An Irreplaceable Individual

In my post, "Who do you think you are?", I wrote of individuals who are so good at their jobs that not just anybody could come along and replace them.

If you quit and disappear, who will come along and replace you? Will that person have the same value to your employer as you do? Will he or she be able to do your job as well as you can?

I was attempting to express the point that an individual is an end in himself.

Today's The Oklahoman has a story which seems tailor-made to illustrate this point: Tatyana Golubeva was the first employee hired by Oklahoma City's PL Studios. According to CEO Piyush Patel,

"She is really the foundation of our company,” Patel said. "The technology that’s locked up in her head — it would take five years to transfer that technology to someone else.”

PL Studios even considered opening an office in Russia because of Golubeva’s presence there, Patel said.

Golubeva lived in the US for 13 years but has been forced to return to Russia because of a visa issue.

Here is an example of the uniqueness of the individual: Golubeva seems so indispensable to PL Studios that the company might not even be able to exist were it not for her.