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It is not making better people of others that management is about. It’s about making a better person of self. Income, power, and titles have nothing to do with that.
People are not "things" to be manipulated, labeled, boxed, bought, and sold. Above all else, they are not "human resources." They are entire human beings, containing the whole of the evolving universe, limitless until we start limiting them. We must examine the concept of leading and following with new eyes. We must examine the concept of superior and subordinate with increasing skepticism. We must examine the concept of management and labor with new beliefs. And we must examine the nature of organizations that demand such distinctions with an entirely different consciousness.
The reason is still difficult to explain, but it is not complicated. That inner voice that will not be denied, once we learn to listen to it, had whispered since the beginning, "Business is not what your life is about. Founding VISA and being its chief executive officer is something you must do, but it's only preparatory."
Each time I replied, "You're crazy! Preparatory for what--and where--and why?" There was no answer, only silence. In time the voice became incessant and demanding.
"You don't understand, VISA's not an end. It's only an archetype. Give it up, and the business world as well--completely--irrevocably--now! Then you may understand!" It was frightening. It was maddening. I felt a damned fool to even think about it. A rational, conservative, pragmatic, hard-nosed, fifty-five-year-old businessman who'd never smoked a joint or dropped a drug, listening to "inner voices?" Absurd! Throw away a lifetime of work--success, money, power, prestige--as though it had no value in the vague hope that life had more meaning? Madness!
Never hire or promote in your own image. It is foolish to replicate your strength and idiotic to replicate your weakness. It is essential to employ, trust, and reward those whose perspective, ability, and judgment are radically different from yours. It is also rare, for it requires uncommon humility, tolerance, and wisdom.
