I run a number of businesses. Mainly they are welfare, schools and consulting businesses. Unfortunately, running all these businesses I have seen that people deceive, especially when it comes to money.
First I thought, I should not feel bad, it happens, I should just let it go and try to make myself more positive. But then money also impacts the family and other businesses. I don't know whether I should still continue with this and face it as it comes, or I should just leave everything.
First of all, we should see to whom we are being compassionate. You cannot be compassionate to undeserving people. That is like taking advantage of your compassion. You need to see whether the people towards whom you are being compassionate really deserve it.
Secondly, give them training in ethics and integrity. Why do some people cheat? It is because they don't have a broader vision about life. It is because that is not in their education system at all. Insecurity comes out of lack of a value system. So a little bit of education about values can change the mindset of people to be more connected and honest. This is one thing.
Third, we should look into our own mind. Suppose we have had a bitter experience with three people, the fourth person will also get the same label before even doing something. Repeated bad experiences make us see things differently. We should not allow the past to color our present vision.
It depends on what kind of atmosphere prevails in the company. If the atmosphere is very friendly, congenial, and more of a celebratory or joyful, then a little indifference towards a person itself is good enough. Otherwise, whatever strict measures need to be taken, need to be taken. I would say, give three chances, if the person doesn't improve, show them the door. You cannot run a business like a charity and charity cannot be run like a business.
Maybe you should travel to areas where people don't look at advertisements and talk to them. You know, one part of recruiting is by putting ads, another part is by traveling a little bit. One to one connection, that might inspire people to join.
You know, language is not an issue at all, at least not in this age. People all over the world don't really speak one language. You may say that English is the international language, but when you go to South America, they don't speak English! A lot of the people in Europe don't speak English. You go to Russia, who speaks English there? Same with India, except for few pockets in India, people don't speak English so much. So, first of all, see that the language is not the barrier. People can learn to communicate even without knowing a particular language. Of course, it will take a little longer time for people to communicate, and we should allow that atmosphere to happen.
If you see our setup in Bangalore, there are people who speak Malayalam, Tamil and Kannada. The local laborers speak only Kannada and the management don't speak Kannada. Most of them speak Hindi. And there are people who don't know English. So you just come and visit us, stay for 3-4 days and you will understand how things work very smoothly when there is a single commitment among all people.
We have special programs for schools, and it has worked magic. I want to quote one incident in Chicago, USA. One district school had 260 incidents of violence in a year, after the program, it came down to 62. And in the second year, it came down further to 20. So it is very important for children to learn the value of non-violence, non-aggression, friendliness and co-operation. And we have programs designed just for this. We are very happy to share this with you. Such programs are held for thousands of children everywhere because it is important for them to learn how to handle negativity.
Neither at school nor at home does anyone teach us how to handle our negative emotion. Getting angry, jealous, frustrated is natural. When these negative feelings come up, who teaches us how to handle our mind? When we don't know how to handle these emotions, the pressure builds up and builds up and then shows itself as violence. Sometimes people become so disruptive that they turn schizophrenic.
Children who are brilliant, by the age of 17-18 years, they get bipolar and schizophrenic diseases. So we need to educate them on how to handle their negative emotions, how to handle their own mind and be friendly with everybody.
In a classroom if you ask a child, how many friends do you have, they say three, or four, or five. I ask them a question. In a school of 5000 children, if you are not being friendly with 50 kids, then how are you going to be friendly with 7 billion people in the world? So we have not taught children the value of friendliness; how to be friendly with everyone around.
We have some programs where we tell them to make one new friend every day.
