There is a story about an emperor who had a pact with the prime minister whereby the emperor’s role was to reward good behaviour while the role of the prime minister was to punish the ones who contravene the law. After a while, the emperor found out that the people feared the prime minister yet the people did not take the emperor seriously. The emperor thought for a while and decided to reverse the role with the prime minister.
The prime minister agreed.
After a while, there was a rebellion.
The prime minister is now the emperor.
Moral of the story is that if we adopt a friendly attitude and then turned to be tough later,the implication is usually negative.
The ones who like us will hate us.
The ones who hate us will scream even more.
However if we are initially tough and then adopt a more liberal attitude, people will tend to think that we have grown wiser.
People tend to perceive that we have mellowed due to progressive age.
People will be more inclined to like us more.
In order to do good sometimes we need to be tough.
Our parents are generally tough on us even though they love us.
They set rules.
They instill discipline.
For us to become better.
In one particular chinese warrior movie about three blood brothers, the lead character ordered the public execution of the soldiers who contravened the law when rampaging across the enemy’s lines in order to maintain law and order among the soldiers.
Punishment is swift and an example needs to be set.
People will then take our words more seriously.
Our words is a testimony of our character.
Who will ever take us seriously if we do not act on what we said.
Paying lip service will bring more harm.
In the end, all credibility is lost.
Salvaging credibility is then a lost cause.
In the feudal times, every enemy’s head has a reward. The higher the status, the bigger is the reward.
Reward is immediate upon achievement of the desired goals.
There is a decorated coach who took the challenge of coaching a club. He is a soft spoken coach who uses a very relaxed method in training.He is still known as Mr. Nice Guy. Things went very well at first and they won a number of games. After the midway mark, when results went the opposite way, he lost his cool and started to be tougher.
Response was immediate.
He was sacked as he lost all his admirers.
Discipline in execution and implementation is of utmost importance.
To be tough enough to instill discipline is a challenge.
Without discipline, results will never be great.
The great young coach from the European continent showed us how it can be executed effectively in the recent elite football competition when his rock solid team beat a more fancied opponent.
Tough at first.
Soft in the end.
Discipline is a must.
However the choice is still ours to make.
To be the emperor.
Or the prime minister.
Maybe its none of the above.