properly, you get real leverage a noisy workplace.
It means:
You’re not replaceable.
You’re not forgettable.
You’re not waiting for someone to tell you what to do.
And no one can give that to you.
You decide to take it. You decide what that’s worth to you.
No Title Required
If you’ve read this far, you probably care about your work. You’re probably not content with doing the bare minimum. That’s a good sign.
So the next time you find yourself wondering whether you’re “ready” to step up, or whether you “have permission” to take initiative - remember this:
Ownership isn’t something you grow into. It’s something you claim - often in small, unnoticed ways. It starts today, with whatever piece of the map you control.
You don’t need a title.
You don’t need permission.
You just need to decide it’s yours.
And that decision? That’s what separates those who stay stuck from those who move ahead - quietly, steadily, unmistakably.
Execute -> Document -> Reflect -> Own
Another way to excel is in the presence of others who motivate you.
The Wandering Pro is a quiet corner of the internet where freelancers, tech workers, and first-time builders gather to make steady progress - one challenge, one win, one project at a time.
Join The Wandering Pro; find your rhythm, share progress, and grow with a community backed by decades of real-world building experience.