The narrative recounts an engineer's journey from struggling to advance from an L4 to an L5 engineer at Airbnb to founding a startup and realizing the importance of trust and dependability in engineering roles. Initially, the engineer focused on working hard and solving immediate problems, but failed to meet project goals due to a lack of accountability and communication, resulting in a harsh performance review. This experience underscored the importance of trust and reliability in delivering complex projects and led to a shift in perspective when founding a startup, where hiring decisions emphasized senior engineers capable of consistently shipping challenging projects. The engineer reflects on the significance of building trust through a streak of reliability, arguing that dependability outweighs unreliable excellence, as trust is crucial in managing high-stakes projects within the broader scope of company operations. The narrative concludes with advice on focusing on being a dependable engineer and maintaining reliability to advance in one's career and contribute effectively to a team.