Saving Mother Earth

Human beings are smart. In fact, we are so smart that we have used our intelligence to perfect the four animal propensities – eating, sleeping, mating and defending. But perhaps we’re not so smart after all, because this process of perfecting has come at the expense of the Earth, endangering this planet and its inhabitants for the purpose of profiting.

Today is Earth Day. A day when, globally, we are all supposed to take stock of our impact on the world and try to minimise that impact. There is a lot of significance in this Earth Day – a ‘world-day’ concept that has been around since the 1970s – and I would encourage everyone to do what they can to contribute to the active awareness and practice of environmentally beneficial behaviour.

But I would also encourage everyone to consider every single day as Earth Day. I feel that we must all realise that we are not individual people or individual countries whose actions affect only ourselves. This is together our joint responsibility. If the Earth can no longer sustain us, then it does not matter who we are and where we come from. No one will survive if the Earth does not.

Personally, I try to do my bit – I am conscious of my consumption behaviour, I am a vegetarian, I try to live ‘green’… but I know I could do more. We could all do more.

Every day should be considered Earth Day because we must treat the Earth as a mother. Because that is what the Earth is, and we are suffocating our mother. From her we get produce, trees, plants, air to survive, water, fire. We have to see it like that. See it as a whole. We all depend on Mother Earth to survive, and if we don’t realise how dependent we are on ‘her’ – despite all our technological advancements – we’re simply not going to survive. We will lose Mother Earth as our home.

Our resources are depleting. And we are all part of the cause. We can also be part of the solution. We must make a collective, cohesive effort to do something about it. We must not think of ourselves as country versus country, or person versus person, but rather as one unit that survives on one thing for our very survival: the Earth.

Perhaps the enormity of the consequences are simply too unfathomable for us to actually grasp the reality of the situation. Perhaps we simply cannot comprehend how desperate the situation is. I am not a doom-and-gloom person, but this is the reality: we are suffocating the very thing that allows us to breathe. Awareness campaigns such as Earth Day and the recent Earth Hour, are important in that they are hopefully helping to drive home the comprehension that we must do something. It starts with all of us and it is up to all of us.

The Earth is our temporary home and the home of our future generations. Let’s treat it with the care and importance it deserves.

Sincerely,

Joseph Bismark
Group Managing Director
QI Group

 

Descend to Escape the Well

I have always looked upon other people as being like threads that are woven together in intricate patterns to form the fabric of the communal world we live in. Take, for instance, the fact that in the collective life that we all share, we are surrounded by many people, of different backgrounds, with varying opinions, from various walks of life, with diverse areas of individual expertise. I am so grateful that our life offers us this. The way I see it, this means that life affords us a wealthy existence through the rich value of information and knowledge we can gather from others. We all live in our own world, but as long as we don’t walk around with our minds and eyes closed, everyone’s world can be positively enhanced and enlightened by the ‘worlds’ of others.

It pleases me that many of these important ‘threads’ are people whom I consider to be Greater Authorities. Greater, or higher, authorities are, to me, people who have an area of knowledge in which they excel, and they share this information with others. I am thankful for these people, as they allow me to be continually learning. Because in life, if we are not learning, we’re not really living, are we? When you say, ‘I know everything’, you stop learning. Admitting to what you do not know takes a lot of humility. To say you know everything is the height of arrogance.

Recognising, listening to, and learning from greater authorities allow us to learn things that would otherwise be outside our own realm of experience and knowledge. The knowledge these people share is of the sort that we should accept, even though we may not be able to test that knowledge ourselves. If we are smart and humble, we will learn from this knowledge. This is learning through the process of ‘descending’. We allow knowledge to descend to us from higher authorities. But, if we are arrogant and closed minded, we will disregard anything that we have not experienced ourselves, to our own detriment. This is the process of learning through ascending.

Allow me to illustrate the perils of learning through ascending.

 

There was a frog who lived at the bottom of a well.  This frog had never left his little world in the well, and he had no intention of ever doing so. One day, the frog’s cousin – who had been hopping around the globe, sightseeing and having adventures – stopped in to visit his cousin in the well. The cousin was telling spectacular stories about the mountains he had seen on his travels. But the frog in the well looked confused.

 

“These mountains can’t be any taller than the walls in my well. These walls are the tallest things I’ve ever seen. They are the tallest things in the world,” said the frog in the well.

 

The frog’s cousin continued his tale, telling the frog in the well about the amazing shades of green and brown he had seen on these mountains.

 

“What are these silly shades you talk about, cousin? I know that there is only one colour green, and it is the colour of the moss here in my well. And I know for a fact that the only brown is the colour of these rocks here in my well.”

 

The frog’s cousin was not discouraged, but decided to stop talking about mountains. Instead, he started to explain about the big, wide oceans he had seen. The cousin said that even if there was no rain, the oceans could never dry up because there was so much water!

 

The frog in the well started drinking as much water as he could from the well.

 

“Is there this much water in the ocean?” he said, pointing at his big belly, now full of water.

 

“Oh no, no,” said the cousin. “The ocean is so huge with water. Much, much more water than could fit in your belly!”

 

So the frog in the well drank even more water, and his belly became more bloated. “Is it this big?”

 

“Oh no, no. You could never drink as much water as the ocean. It is much bigger!”

 

But the frog in the well, with his limited perception of how ‘big’ something could be, did not believe that he could not drink more water than the ocean. He did not believe what his cousin, who had seen the ocean, had told him.

 

So the frog in the well drank more and more water. And more, and more, and more as he tried to drink as much water as the ocean.

 

And then he exploded.

 

I remember that story from when I was growing up in the ashram. I remember thinking to myself, ‘How can the frog be so dumb!’

Now that I am older, I realise that the frog in the well was arrogant, and that made him dumb. He was not willing to listen and learn from a greater authority. Because he had not seen mountains with his own eyes, he was not willing to believe someone else when they told him that mountains were higher than the tallest thing he had seen: the walls of his well. And instead of learning something by allowing knowledge to descend to him from someone who was a greater authority on what the world was actually like, he was trying to learn by ascending. He had to drink enough water to match the ocean so he could learn how big the ocean really was. And this was his downfall.

Please take a moment to ponder… Even if we are in our own well – our own little ‘world’ – we can still learn. Be wise enough to admit that you do not know everything. Be humble enough to realise that some things in life are beyond your own imaginations, scope, or reality of experience. Be open minded enough to learn, even if you can’t experience it for yourself. Be aware enough to recognise greater authorities when you meet them. Learn from them by allowing their knowledge to descend to you. Be sure that you go to the right authority for the right knowledge.

Analyse each colourful thread in the fabric of life. Rationalise it. Evaluate it. And add to it.

 

Sincerely,
Joseph Bismark

Group Managing Director, QI Ltd

The Tale of the Monk and the Samurai

When you are a network marketer, there are many things to consider other than the more traditional aspects of a business. Personal development and life lessons – while they should be a part of everything we do in life, seem to be even more important when engaging in this rewarding business of network marketing.

Through this blog, I have often reflected on humility, facing your fear, listening to others, trusting your leader, accepting your destiny, not running away from obstacles, and so on. All these are so important in living your life to the fullest and give you the most potential for success with the greatest feeling of self-contentment and confidence.

Thinking of all these made me recall a brilliant story I once heard. It is a story of a young monk and it truly captures the very essence of how vital these attributes are in one’s life and personality.

So today, I would like to share this story with you, and ask you to ponder carefully this young monk’s tale. You may be surprised that his story of fear and humility is not at all unfamiliar to you.

A young monk is sent out from his monastery with the mission to find a sword and bring it back to his master. On his way, he passes beautiful gardens and forests and even contemplates abandoning his mission in order to indulge in the beauty around him. But finally he sees a sword, lying on the ground next to a dead samurai. Thinking this must be the sword his master sent him to find, the young monk picks it up. Suddenly another samurai leaps out from behind a tree and challenges the young monk to fight.

 

“Please! Spare my life! I am not a samurai, but a monk on a mission to find a sword!”

 

The samurai ignores the pleas of the young monk, and exclaims, “Draw your sword! It is my mission to kill 100 men!”

 

Shaking and thinking of anything he could say to get away from the samurai, the young monk pleaded, “If you spare my life now, I promise to come back to fight you!” The young monk had no intention of ever returning to face what would surely be his swift death at the sharp blade of this crazed samurai. But the samurai agreed to spare the young monk’s life if he would later return to fight.

 

Safely back at the monastery, the young monk was trembling as he placed the sword at the feet of his master while telling the terrible story of how he almost died in his mission to bring his master a sword and how he was forced to make a false promise in order to save his life.

 

His master said, “Now that you have returned with this sword, you must go back and fight the samurai because you cannot turn away from challenges in your life. You must face your fear and complete your promise. This is your mission now.”

 

When the young monk further protested that he had no idea how to fight and that his life would surely be over if he returned to fight the samurai, his master simply replied: “Do not worry. When it comes time to fight, just pull out your sword, place it up in the air and close your eyes. Just trust me. Do as I told you.”

 

At first, the young monk did not want to follow his master’s orders. That night, he couldn’t sleep, but slowly he came to accept that this would be his last night alive. In the morning, the monk started witnessing things that he had before taken for granted. On his way back to the samurai, he was calm and detached from the world. He knew he would soon die and in the face of that realisation, he walked confidently and calmly towards his greatest fear.

 

When the young monk reached the samurai, he held the sword in his hand and a steady expression on his face. “I am honoured that you have returned to meet your promise,” said the samurai. “Now we must fight.”

 

And with that, the young monk remembered his master’s words. He drew his sword, held it above his head, and closed his eyes. He was steady and calm with the knowledge he was about to die.

 

As the young monk stood motionless with his sword drawn and eyes shut, the samurai nervously circled him. The samurai was confused at first. Then he became afraid. In all the great warriors he had fought, not one had faced him so calm, so still, and with his confident eyes closed.

 

“Surely,” said the samurai to himself, “this man is the greatest samurai I have ever come across. He has returned to fight me, and now stands waiting with his eyes closed.” The samurai dropped to his knees.

 

When the young monk finally opened his eyes, he saw a shrivelling samurai begging for his life to be spared and praising the young monk as being the greatest samurai that ever lived. “I realise how arrogant I have been and how wrong I was to try to kill 100 men,” said the samurai. “Please spare my life, Great One, and I shall never kill again!”

 

The young monk stood still and said, “I will spare your life if you leave here and never kill anything ever again, and you must leave here and do 100 good deeds.” And with that, the samurai was gone. The young monk returned to the monastery as a changed person with unquestionable respect for his master, and lived the rest of his life without complaint and as if each day was his last.

Please take a moment to ponder… In life, so many things can change if you rise up and face your fear. Be humble enough to listen to authority and respect your leaders. And most importantly, never run away from challenges. Face them head on and use the knowledge of others to help you fight your own ‘samurai’. In life, there are so many times we feel we are incapable of achieving something because we don’t have the skills, the studies, the experience, the right clothes, the right house… but if we think this way and run away from our fear and from challenges, we will never grow as a person, as a business person, or as a friend.

Sincerely,

Joseph Bismark

Group Managing Director, QI Ltd

 

The Seeds of Investment – Part II

If you have taken the time and effort to invest in yourself, your reputation, your image, and your relationships, you can start to look toward investment of a financial kind.

What I’ve learnt is that your best investment is first in the preservation of your name and integrity, and this starts from a very young age, whether you are rich or poor, employed or unemployed.

But following this, how do you move into financial investments?

The best financial investments do not start on a grand scale. It is a common misperception that you can only start to invest when you become rich. On the contrary, it is the small, but strict investments you make no matter how little or how much money you have that lead you to becoming rich.

This is the investment in learning how to save money, and learning how to most wisely invest the money you have. The very principle of saving money is, it is money that you will never spend.

For every dollar you have, put aside 40% of that to savings. Open two accounts. One is a true savings account that you never touch, and in this account, you place 20% of what you earn. The other account is your buffer or emergency account, and in this you place the other 20% of the allocated 40% of what you earn. You only touch this buffer account in the event of a true emergency, for example, if you are hospitalised or for a family emergency. The reason for a buffer account is so you never put your hand in ‘the cookie jar’; your savings account.

This is a habit that must be formed from an early stage. Every month, it is much easier to put aside $40 from $100 (40%), than it is to put aside $400 from $1000 (40%). If you can’t start with 40% each month, then start with 20% (10% in each account) and slowly increase the amount.

The funny thing is, however, that many people say they will start to save money once they have a lot of money. It doesn’t happen that way. The more you make, the more you spend. And it becomes easy to live outside your means, which in itself is a very dangerous trap, as it means you have no contingency plan if things don’t turn out the way you plan. If you haven’t developed the habit of saving when you’re young, it will be very difficult to develop it when you’re older.

There is also the principle of compound interest to benefit you. If you start putting away 40% of whatever you earn from a young age, by the time you are 25 you should have hundreds of thousands of dollars just by simple saving and compound interest.

If you’ve been working for the past ten years, this saving money can become your capital for a lot things. But a wise businessman would not use his own money to invest. If you have $100,000 in savings, you can go to your banker and ask for a loan with the money in your savings account as the collateral. With $100,000 in your account and a proven track record of regular saving deposits, the bank would probably give you a loan for $80,000. You can invest this while your money is still in your account earning interest.

Of course, financial investment is a huge area of discussion, and this Gem is not meant to provide you with in depth financial planning advice. This Gem is simply to encourage you to realise and consider the steps behind the process of financial investment.

Please take a moment to ponder… The seeds of investment grow by first planting them in yourself. More seeds must be planted as a percentage of what you earn into a savings account and a buffer account. These seeds – by diligently watering them with good relationships, a strong reputation, further saving and compound interest – grow to become the trees you can climb. From the limbs of these trees, you are now ready to wisely and seriously consider investing in that house, the stock market, a business, or any other investment that will see your ‘trees’ bloom for generations to come.

 

Sincerely,

Joseph Bismark

Group Managing Director, QI Ltd

The Seeds of Investment – Part I

Are you thinking of making an investment? Considering investing in a business or in the stock market? Or maybe investing in a house?

Before you invest in any of these things, you should have already made a few wise investments of an entirely different nature. No, I am not talking about financial investments. I am referring to the type of investments that without which, any financial investments are almost sure to fail. Or at least prove extremely difficult to get off the ground.

The very first thing you must invest in, from as young an age as possible, is yourself. This might sound like a nice, ‘airy’ concept, but without investing in yourself, you’ve got no chance of any other type of investment. Think about it.

Invest in your own name, reputation and integrity. Everyone is given a name and credibility when they are born. However, if an investment is not made to build that credibility and foster goodwill in that name, it can quickly disappear or become a liability. If you make a promise, honour that commitment. If you say you will be somewhere at a certain time, make sure you are there. Do not lie. Foster trust in yourself from others by ensuring they have reason to have confidence in you. If you do not invest in your name and integrity, when the time comes to make a financial investment, it will be difficult to secure trust from those you will need support, whether it be banks, business partners, financial supporters, or references to ensure your investment.

Invest in your position. This means investing in your studies and investing time to better yourself and to absorb all the information and knowledge that you can. Think of your mind as a notebook. If it is closed, its pages will forever remain empty. But if you open your notebook, you are then able to write as much information as you can and record as many experiences and memories as you want. Also remember to invest in your appearance and your image. Again, just like books, many people will judge you by your ‘cover’.

Next, invest in other people. Invest in relationships. Invest in forming trusting alliances with people whom you respect. Work on earning their respect in return. Even from childhood, invest in friendships. Give favours, help others, and invite people for coffee or for dinner. Become friends with people. It is from here that networking really stems: your network of friends. People often ask me where I find people whom I can trust and whom I am willing to do business with. I say it is a result of a collection of friendships and partnerships from the past 40 years.

I cannot, today, call upon the interest of my past if I did not first invest in myself, my reputation, my position, my image and in other people. I cannot call upon that for favours now if I did not sow a good reputation.  So the only way I can reap a relationship will have to be from what I have planted in the past. If I had ripped those people off, or lied, people would not do business with me, because once you ruin your reputation, it is very hard to undo the damage.

Please take a moment to ponder… Never underestimate the importance of investment in yourself. Consider these important investments before even contemplating financial investment, as it is personal investment that allows you to go on to the business investments.

Next week, in Gems of Wisdom, we can start to think about investment of the financial kind.

 

Sincerely,

Joseph Bismark

Group Managing Director, QI Ltd

Choose Your Coach on the Sports Field of Business

We play on the sports field of business. Whether it is in network marketing or in the corporate world, we are all players and are all part of a team. This game that we play every day of our lives can be difficult.

Our performance not only reflects on ourselves, but on our whole team. From within ourselves, we must find the motivation, the strength, the passion, and the commitment to push ourselves to succeed. We must also have the right external factors, such as training to make our team strong, the right equipment, and the right coach.

On this sports field of business, there are two possible coaches we can choose from: Coach A and Coach B.

Coach A supports us, but doesn’t push us. Coach A is OK with mediocre and is more concerned about not offending us or hurting our feelings. Coach B, on the other hand, supports us, pushes us, and may even drive us to frustration with his relentless commitment to propel us to fulfil our potential and beyond. This coach is not concerned about whether or not he hurts our feelings.

Let’s say we are playing football in the hot sun. It’s been a long day. The scores are even and there are 30 seconds left in the match. Your body is aching and you don’t think you can take another step, but your teammate passes you the ball and there’s a gap in the defence ahead. Coach A sees how exhausted you are and talks to you from the sidelines, saying, “You’re tired, take it easy. Don’t push yourself. There’s always next week’s game.” Coach B, however, yells at you to “Pick up the pace! Don’t give up now! I don’t care if you collapse at the end, but you can make that touchdown and you will make that touchdown! There is no tomorrow. This is IT!”

Unfortunately, many people seek out a Coach A in their life. Having a Coach A allows us to be more comfortable in trying, but allows us to not feel pressured to try too hard. Coach A reassures us that average and lacklustre is good enough.

I challenge you to seek out a Coach B in your life to push you to your limits. Associate yourself with the type of person who will teach you to never give up and who will never let you give up. And do not resent them for this. If you have made a decision to play on a team, to work in a company, or to thrive in a network, then there is no excuse not to give that decision 100% of your effort, your passion, and your dedication. Having a Coach B helps you to do this.

Please take a moment to ponder… Do you have Coach A in your life? Are you perhaps your own Coach A? Are you OK with mediocre, or do you dream of something bigger and better? Are you shutting out a Coach B because it is just ‘too hard’ to move up and out of your comfort zone?

It is time to choose your coach.

 

Sincerely,
Joseph Bismark

Group Managing Director, QI Ltd

What’s Your Mission Statement?

Every company has a mission statement. This mission statement drives the company to where it wants to be; serves to remind the people behind the company about the purpose of going to work each day; and reinforces commitment to the end goal. A mission statement gives a company its soul and injects passion into its core.

The value that a mission statement brings to a company can be directly related to the value a similar statement about a person’s own mission and purpose brings to that person’s life. There is a big difference between working because you want to, and working because you have to. This difference is what separates a life truly ‘lived’ from a life that is just ‘led’.

All too often I hear about two separate ‘parts’ of a person’s life – their personal life and their work life. I listen to people say that these two parts of their life are in direct competition with each other and I hear them complain that work gets in the way of their ‘life’. Excuse me, but how can you have two lives? We are all given just one life to live. If you spend much of your life complaining about the work you must do, then you must ask yourself, “What is MY mission statement?” Have you found your purpose in life?

Think about your attitude towards work. Are you waiting for your boss to tell you what to do? Are you just hanging around until work is given to you? And do you complain once you actually have work to do? Or are you excited to begin each day and work towards something you are passionate about? Do you take pride in yourself and what you do? Are you creating work for yourself and telling your boss what you are going to do in order to do your job better?

I have mentioned this quote by Theodore Roosevelt earlier this year in Gems of Wisdom, but I feel it needs to be stated again to make this point. Roosevelt once said: “Far and away the best prize that life has to offer is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.” This is the secret to happiness.

Nothing motivates you to excel more than knowing you have a purpose and are passionate about that purpose. But no one can find your purpose for you. You must decide what it is you want to do. There is a saying, “If you can’t stand the heat… get out of the kitchen”. If you decide to be a chef, don’t step into the kitchen and start complaining about how hot it is in there. No one forced you to be a chef or forced you to be in the kitchen. But if you decided to be there, then get down to business and start cooking! And if you have identified cooking and being a chef as your purpose in life, then you won’t ever notice the heat at all. You will be too busy enjoying your work.

Don’t make excuses. Once you find your purpose, the excuses will disappear.

Please take a moment to ponder… What is your mission statement? What drives you and what excites you? Identify what this is and define your mission statement. And once you have found your purpose, communicate it to the people around you, as this then becomes your declaration of commitment to living your life to the fullest. Without your own mission statement to motivate you and to give you passion for your life, you are simply getting in the way of others who are living their lives with a purpose.

 

Sincerely,

Joseph Bismark

Group Managing Director, QI Ltd

Success with a Capital A

When I was a child, I remember how lazy I could be about getting out of bed in the morning. My mother used to have to drag me out of bed to go to school. But I also remember that when it was a holiday, or there was something exciting happening that day, I could hardly sleep the night before and I didn’t need anyone to drag me out of bed in the morning. I’d be up so early and bounding out of bed to start the day.

As I have grown older, I realise that every day should be started like something exciting is happening, because every day, something exciting really is happening. Life. I believe that a person, and especially a leader, should really wake up in the morning. They should Arise and Awake! Arise from their slumber and awake from their ignorance. Every day is the chance to reinvent ourselves. When we truly arise and awake, we then aspire to ‘be’. And if you are aspiring, then you are more open in terms of assimilating.

What do I mean by assimilating? I mean collecting wisdom. Because that is what life is about. Every day of your life, you wake up and meet people and learn things. You assimilate with the people, places and ideas around you. Once you are open to assimilating into the world, you start acquiring new knowledge, new skills, new things. You acquire what you were aspiring for.

You see, if you don’t truly arise and awake each day, then you won’t aspire to be anything. It is because of this aspiration that you assimilate and acquire. And once this happens, you must assess what you have acquired, and analyse its worth. Once you have assessed and analysed what you have taken in from the world around you, you start the step of applying this worthy information and these valuable experiences into your life.

From this application of what you have learnt, the next step is definite. You will start to achieve.

But it doesn’t end there. Achieving is not the end goal. Perhaps the most important part of reaching success – no matter if it is success in your personal life or success in business – is that you must always appreciate what you have. To truly appreciate what you have achieved, you must attribute your success to the people and things that led you to that success. You could not reach this stage in life if you did not assimilate, so how can you take all the credit for yourself? Humility is so important and therefore, hand-in-hand with this attribution, is acknowledgement. And this is where many people fail. There is a need to acknowledge the people who helped you get to where you are. Success is not about competition and putting others down so you appear superior. True success comes from raising others up with you. Acknowledging the role other people have played in your success is basically where your fulfilment comes from. By doing this in life, you will be applauded. And you will truly be happy, content and successful.

Everything in life is a process. It is all step-by-step. Success, too, is a process. It is a very valuable realisation to know that the first step in any process will eventually lead to your end goal. It is a very motivating realisation. If you want to reach success, you have to take the first step. And you have to follow the process through to the end.

Please take a moment to ponder… If you Arise and Awake each morning, you Aspire to be something and are more open to Assimilation, which means you will Acquire. Once you Assess and Analyse what you have acquired, you will Apply this to your life and it is here that Achievement is realised. However, one you achieve, it is important to actually Appreciate what you have and to Attribute that achievement and Acknowledge those who have helped you along your way. Then, you will be Applauded and you will be happy. Then, and only then, will you be truly Successful.

How do you start each day? Do you start each day with the first and important step towards success and towards true achievement and fulfilment? Do you arise and awake?

Sincerely,

Joseph Bismark

Group Managing Director, QI Ltd

Symbiotic Success

Having adequate resources is vital to a company’s ability to conduct its business. More so, having the right resources is paramount to a company’s success. But let me ask you: what is the most important resource in your company? Which resource is the one that makes all your other resources really work for you?

It is so easy to get caught up in having the latest technological systems; the best office equipment; the strongest branding; the most competitive public image. All of these are important, but what about people? Your employees, your directors, your suppliers, your contractors?

I would argue that it is having the right people – and how we select, develop, educate and support those people – that could be counted as the most important resource that a company has. People are our greatest asset. Without knowledgeable and skilled staff; without polite and enthusiastic customer representatives; without focussed and committed managers; without these people, the company robs itself of the very foundation on which to build corporate success.

Like any asset, we must invest in our people to help them grow to their full potential. The relationship between a company and its employees is a symbiotic one. By raising our employees to achieve greatness, we are fostering greatness in the company. We are also nurturing genuine loyalty amongst the people who, at the end of the day, hold the company’s success in their hands.

We all know that it costs so much more time and money to find, recruit, train and induct talented new staff that it does to retain the staff we have. It is important therefore that we truly realise just how important our people are as a resource to the company. And it is also important that we commit ourselves to encouraging a supportive and satisfying working environment and corporate culture, in which these employees are able to flourish.

Please take a moment to ponder… A happy worker is a good worker. We should never think of our employees as unemotional machines assigned to fulfil a job. Nor should we ever view our staff as being a means to an end. Companies should empower their people to be the very best they can be. The rewards of doing so are great for both employer and employee.

Sincerely,

Joseph Bismark
Group Managing Director, QI Ltd

The Wisdom of the Search

Through all of my Gems of Wisdom, I try to impart to you some thoughts, advice, tips and reflections that I have learned from higher authorities and thorough self-realisation. Is this ‘wisdom’? I do not present myself to be wise, but what I try to do every day of my life is to find a little bit of wisdom within myself, in everything and everyone. Something that challenges me and motivates me to constantly seek out my purpose in life. I share this search with you through Gems of Wisdom to try to also challenge and motivate others to do the same within themselves. For what is life if not a journey on a search for purpose and fulfilment?

I don’t think many of us really know who we are and why we are here. And it seems the more we know, the more we realise what we do not know. This is a humbling experience, and we should internalise this experience into ourselves to further push us along on our journey. We are all constantly searching for that place where we belong, a place of real refuge, a place where real peace is found. We’re here for a purpose and we should embrace the search for that purpose. That to me is where true wisdom is born, knowing how insignificant we are in the grand scale of the universe.

We should not stop until we discover our purpose. What’s more, once we find that purpose, we should accept it and continue to search for ways to fulfil it. Everyone is born to be a leader, for example, but not everyone accepts that born instinct. Not everyone seeks to fulfil their purpose. Some shun away. In some ways, we are being selfish by not standing up and confidently taking hold of our purpose. Once we stop being selfish, true fulfilment comes into our lives and we not only begin to live out our place in life, but we begin to make a positive difference in the lives of others.

Please take a moment to ponder… if we are faced with a wide, gushing river, how do you cross it? Do you try to swim against the current on your own? You know that your purpose is to cross the river, but how? You must seek to fulfil this purpose. By joining together with others, and holding hands to form a human chain across the current of the river, you, and many others, will be able to cross. And then you may all continue on your journey of life.

Sincerely,

Joseph Bismark
Group Managing Director
QI Group