06th March, 2023
History has it that when the ancient Chinese decided to live in peace, they made the Great Wall of China; they thought no one could climb it due to its height.
During the first 100 years of its existence, the Chinese were invaded thrice and every time, the hordes of enemy infantry had no need to penetrate or climb over the wall, because each time, they bribed the guards and came through the doors.
The Chinese built the wall, but forgot the character-building of the wall-guards.
Though the Great Wall has over the years become a powerful symbol of the country’s enduring strength and spirit, but it has actually been a good reminder to the Chinese of the superiority of human character.
William Shakespeare captured it succinctly when he said: “The fault is not in our stars, but in ourselves .”
The Chinese realised much later that the best defence against the enemy is not a fortified wall, but a fortified character. Thus, the building of human character comes before the building of anything else.
Peter Schutz, the former chief executive officer of Porsche said, “ HIRE CHARACTER; TRAIN SKILLS .”
The four words by Peter Schutz have a lot more depth than often perceived.
If you want to move fast, you can focus on talent and get the tasks done in a jiffy. But if you want to go farther, then focusing on the character is easily your best bet.
Neuroscience shows that personality is something that’s difficult to change. And most of a person’s personality develops by the age of 5 to 6.
Time and time again, it has been proven that skills can be taught or transferred, but a person’s character cannot be changed.
This indicates that you’ll have a very hard time if you try to work on the character of your team.
As famously said; “talent is what gets you through the doors; character is what lets you stay in the room” and former president Thomas Jefferson summed it up beautifully while saying, “Nothing can stop the man with the right character from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong character”.
Let’s teach our children the right values and build their character instead of only focussing on building their skill set.
Hence, to succeed; build a great team, “HIRE CHARACTER; TRAIN SKILLS” and Stay blessed forever.