Every entrepreneur, upon attaining a bit of success, must go through countless moments of pain and suffering.
For me, the greatest suffering and bitterness is when my long-time associates and employees fall behind and become redundant as the company continuously grows. Some people have dedicated “their entire youth” to the company, only to end up becoming an obstacle to the company itself or even becoming a destroyer of the company, resulting in having to part ways with each other in ultimate agony.
I have one very painful experience like that.
I once had an extremely close female employee. She worked with us from the very early days of founding the company. Back then, we went through countless bitterness, ups, and downs together without ever tasting sweet fruit. She was extremely resourceful and smart when handling problems in a “street-smart” manner. During the company’s newly established period, she was very effective. She could solve any task because she was tactful and very well-liked by everyone.
She married one of my closest friends. Whenever her family or my house had issues, we helped each other out with all our hearts. To me, for a long time she was no longer merely an associate; she was like a younger sister in the family.
However, she had a very big weakness, which was that she was lazy about learning new knowledge. She did not know English and refused to update new knowledge regarding management, sales, marketing, finance, and accounting. As many years passed, she still lived solely on her existing knowledge. As the company grew further and further, she could not manage anyone additionally. She only did the things she had done before.
She gradually became a redundant person in the company. Having her around was fine, but not having her made no difference either. The company needed people proficient in English and possessing new skills, rather than just “running errands” anymore. She was very tactful, so she was still well-liked by many people in the company; however, there was not much respect or admiration for her, especially from newcomers. Newcomers would not care for a “founding figure” at all if the old-timer had nothing special.
And finally, she did an appalling thing and committed a severe violation of the law. She engaged in private business (illegally) but in the name of our company. Her actions could have collapsed our entire company and landed everyone involved in legal trouble if we had continued to condone her. The new investors, institutional investors who respected our laws that year, were extremely firm in refusing to accept that matter. The Board of Directors decided that she had to leave, and her violation of the law was reported to the functional authorities.
She left in hatred and bitterness. We also lost a close friend (her husband) at the same time.
Back then, because I did not directly manage the company, I told the co-founder cum company CEO (and her direct manager) many times about raising her qualifications. But he ignored everything. Every time I debated that matter, he would argue back fiercely: “If she doesn’t like it, why do you keep forcing her to learn? Are you crazy?” He did not force her to learn English seriously, did not require her to attend graduate school, and was not strict with her regarding work quality. I consider that his biggest responsibility and mistake was “mediocritizing and dumbing down” a close associate of his. To this day, I still have not forgiven him for this matter.
Even now, every time I think back, I blame and torment myself. If only back then I had been firmer in forcing her to study and make progress, especially in English. If only back then, we had not turned her into an “errand runner,” but instead forced her to work systematically. If only back then we had not condoned her lack of professional experience and work principles. If only back then we had parted ways very early upon realizing she was no longer suitable for the organization. She could have become a good and talented leader. But three instances of our “shrugging” and letting things slide spoiled her. We ourselves “mediocritized” her due to carelessness and superficiality in our company’s personnel training.
A few months ago, I also had to grit my teeth and wipe away tears to let a low-level employee whom I was very fond of “depart.” Simply because he refused to learn more English and refused to learn about other positions, even though I had encouraged him many times and created all conditions for him to learn more. But he wanted to “settle for his lot,” so he rejected my proposals. And finally, after 2 weeks of sleepless consideration, I decided to dismiss him.
On the day of parting, I told him: I am truly very fond of you, but I must let you go because in just a few more years, with this mindset of yours, you will certainly fall behind. At that time, the company and I would feel immense pain when having to fire you. So letting you go now, I hope, will be a wake-up call for you to change.
When stopping learning and refusing to change to progress further, long-time/old employees will have only two paths. If they are gentle and not too smart, they will become living, perception-lacking corpses (called “zombies”). These zombies will linger aimlessly at the company. Or they become a close younger brother/sister or older brother/sister to the company leaders.
Or they have lived for too long and once made major contributions to the company as conservative “founding figures.” And ultimately, they will destroy the motivation of those who are dedicated and passionate in the company. As for those who are smart but lazy to change/learn, they will become “practitioners of dark arts.” You will follow the “crooked path” instead of the “righteous path.” Lacking new capabilities, you will use “tricks” and “schemes” to handle work and survive. Regarding external matters, instead of convincing clients or partners through expertise, you will “lobby” to get things approved smoothly.
At the company, instead of proving your capability, you will use “office politics” to survive. You will badmouth this person, belittle that person; on one hand pleasing the boss, but on the other hand “vying pettily” with peers of equal level, or “suppressing” lower-level staff so they cannot rise above you. And finally, what must come will come: either that person climbs to a very high position and then one day the entire organization collapses, or that person turns the organization into an extremely toxic place where everyone is scared and sickened by them and does not want to touch them.
The experience with my former female associate always haunts me, and I constantly tell myself never to repeat this traumatic experience again.
In any organization where I participate in leadership, the ability to self-study and the discipline for continuous learning are the virtues I value most and hold the highest commitment to. I always require all my associates, from low levels to high levels, to continuously learn, read books, gain experiences, and learn new skills. Especially leaders: those who have not pursued graduate studies are required to study, and those who do not use English well are required to be able to use English. Those who are not eager to learn, I also firmly demand to be dismissed, sooner or later.
And when a learning policy has been issued, everyone must learn, without any excuses whatsoever. There is no such thing as being busy, absorbed in business, having family matters, or being sick, etc. Learning is learning. Once, I announced that I would suspend salary reviews and bonuses for nearly all 100 employees in the division I was in charge of at a large consulting group because they refused to learn. Within 1 week, all employees completed all courses.
Do not let your employees/associates become “zombies” or follow “dark arts.” The greatest crime of a leader is “dumbing down” those who follow them. And never “condone” the superficiality and mediocrity of yourself and your associates.
Nguyen Quoc Toan
