What Pakistan can teach all of us…

Is to NEVER LIE.

The absolute shame Pakistan has brought unto itself via ‘Operation Osama’ is now clear as the open sky to the world. There is no one – not even the most naive of humans or even animals who will believe that a Country whose government is essentially the military had no clue that the world’s deadliest terrorist was staying in their own country.

Even in in peaceful countries like India, you cannot build anything near any Army/Airforce/Navy base without lots of permissions and scrutiny. In Mumbai, NAVY NAGAR is heavily gaurded. So you cannot have a massive house in your backyard without you knowing what’s going on inside!

This essentially reinforces that the TRUTH is the deadliest weapon, but also that for entrepreneuers, businessmen and anyone professional, you have to be honest and truthful.

If you lose your face, you will never be trusted again.

This reminds me of a very interesting incident I experienced in my fathers factory 13 years ago.

I was making ‘Argyle’ socks (like the one photographed here) for exports. This was my first order of Argyle socks. After having made them in various color combinations, we began packing them in typical ‘bundles’ wrapped together using adhesive stickers that displayed the size and the price etc.

After all the packing was done, in the final inspection, I just picked out one bundle and opened it like a consumer. As I ripped the adhesive sticker from the socks, I got a heart attack! The THREAD of the small ‘criss cross’ lines that make the Argyle pattern so famous began ripping out of the socks (since they had got attached to the sticker and were not strong enough to stay in the socks). Hence, every TOP SOCK in every bundle would be damaged via the sticker on top of it when opened by the buyer.

I had no clue what to do. The shipment was leaving my factory for the docks in 3 hours. It was 1 pm in the afternoon.  Interestingly, the socks had PASSED inspection from Europe and India (I guess they had not opened the bundles OR that the sticker had become problematic over time) – so technically I was good to Ship.

I decided to be honest and called up my buyer. He had a sample bundle on his desk and he immediately could understand the problem when he opened the bundle like any consumer would.

The conversation that followed is the lesson of this story:

The buyer first THANKED me for being honest and truthful. Then he revealed that ARGYLE socks supplied by other manufacturers were also being returned to their stores for reasons that could not understand TILL NOW – Since I had revealed the problem of the ROGUE adhesive. This was a global problem for them.

The buyers extended my time line and PAID FOR THE EXTRA TOP SOCKS we had to produce!! They also gave us many more orders in the years and almost began skipping inspections for our consignments.

In all businesses and professions, very unexpected and difficult moments to arise. I believe its best to:

– immediately tell the people impacted whats gone or going wrong ( VC’s are always keen to know Whats NOT working in their start up’s)

– Try and solve the problem if possible with FULL DISCLOSURE rather than through a veil.

As far as governments go, how can citizens RESPECT their own leaders if they lie and conceal from their own people?

And as in the case of Pakistan – who on earth will ever believe what they say next time?