Bloggy Business Today

The following is an excerpt from Velvet Globe, Iron Fist by Konosuke Matsushita (Panasonic founder).  This writer wishes to share this article to the readers as a reminder about the value of INTEGRITY in every person’s life.

During the later Han era in China, there lived a politician called Yang Zhen, a man known for his upright character.  After Yang Zhen was made a provincial governor, one of his earlier patrons, Wang Mi paid him an unexpected visit.  As they were conversing about the old times, Wang Mi brought out a large gold cup and presented it to Yang Zhen.  Yang Zhen refused to accept it, but Wang Mi persisted saying that, “there is no one tonight but you and me, so no one will know.”

Yang Zhen replied by saying, “that is not true that no one will know.  Heaven will know and you and I will know it too.”  Wang Mi was ashamed and backed down.  Subsequently Yang Zhen’s integrity was increasing recognition, and he rose to a higher position in the Central Government of China.

Human nature is weak and tends to yield to temptation when nobody seems to see.  In fact, if there was no police force, many people would not hesitate to steal.  This is not to say that when someone is doing bad, there is no feeling of compunction at all, just that man is weak and prone to yield to temptation.

But even if nobody witnesses a person’s sin, and not a soul knows of it, the truth cannot be hidden from the eyes of the conscience.  In the end, what is important is not that the other people know, but the individual himself.  When Yang Zhen told Wang Mi that “Heaven will know”, he meant that the gods would know what he had done: in other words, his own conscience.

A person who commits sin neither in thought or deed and is fair and just gains enormous courage and strength.  As a leader, courage born of integrity is needed, in order to be capable of powerful leadership.  To achieve this courage, the heart must be searched and make sure that conscience is clear and behavior is beyond reproach.

There are a lot of successful businessmen today who toil and work hard to build stable empires thanks to hard work. The lucky patrons for such efforts would be the children and offspring who would usually be groomed to carry on the business. Sad to say, a change in business approach can be devastating even for millionaire businessmen. The difference lies on origin.

Businessmen who make a name for themselves start out with practically nothing. They chip in their saved earnings, hoping to make it big someday. Never will you see any down-line offspring of these successful men have a hard time. They have all the money to burn and will not live the hard times that their elders experienced. In short, rarely would you see a descendant become as successful as their father or mother mainly because they are too busy dreaming of lifestyles fit for a king.

You can call them lucky to have parents who are wise and witty. But put them on equal footing with aspiring tycoons today. You will note that they don’t even know how to come up with a simple business plan, market a product or plainly do a cost-benefit analysis. All they care about is profit.

Such a funny scenario. It really makes you think if these people did graduate because of wisdom or just because they had the money to pay for their grades. What a shameful act and you can just imagine the embarrassment they could get if it would be opened like a can of worms to the public.