Friday Reflections

An ounce of loyalty is better than a pound of cleverness

"Somebody once said that in looking for people to hire, you look for three qualities: integrity, intelligence, and energy. And if they don’t have the first, the other two will kill you. You think about it; it’s true. If you hire somebody without the first, you really want them to be dumb and lazy." - Warren Buffett.

Storyline:

Temujin, or Genghis Khan as we know him, was a great thirteenth century Mongol warrior who had conquered more land in 25 years than the Romans did in 400 years. In the process he connected many civilizations from Europe to Asia. He abolished the old system based on special privilege for the rich and introduced a more equitable system based on qualifications and accomplishments. He lived the simple life of a nomad, distributed his wealth to people and established a fair system based on law and order. 

In war he was ruthless but in friendship he was kind. He valued loyalty as a very important trait in people.

In the early 13th century, the Mongol forces finally defeated their archrival Jamuka once and for all. Jamuka fled to distant mountains with some of his soldiers.  The life in exile was very difficult and hard to handle for soldiers who had prospered under Jamuka and were used to life of affluence. Unable to cope with the harsh life, they tied up their leader and took him to Temujin hoping for amnesty and a handsome reward.

Guess what Temujin did to those soldiers?

Temujin executed them all.

But to his opponent he was gracious, and asked Jamuka to join him.

Reflection:

For Temujin, loyalty was not selective for good times and richness only. What do you think those soldiers would have done to him if he was having tough times?

It is in the bad times that a persons’ loyalty is truly tested.

The Greatest Problem of Communication

This week's cartoon: "The greatest problem of communication is the illusion that it has been accomplished."  - George Bernard Shaw

Hint: you can click on the cartoon above to enlarge it.

Cream or Sugar?

“Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born.” - Anaïs Nin.

Storyline:

A few years ago, a fellow received a message from a well-wisher: “Congratulations on a well deserved promotion. The cream always rises to the top. Best Wishes.”

The newly promoted fellow replied, “Thanks for your confidence and well wishes.  As far as being the cream, I’d rather be the sugar instead. It is easy to scrape off the cream, but the sugar mixes with milk and makes it sweeter.” 

I guess the promoted fellow was sharing something from a story he had learned in his childhood.

In the 7th century, a fleet of ships consisting of people who had fled Persia due to the change of regime arrived at the western shores of India. They were looking for a place to migrate and make their new home.

Since they spoke a different language, the king of a small state in India sent his emissary with a glass full of milk to communicate to the visitors that he had no space in his kingdom for more people.

The head of the fleet poured a spoon full of sugar in the glass of milk and sent it back to the king of the Indian state.

The king was first amused at the returned glass of milk but then he tasted it. His face lit up realizing that the message from the visitors was, “We will mix with your people and integrate into your community just like sugar mixes in milk and makes it sweeter.”

And how true were they to their word? Zoroastrians or Parsis as they are known in India, is a community of 100,000 in a country of 1 Billion people. Their contributions in industry, art, science and literature are disproportionately tremendous. Just to mention a few Parsis: Zubin Mehta world famous conductor, Tata family- founder of many industries and Air India, Homi Bhabha the founder of India’s Nuclear Program, Dadabhoy Navroji- a co-founder of modern India in Gandhi’s team, Godrej family- large industrialist, and so many more…

I guess it takes only a small amount of sugar (.01% of the population) to add a lot of sweetness to the large pot of milk.

Reflection:

When you go to a new environment: whether it is a country or a company or an organization, mix with the local culture and use your talents in such a way that it enhances the capabilities of your new organization.

The story of a good man

This Thanksgiving Week: An old but powerful story that illustrates the difference between a successful team or community ("heaven") and an unsuccessful one ("hell").

"Teamwork is the ability to work together toward a common vision, the ability to direct individual accomplishments toward organizational objectives. It is the fuel that allows common people to attain uncommon results." - Andrew Carnegie.

Hint: you can click on the cartoon to enlarge it.

One of the most dangerous requests: "Give me honest feedback."

“Feedback is a gift” - Craig Brown

Once upon a time, in the early part of their careers, two rookies from a semiconductor supplier were involved in a major annual review with one of their company's largest customers. 

The head of the customer crew that had descended upon their facility was very impressed with the presentation that these rookies had given in the morning, and invited them to join him for lunch.  During this short break, they immediately established a good level of rapport and trust.

At the end of the day, back in the conference room, the customers wrapped-up as usual with feedback about their supplier’s performance.  Unusually, this time, the head of the customer crew asked the rookies directly, "Please give us honest feedback about how we are doing?"

This was a surprise for these rookies, who were momentarily taken aback.  However, since they were impressed by the humility and commitment to improvement that the customer was demonstrating, the rookies enthusiastically started delivering "Honest Feedback" about their customer.

As this feedback progressed, one of the rookies noticed that the other seven members (managers, engineers, a quality guy and some buyers) of the customer crew were constantly interrupting and explaining that things had to be that way because of the nature of their business and elegance of their technology. Also the faces of those magnificent seven seemed to be getting pinker and pinker. The rookies couldn’t figure out whether their faces were flushing with joy, or with something else.

Two days later, the rookies were summoned into their Boss’ Boss office. Their own boss was also present; and both those gentlemen’s faces looked pink and red, just like the faces of the seven customer folks two days earlier.  The big boss said that he had to field several calls from upset customer people. "What did you do?"

The rookies said, "The customer V.P. asked for honest feedback. So we gave him many improvement ideas and told him what other companies did better."

The bosses, faces still red, could not contain the laughter; even though it seemed that they really did not want to do that. The big boss said, "Honest, but not that honest!" Then he said (kind of admiringly), "Get the hell out of here."

Upon hearing about the episode, some senior employees were convinced that there would soon be a going-away party for the rookies.

Sequel: 
A week later, the rookies were again summoned in to the big boss’s office. The customer V.P. had sent two boxes for the rookies. Each box contained one tie pin representing his company’s products; one was a model of fighter jet F15 and the other was a model of the fighter jet F18. I think one of the rookies may still have the tie pin in a safe deposit box.

Reflection:
A feedback is a Gift. And that "Gift" deserves a gift for the person who gives you that "Gift."

Bigger station, bigger income!

"For what does it benefit man if his status is raised when he himself is not raised?"
- Louis Fisher on Mahatma Gandhi’s philosophy.

The real change in the status of a person does not come through a promotion or position, but through the genuine transformation of their character and values.

Hint: you can click on the cartoon to enlarge it.

Can you get "out of the box?"

This week: a simple and fun puzzle game based on our most popular cartoon, "Logic will get you from A to B, but imagination will take you everywhere". 

Slide the blocks to reveal the picture and see if you can beat your best time!  Click here to give it a go.

Hint: you can also click on the image above to open the game.

Persistence Pays Part 4: From Homeless to Billionaire

"I have said many times that the difference between successful people and unsuccessful people is that successful people do a lot of the things that unsuccessful people don't want to do. Like when the door is slammed in your face ten times, you go on to door number eleven with just as much enthusiasm.” - John Paul Dejoria.

Storyline:

If this were just another rags to riches story, I would probably not cover it here. However, the story of John Paul Dejoria was particularly exceptional and fascinating to me: because of his values, his "out of the box thinking", and what he did with his phenomenal success.

John Paul grew up with a single parent, amongst the gangs of East Los Angeles, living in near poverty. At the age of nine, he would deliver newspapers at 3 O'clock in the morning with his brother, dreaming that he might earn $150 week someday so that he could afford a used car.

As fate would have it, while still in his early 20s, he himself became a single parent with a young son to support.  To get by, he took various jobs such as being a janitor, a gas station attendant, repairing bicycles, and selling encyclopedias. During this time, he also became homeless twice.  Too proud to ask for help, he collected coke bottles and cans and cashed them in for small meals. By any standards, he was in deepest of valleys, but managed to keep his hopes high to climb the greatest of mountains.

In 1980, he finally got his break.  He was able to borrow $700 with his friend, Paul Mitchell, to start a new company. This company would introduce a new line of hair care products under the brand name "Paul Mitchell".

At the time, this company was one post office box and an answering machine.  Their voice message was recorded by a female friend with an English accent in the back seat of their car (the office).   Not being able to afford colored ink, they went with black and white packaging - which today is the instantly recognizable Paul Mitchell brand.

Instead of following the convention of chasing after supermarkets and chain stores, the partners knocked on the doors of hair salons across the United States. They used an innovative sales strategy that had never been tried in that industry before. They offered to do free demonstrations for customers and guaranteed that if the product didn't sell, the salons could return it without any conditions.

Suffice to say, the salons loved it, and their customers did too. As the company grew, John Paul continued to innovate; running it with a management philosophy to hire, train and retain the best people, and reward them handsomely.  As a result, his company operates with three to four times less resources than his competitors, or in his words, with “fewer moving parts ... fewer people doing more.”

With this combination of innovation and persistence in everything; ranging from design and sales to operations, his dream of earning $150/Week turned quickly into billions of dollars in assets.  Today, John Paul Dejoria is still innovating.  He is involved in many other ventures ranging from tequila and pet care products to solar cars and environmental projects. He donates $100s of millions to various charitable causes around the world. His motto is “Success unshared is failure.”

Reflection:

There are a few common themes that come out of the lives of successful people.

1. They have dreams and know what they want to achieve.

2. They are willing to pay the price (whatever it may be) to achieve them.

3. They go for them with passion and never look back.

Hint: you can see other stories in our 'persistence pays' series by clicking here