eat or be eaten
You either feed the beast or become the beast's snack. Life is a meatball toss and you better be hungry enough to catch it or get stepped on by the meatball king.
I worked my butt off all week. My boss got promoted and I got stuck with more work.
I stayed late to finish my project. My coworker left early and now he's getting the praise.
I didn't show up for the meeting. Now I have to do twice as much work because I'm the 'disaster zone'.