Tweet

Why DO Idiots Eat Their Young? And, Is it a Bad thing?

Written by: John Grubbs

Article Overview: If we compare the typical "idiot" in business to the starving family patriarch in the cruelest of winters, interesting parallels start to surface. Consider the challenge of feeding a family to the typical business leader that must financially feed his or her team. Imagine the bad winter as analogous to the challenging business climate and the story starts to sizzle.

Why DO Idiots Eat Their Young? And, Is it a Bad thing?

If we compare the typical "idiot" in business to the starving family patriarch in the cruelest of winters, interesting parallels start to surface. Consider the challenge of feedinga family to the typical business leader that must financially feed his or her team. Imagine the bad winter as analogous to the challenging business climate and the story starts to sizzle.

While we love our children dearly, in rarecases there are those families that take for granted what most of us consider to be precious. Many parents would sacrifice their own lives without hesitation to protect those they have brought into this world. Yet, there are strange and tragic cases that cause a parent to defile or evendestroy the untouchable. What causes a parent to take for granted what most could not imagine losing?

Considerthe horror of a large starving family beginning to cannibalize the youngest of children in order to survive the darkest of winters in the wilderness. With children in plentiful supply, the family is presented with ahorrific and ominous opportunity for survival. The rationalization may be multiple. Attachment to these children has notbeen maximized and contacthas been limited. The strongest of bonds (those created over time) have yet to develop.

On paper and in most polite conversations, leaders agree that the quality of your business team or organization is basedon the quality of your people. Yet, this statement is contradicted many times each day by "idiotic" leaders all over the world. How easy is it for leaders to undermine the lives they impact daily? Can they become as cruel and inhumane as the fictitious family in this article?

As leaders lose value for the people they serve, they begin to harden attitudes and the people can, over time, become less valuable than the machines or other property in the organization. This is a subtle and gradual process that is magnified in cyclical businesses repeatedly. Imagine a business serving a market that peaks and valleys every two to three years. And, imagine the employment level in this business adding and losing 70% of its employees each time the market falls. It is only natural over 20-30 years for the leaders to become callused to the value of the individual. These leaders may even choose to limit human emotion in order to make the next round of layoffs easy on themselves. They may resist forming attachments to people they know will be gone with the next swing of the market. This is no different from the soldier that resistsa friendship withthe new soldiers in order to save his own emotional loss ifthe new soldier dies in battle as is likely for the "Newbies" in a long, protractedwar.

This loss of human value is the heart of the thinking for this article. If we are not careful, we canlose value in what is most precious--our people. We don't necessarily do this on purpose. We simply become "battle scarred" during tough economic times and rationalize the unimaginable. World-class companies know that the best people are going allow the best companies to weather this economic storm. These great leaders will re-clarify and re-amplify the value of the best people on the team. They will certainly not take this talent for granted or even worse, remove them from the team to save a myopic buck! Idiots on the other hand find no value in the people that make them successful each day. Theyonly see the financial statements without regard for the lives behind the numbers.

Back to the story... This family patriarch in the worst of conditions is analogous to the leaders that manage many companies today. They see only themselves as valuable and begin to undervalue the smallest among them. The undervaluedare the weakest and most vulnerable therefore it makes sense to let them die so thatstrong may live. Great leaders will weather the storm and even sacrifice themselves in order to protect the smallest and most fragile among the group. Where are these leaders? DO they exist? That's the next article so stay tuned...

Genetically speaking, is it a bad thing for idiots to eat their young? A mature and less emotional view maybe NO. We do not needthese genes in the future anyway!

Related Articles
  Is My Boss an Idiot? Clues you may have an IDIOT for a boss...
  TP's "CEOs are Idiots20"
  I'm Sorry!
  Tip of the week - It's never too early to start connecting
  Appearance

Article Tags: genetics, idiots, leadership, politics
Referred by: http://www.thetrainingbank.com/



Related Forum Posts
Young Entrepreneur Organization - All You Need To Know - The Young Entrepreneur Organization (YEO) is a global community of entrepreneurs. This non-profit organization aims to make its members successful in their business through networking and training programs. This article tells you all you need to know about the Young Entrepreneur Organization, and the opportunities it makes available to young entrepreneurs from across the world. Young Entrepreneur Organization: Facts. 1) The Young Entrepreneur Organization has 5,000 members in 35 countries across the world. 2) The organization was founded in 1987. Since then, it has helped many aspiring entrepreneurs with training facilities and getting in touch with the right people. 3) The average age of the members of Young Entrepreneur Organization is 34 years. 4) In order to be eligible for the membership of Young Entrepreneur Organization, you need to be under the age of 40; and be the founder or partner in a business that has annual sales of more than $1 million. World Entrepreneurs Organization: A part of the Young Entrepreneur Organization, the World Entrepreneur Organization and takes the message of Young Entrepreneur Organization to many additional places around the world. This organization is especially active in the area of education and training for entrepreneurs. Young Entrepreneur Organization: Objectives. 1) To foster entrepreneurship. 2) To support Young Entrepreneur Organization members by providing them the chance to network and grow. 3) To provide resources to its members so that they can benefit the economy through innovative business ideas. 4) According to Young Entrepreneur Organization, you get to share your story with those who have had similar experiences, and thus gain insight into the best principles of entrepreneurship. Young Entrepreneur Organization: Facilities. At the Young Entrepreneur Organization, you get to meet and share views with like-minded people and fellow entrepreneurs. In order to facilitate a free exchange of ideas and growth for its member, the Young Entrepreneur Organization provides the following facilities to members. 1) Forum: Join the forum of the Young Entrepreneur Organization and start networking with entrepreneurs from across the world. Each forum group has 12 members who come together regularly to share their experiences and discuss issues related to entrepreneurship. 2) Mentor: In conjunction with the World Presidents’ Organization, the Young Entrepreneur Organization guides and counsels young entrepreneurs through a mentor program by the best business leaders. 3) Social Innovation: The Social Innovators Program involves Young Entrepreneur Organization member who wish to do something for about social issues. It helps members become socially aware citizens and gives them the opportunity to do something for their community. 4) Marketplace: The marketplace allows members to post business offers and receive replies from other members. These are just some of the facilities you will get if you become part of the Young Entrepreneur Organization. Others, like meeting prospective clients through trade shows, and special tools to network and meet with the right people are also part of the YEO facilities.
Re: Stopping Drive-by Spam - [quote="Alan Mater":1qq9sfvj]There are even those who copy someone else's response and use it as their own.[/quote:1qq9sfvj] Oh yeah that's a big one that happens quite a bit. Another thing they are doing now is taking someone else's reply, spinning it with some sort of article spinner or whatever, then re-posting it as if nobody is going to notice. In the time it takes them to do half this stuff they could have actually posted a legitimate reply. Idiots!
The Value of Mentoring - Successful mentor pairings (in case there was any doubt as to the value of mentoring): 1. André Ouellet (President, Canada Post) mentor to Mark Whalen (Urban Organics and winner, Young Entrepreneur Award) 2. Marc Lefrançois (President, Via Rail Canada) mentor to Jeffrey Campbell (Core Networks, Inc. and winner, Young Entrepreneur Award) 3. Donald Kendall (former CEO of PepsiCo) mentor to John Scully (former CEO of Apple) 4. Harland Sanders (the Colonel) mentor to Dave Thomas (founder of Wendy's) 5. Stuart Friend (KMart manager) mentor to Wayne Sales (CEO of Canadian Tire) 6. Jim Rohn (author, motivational speaker) mentor to Anthony Robbins (author, motivational speaker) 7. Robert Patterson (CEO, National Cash Register) mentor to Thomas Watson (founder of IBM) 8. Henri-Paul Rosseau (President, Laurentian Bank of Canada) mentor to isabel Rodriquez and Yves Besner (i4design and winners, Young Entrepreneur Award)
Re: Stopping Drive-by Spam - [quote="Trent Brownrigg":uara8jjj] In the time it takes them to do half this stuff they could have actually posted a legitimate reply. Idiots![/quote:uara8jjj] Hahaha... exactly! If only they could somehow redirect all of that negative and wasted work into something productive that will actually help them to achieve what they want. I guess they'll just never learn.
Re: How should a young entrepreneur dress to impress? - I would say more so. Young entrepreneurs have to work even harder to be taken seriously. Every little bit helps.


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Tweet

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

The Golden Rule of Communications

Motivation Mistakes

African Technology Development

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.