How can you avoid trouble when choosing a person or an organization? For example, when electing a national leader, choosing a political or military commentator to trust, a business guru, a business partner, a contractor company, a hospital or doctor for quality treatment, the right candidate for an important job, a friend, or even a life partner? What should you pay attention to first? Image? A well-crafted action plan? Promises? PR? Appearance? Self-confidence? Charisma? Eloquence? A horoscope?
No answer this question, we need to recall how we predict the future. If we exclude unreliable factors such as luck and intuition, only one thing remains: predicting the future based on an analysis of past experience. In other words, when making a choice, we look for similar past situations and analyze how events unfolded after a particular decision was made.
So how can we avoid trouble when selecting a leader, a partner, or a contractor? The reality is that meeting you is not a turning point in their life story. In other words, a person or a company will treat you exactly the way they have treated others before.
Of course, gathering complete information about a person or an organization is not easy, but the good news is that you don’t need to know everything. All you need is information about their products.
The activities of any person or organization can be divided into three key areas:
- Who or what they are (e.g., a mayor, a businessman, a doctor, or a political party, a factory, a hospital).
- What they do (e.g., managing municipal services, building companies, providing medical treatment).
- The product they create – the end result of their activities, which is valuable to others. For example, repaired roads, newly built homes, developed parks. Or thriving businesses with increasing revenue and a growing customer base. Or healthy patients.
The key point is that we should always focus only on the third area – the product. If a person or an organization has created real, tangible results in the past, there is a high probability that they will continue to do so in the future. Moreover, having a successful product indicates that both the first and second areas are functioning properly. However, if no product exists in the past, it is unlikely to appear in the future – so analyzing the first and second areas becomes irrelevant.
If a product exists, it can always be measured or counted, either by comparing it to previous results (to see trends) or by comparing it to the products of other people or organizations (competitors, colleagues, or job candidates).
Kozma Prutkov once said: «Look at the root.» We say: «Look at the product.» This is a universal principle for choosing politicians, leaders, managers, employees, partners, friends, and life companions.
As the Scriptures say:
«Beware of false prophets! They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. By their fruits, you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? A good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, by their fruits, you will recognize them.»
Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 7, Verses 15-20.
Yehen Sotnikov
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Kyiv, Ukraine
