He who brings forth a fool has sorrow for it…
Proverbs 17:21 (TS2009)
This verse struct a nerve in me this morning.
I’ve previously only taken this to apply to people who have kids, which I don’t. But it does remind me of an experience when I invited someone I thought I could trust into an organization I worked for.
I was serving as the chief marketing officer at the time, and this person was another fellow executive in his own organization. We had a lot in common; both with military backgrounds and great work ethics. What I didn’t know, however, was that this guy was in secret competition with me.
He accepted a role within my department and didn’t take me long to realize that this guy had very little concept of organizational hierarchy, which we veterans would call chain-of-command.
There began to be problems of miscommunication with community organizations as this person took it upon himself to put personal relationships with our partners above the official, organizational relationships we were trying to build. We’re still recovering from that.
Ultimately, the true colors came out when the previous Vice President resigned from his position leaving it vacant. This person that I invited and endorsed made a power move that taught me some valuable lessons in business and relationships.
Despite the betrayal, I stuck to my guns and held my composure. Ultimately, he underestimated the relationships and reputation I already had in the org and his rebellion from my department left him exposed to be confronted head on about some of those community relationships.
By the end of that meeting, I was the new Vice President and that person didn’t talk to me again. What a blessing!
The experience taught me two important things:
- Some people will get close to you only to benefit from your success.
- If you give someone something they didn’t earn, they won’t appreciate it.
Hopefully this saves you leaders and entrepreneurs some trouble.