this is a perfect story for your sunday roast…
Earlier in this blog, maybe 6 weeks ago or so, I discussed a few people in the Cape Town office that were proving to be dynamic and seizing the opportunities that naseba was providing them.
I was so impressed with two of these young ladies that I sent them to Monaco for a couple weeks of “training” and then to an event in Dubai so they could experience parts of the world they had dreamed about visiting.
About 30 minutes by train outside Monaco, is one of the most exclusive & famous areas of the french riviera, “Antibes” –my wife and I have a great apartment in “old antibes” right next to the world famous port of Antibes …and as these two young south african women had impressed me so much in Cape Town …. and no one was using my apartment - not to mention that I wanted to ensure their first trip to France was perfect — they both stayed in this apartment.
As discussed a few times in the blog - I have been hugely dissapointed by several people since we started naseba.
People have attempted to black mail me; best friends have betrayed me; staff have stolen from me; blah..blah..blah..
However, I have never been as “sickened” with dissapointment as I am today when I think of these two young women.
I do not mean to sound melodramatic, but as long as I live… I will never forget these people…
Firstly, in Monaco they were super unimpressive. Everyone in the office had heard about how great they were — and expected to see dynamic hard workers … instead they got to witness two spoiled little girls that were an hour late to work nearly every day.
When the office manager in Monaco took them to the airport for their next leg of their journey to Dubai - they had over 400 euros of extra baggage charges of personal shit that they had bought … and they had no money with them, thus completely expected the company to pay this.
A couple weeks after their trip, I got the phone bill for our Antibes apartment…. 380 euros.
Can you imagine …. these two young women had called all over south africa and charged the calls to my apartment, and just expected that I would/should pay.
Not to mention the apartment was left completely trashed — no one that had stayed before had ever left the apartment as messy they did.
During their trip, they were advanced expense money and told very clearly to provide receipts for the money used … of course, they did not provide one receipt - and they used all the money that was given to them.
One of these young women was a producer — who had “confirmed” all her speakers (wink wink), but this past week when her direct boss, Terry asked for the speaker confirmation forms - we discovered that in fact, she had been lying to Terry, none of her speakers were confirmed.
Instead of facing Terry and proving herself — she emailed him to say she “quit.”
The other young lady - whom I was impressed with the most, by her “seemingly” dynamic personality …. last week, the company paid for her to go on a business trip to J’burg … and she completely disappeared. She did not even have the honor of calling her direct boss and informing him.
Not to mention, She took her brand new company provided laptop computer with her.
…all the challenges these women’s parents endured over the years — everything that Nelson Mandela stood and fought for …. to be able to give their children a future with great opportunities….
Unbelievable that these two people could be so dishonorable.
I am sure Nelson Mandela would be even more outraged and disgusted than I am.
This morning I spoke to Johan du Toit and shared with him this absolutely, disgusting, sickening story …. he said something that inspired me to write today’s blog.
“These two women are a disgrace to all south africans.”
I apologise to my loyal readers for this negative entry …
but it is worth it, if maybe a few people who read this (we had 127 people in and around the Johannesburg area and 65 in Cape Town yesterday look at the blog) … reflect on themselves and wake up.
and for my old friend who is enjoying his sunday roast as he is reading this …. I completely understand now — you are/were exactly right.
One Response to “ode to Marcus Evans II”
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January 21st, 2008 at 10:13 am
I wrtie this as a friend and investor, not as an employee so my view my be a bit different than those within Naseba.
Without a doubt this is a rather unfortunate situation. Speaking as someone who has known you a very long time, I know how much individual betrayal affects you as a person who emotionally invests heavily in others. This most recent entry is an indicator of how deeply this type of action causes you to reflect on the nature of your relationship with staff, the level of personal investment you put into promising talent as well as the emotional investment you make in any given invidivual.
Having said that I truly dislike this blog entry for one simple reason: This entry appears to have more fully given birth to a cynicism in you planted by the man to whom the entry is dedicated. This cynicism is a cancer (I’ll reserve my comments on the man to whom it is dedicated).
To add to the quote from Goethe on the home page: “If you treat an individual… as if he were what he ought to be and could be, he will become what he ought to be and could be.”
Yes these two women are a disgrace, and yes you have been let down in the past, and YES it will probably happen again, but which type of individual has had more overall impact and longstanding value on both Naseba and your life - is it the ‘let downs’ or the people that have become better (and made you better) through the application of the quote above? I am sure there are a LOT at Naseba that register on the positive side and I can think of a a lot prior to your European journey - Ken Imaya, Daiji, Kenny just to name a few…
Banish this type of cynicism! Dont blog about it, dont comment on it, in short dont waste your precious time on it. Never ever allow it to cloud your mind, alter your approach to personnel development, or reduce the enthusiasm with which you praise and reward your employees. This is what fundamentally makes working (knowing) with you a rewarding and unique experience to the truly dedicated - this is what drives Naseba.
And worse yet, dont let it lower your expectations of those around you as a matter of fact - you wouldn’t call a client thinking “I’ll only get exctied about this event if the client is excited about this event - and he/she probably wont be…”.
Disappointment is constant, guard against it but don’t let the fear of it strip you of that which has helped you and those with you build Naseba into what it is today and what it will become.