In the Ruby Kingdom in the Breeze Province in the Lightning City, Zixin Quon has all the reasons to excel. He is the richest person in the Chinese Empire and he has two degrees in commerce and politics. Now Zixin has a brilliant idea for a philanthropic project that will benefit him and his nation. Zixin plans to buy a gargantuan piece of land and utilize this land in agriculture. Zixin wants to recruit a specific group of people. The target of employment for Zixin is the miserable segment, namely those people who are homeless, jobless, poor, needy and debt-ridden. By this step, Zixin kills multiple birds with one stone. First, he recruits people that will take care of his land and perform all the duties of agriculture. Second, he helps the miserable segment by offering them generous employment opportunities. Third, he wants to do credit to himself in front of the government and market himself as a strong, intelligent, wise and influential leader.
The first thing that Zixin did in executing his plan was to to buy an immense piece of land consisting of hundreds of hectares in the countryside of the Lightning City. Zixin then fenced his land with a high wall. After that, Zixin built the first residence room on his land. The residence room has the capacity to accommodate ten people. The room has ten beds, ten cabinets (one for each resident to keep his/her cloths and belongings) and a kitchenette. Zixin then sent teams of scouts in the Lightning City to search for the homeless, jobless, poor and needy people for hiring. The scouts found the first batch of those people and they brought them to live in the residence room on Zixin's land. The first batch consisted of ten homeless people. These people were extremely happy to see that Zixin has hired them for a job in agriculture and that they now have a free residence. They could not believe that their suffering as homeless people ended in the blink of an eye with the help of one great leader, Zixin.
Zixin taught the first batch their expected job duties and showed them step by step how to ideally perform their work.
Zixin then built another residence room next to the first one, hired ten people from the miserable segment and taught them what to do and how to do things. Zixin repeated this step in iterations until he built 2000 residence rooms that accommodated 20000 farmers who used to be from the miserable segment. These farmers are diverse in their ages, gender and backgrounds. On his land, Zixin now has what looks like a small village. He sets the rules and regulations of this village in addition to exercising his management and leadership skills in a practical and realistic context. He gained a considerable experience in the organization, coordination and control of people.
The 20000 farmers are divided into four groups: the crop production, the crop sales, the livestock raising and the livestock sales. The crop production group takes care of producing crops starting with cultivating soil, sowing seeds, irrigation, harvesting, etc. The crop sales group go to villages and cities to sell their harvested crops and market their products. The livestock raising group raises livestock and takes care of their grazing. The livestock sales group go to villages and cities to sell livestock and their products such as milk, wool, etc. Zixin appointed his four cousins as the top managers for these four groups: Guang is the top manager of the crop production group, Jinjing is the top manager for the crop sales group, Shirong is the top manger for the livestock raising group and Bingwen is the top manger for the livestock sales group. Zixin also performed task rotation for his four cousins so that they gain experience in all the four areas of work. After a while, Guang, Jinjing, Shirong and Bingwen all became experienced and well-rounded in all the four areas of work: the crop production, the crop sales, the livestock raising and the livestock sales.
Zixin's land produces different fruits and vegetables across the four seasons of the year and it has different types of livestock. Now Zixin has become one of the major players in food production and livestock raising in the Lightning City and its surroundings. His good reputation travelled far across the Chinese Empire and his significant contributions captured the interest of different people. Many people now call Zixin “The Father of Miserable People”.
The farmers working under Zixin's supervision and command have deep love and respect for Zixin. They consider him as their supreme leader who rescued them from the harsh life conditions they were suffering. Here are some short stories of these farmers and how Zixin's philanthropic project helped them find a better life.
Story 1
This man lost his job and under the pressure of debts, he had to sell his house. He then became homeless and a beggar in the streets. Zixin offered to employ him in his farm and accommodate him in one of the residence rooms.
Story 2
This man has been homeless for ten years after losing all his belongings in gambling. He lost trust in himself and thought that he was good for nothing. Zixin offered him an employment and residence opportunity in his farm and the man could rise after the demise of his hopes.
Story 3
This man has been jobless after he was imprisoned for a crime he committed. Due to his criminal record, many employers refused to recruit him so he ended up a beggar in the streets. Zixin rescued him by his employment and residence offer.
Story 4
This man has five children and he had difficult time in generating a sufficient income to cover their needs. With the job and residence offer of Zixin, the man could earn enough money that elevated the quality of life for him and his children.
Story 5
This man has a chronic disease and he needs periodical visits to a physician and expensive medications. He could not afford all the costs of his ongoing treatment. With the job and residence offer of Zixin, the man could attain the decent level of life that could satisfy his needs.
Story 6
This woman is homeless and she lives with her three children in the streets and begs people for money and food. Zixin offered her a job and residence in his farm and he rescued her with her children from this lowly life.
Story 7
This woman has heavy debts that she could not pay off. Zixin offered to pay off her debts and she works and live in his farm with half a salary while the other half is used to settle her debt with Zixin.
Story 8
This woman needs an expensive medication to cure her mother and she had no enough money to buy the medication. Zixin offered to recruit and accommodate her in his farm and with her new job, she could afford to buy the medication for her mother.
Story 9
This woman was thinking about working in prostitution to cover her life costs but with Zixin's offer of employment and residence, she shunned prostitution and started a noble career as a farmer.
Story 10
This woman is a housewife and after the death of her husband, she did not know what to do because she knows no profession. Zixin opened for her a broad horizon with his employment and residence offer.
The good news about Zixin's accomplishments reached the emperor and he summoned Zixin once again to gift him one new badge of honor: The Badge of Significant Philanthropic Contribution. Zixin expressed his gratitude for the emperor and he promised to do everything he can to let the Chinese Empire flourish and prosper.
One day, Zixin invited his four cousins for dinner and they exchanged interesting talks.
Zixin: My dear cousins, what have you learned so far in terms of people management? We are managing a large number of people so let us share experience in this regard.
Jinjing: One valuable lesson I have learned is the importance of expressing appreciation for people's work. People work hard and it is their innate nature to love to be appreciated by their managers. When you verbally express your appreciation for the effort of your workers, you boost their morale significantly and push them toward doing more and doing better.
Bingwen: I agree. This is an important lesson we should all bear in mind. But remember Jinjing that verbal appreciation is only one form of appreciation and there are other forms that can also be very important. Appreciation can be by words or actions. An example of appreciation by action is buying a gift to excellent workers. This encourages them greatly.
Guang: True. To show my appreciation to my team, I sometimes invite them for dinner at a restaurant.
Shirong: That is a good idea. I appreciate my excellent workers differently. I sometimes give hard workers a day or two off. This helps them to relax and regain their energies after some rest and recreation.
Zixin: You all have great ideas about appreciation. Let me share my method of appreciation with you. I show my appreciation for hard work by giving a bonus payment to hard working employees. This form of financial appreciation is very rewarding and increases employees' satisfaction to a great extent.
Xiulan: It is great that each one of you has their own style of appreciation. It is my turn to share my style. I appreciate the good work of my servants, maids and chefs by buying them jewelry and clothes. It is a form of appreciation by gift that Bingwen pinpointed.
Zixin: We all have nice ideas about appreciation. Let us move to a different topic. What do you think about obstacles that workers face in their daily work?
Guang: One major obstacle workers face is the difficulty of learning. Some tasks are easy to learn while others are difficult. It takes both time and effort for a worker to learn something until he/she reaches the level of mastery and confidence.
Shirong: In my team we have a dedicated group for training newcomers and help them have a smooth transition to their new job. Some work procedures are documented and this helps in the ease of repeatability of training.
Jinjing: One obstacle I noticed that some newcomers can find difficulties in getting along well with other team members. It takes time that the entire team works in harmony and accord.
Bingwen: One good icebreaker is to hold mutual knowledge sessions in which different team members introduce themselves and share some interesting information about themselves so that everyone in the team knows everyone.
Zixin: Nice thoughts. One obstacle I found is that people with great level of mastery tend to withhold information from other team members lest they compete with them in the future. Excellent workers have some secrets of trade that keep them superior to others and if they share such secrets, they lose their distinction.
Xiulan: One obstacle I face with my servants is jealousy. They sometimes quarrel with one another for no reason but out of jealousy. Jealousy is a chronic disease that spreads among peers.
Zixin: What time management skills have you learned in your career?
Shirong: I learned that prioritizing tasks in terms of significance and value is a good practice. We should channel our energy and effort into the most fruitful things.
Bingwen: I also learned that deadline pressure can have a negative impact on the overall quality of the product. When people work under pressure, they sacrifice part of the quality to meet the time constraints.
Guang: I learned the importance of the schedule. Scheduling tasks helps us organize workers' time and divide the tasks into manageable units of work.
Jinjing: One lesson I learned is that a slow worker can outperform a fast worker in terms of quality. We should be not only be concerned with who completes his work faster, but who completes his work with higher quality.
Xiulan: I think one important lesson in time management is multitasking. I found multitasking to be an important skill in different domains and contexts. In cooking for example, I used to prepare multiple meals in parallel and this allows me to accomplish more in less time.
Zixin: Great ideas. What I learned is that workers need to rest at times so if you see a worker idle, do not push him hard to work. We are humans and we have moods. If a worker works while in a bad mood, he can ruin things. So we need to understand the human needs of your team members.
Bingwen: What do you think about excellence? Is excellence an acquired or innate attribute?
Zixin: I think excellence is an acquired attribute. You become excellent by learning and training well.
Xiulan: But excellence is also an innate attribute. Some people are born with intelligent minds and this paves their road to success faster than others.
Jinjing: I admire the dexterity of some people and how they can do things in a creative and fast manner. I believe excellence depends on both innate and acquired attributes.
Guang: Some people have thirst for excellence while others do not mind producing mediocre outcomes.
Shirong: An excellent employee relieves the employer by doing what is expected from him/her in the best manner.
Bingwen: True. Furthermore, an excellent employee does above and beyond what is expected from him/her. In other words, he/she goes the extra mile to satisfy his/her master.
Shirong: In your opinion, what causes employee dissatisfaction?
Xiulan: There are many factors such as overloading them or asking them to do more than what they can handle.
Jinjing: Lack of appreciation for their good performance.
Bingwen: Delaying their payments or wages.
Guang: Unjust treatment of workers by favoring some over others.
Zixin: Failure to account for their personal and human needs.
Shirong: Add to that, arrogance in giving them instructions and treating them as slaves.
Guang: Describe a case when you helped an employee with a humanitarian motivation.
Zixin: One day, an employee asked me to leave for several days so that he takes care of his sick mother. I agreed to help him and after he returned, he handed me a small present as a token of his appreciation. It was a fine garment tailored by his mother.
Xiulan: One day, my chef spilled the food accidentally and she burned her hand. I gave her two days off and when she resumed her work, she gifted me a jade pendant.
Jinjing: One employee once fell and broke his leg so I ordered some workers to carry him and take him to the physician. I also gave him some money to cover his treatment.
Shirong: One time, an employee failed to pay his debt to me on time so I gave him extra time and he paid me off with appreciation.
Bingwen: One female farmer was kicked by a horse so I took her to the physician and gave her some days off to relax and regain her energy.
Guang: One time, a mother lost her child and I knew how hard that was for her so I gave her a 1-month paid vacation.
Jinjing: Describe one leadership lesson you have learned.
Guang: A leader must be competent so that he is obeyed.
Bingwen: A leader must have good communication skills.
Shirong: A leader must be an exemplar of virtues.
Xiulan: A leader must have emotional intelligence and understand the needs of his/her people.
Zixin: A leader must be resourceful and farsighted.
Jinjing: A leader must shun double-standards.
Xiulan: What is your favorite worker?
Zixin: He who completes his work on time.
Shirong: He who does what is required before telling him what to do.
Bingwen: He who admits his mistakes without giving lame excuses.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
Jinjing: He who works extra hours when needed.
Guang: He who creates an atmosphere of harmony with other workers.
Xiulan: He who obeys instructions readily without arguing.
Zixin: What is your least favorite worker?
Xiulan: The lazy.
Guang: The liar.
Bingwen: The procrastinator.
Shirong: The incompetent.
Jinjing: The careless.
Zixin: The dishonest.
Zixin, his wife and his cousins enjoyed their night with different talks and they also enjoyed the delicious dinner prepared by the expert chefs at Zixin's palace.
One day, Xiulan and Zixin were enjoying the nice weather in their garden.
Xiulan: The weather is beautiful.
Zixin: True. Can you feel the gentle breeze?
Xiulan: Yes, I can feel it. Look at the amazing flowers and the butterflies.
Zixin: Nature is filled with beautiful creatures. Look at the adorable fish in the fishpond.
Xiulan: We invested a lot in designing this garden. It has a variety of plants, flowers and animals.
Zixin: It is essential for a human being to be connected with nature. Nature frees your mind from worries and fills you with positive energy.
Xiulan: True. Nature changes your mood for better. When you were a magician, we could not afford to have such a charming garden.
Zixin: Money solves the vast majority of problems in life.
Xiulan: True. He who owns money owns happiness.
Zixin: But there are things in life that cannot be obtained by money such as health. Not every sick person can restore his health with money. Money has limitations.
Xiulan: I agree. Let us entertain ourselves now. You have been working hard recently and we spent little time together.
Zixin: As you like. Entertainment is important between the husband and the wife. What do you want to play tonight?
Xiulan: I bought a deck of playing cards. The deck consists of 100 playing cards. Each card carries one number which can be in the range of 1 to 10. Therefore, there are exactly ten cards for each number in the range 1 to 10.
Zixin: Do you mean there are ten cards for number 1, ten cards for number 2, ten cards for number 3, …, ten cards for number 10?
Xiulan: Yes, that is correct.
Zixin: We can devise numerous games based on this deck. Let me think about one possible game. [After a while] Yes, I found one game. Let me call it: The War of Even and Odd.
Xiulan: What are the rules of the game?
Zixin: One of us chooses to be the Even team while the other chooses to be the Odd team. We shuffle the deck and draw ten cards each. You draw a card from your collection without seeing it and I do likewise. We put the two cards on the table and reveal their numbers (face-up). If the sum of the two cards is even, the even team captures them; if the sum of the two cards is odd, the odd team captures them. After our ten cards are consumed, we sum the numbers on the cards each player possesses. The winner of the round is the player whose cards produce the largest summation. We continue the game with other nine rounds until the entire deck is consumed. The final winner is the player who wins more rounds than the other. There can be a draw between the two players.
Xiulan: Nice game. Let us try it now.
Zixin and Xiulan played the game for ten rounds and here are the results of the first round. In this round, Zixin chose to be Odd while Xiulan is Even.
Turn Number
Zixin's Card
Xiulan's Card
Zixin's Points
Xiulan's Points
1
3
2
5
0
2
10
8
0
18
3
7
6
13
0
4
1
9
0
10
5
4
6
0
10
6
8
9
17
0
7
2
9
11
0
8
1
1
0
2
9
3
7
0
10
10
4
7
11
0
Score for This Round
57
50
In this round, Zixin won by a score of 57 against Xiulan who scored 50.
Xiulan: We won equal turns in this round (5 each) but the score of your captured cards outnumbers my score.
Zixin: True. It is not about the number of turns won; it is about the summation of the captured cards.
Zixin and Xiulan continued to play the game for other nine rounds and at the end it was Xiulan who won the game by winning seven rounds out of ten rounds.
Zixin: Congratulations, Xiulan. I devised the game and you won it.
Xiulan: Thank you. Your game depends merely on luck.
Zixin: Yes, many card games rely on luck with little or no thinking.
Xiulan: I enjoyed the game. You always have brilliant ideas.
Zixin: Thank you. Now it is your turn to invent your own card game.
Xiulan: Let me think. [After a while] Zixin, I thought of a new game we can play with this deck. Let me call it: The Longest Sequence Game.
Zixin: What are the rules of your game?
Xiulan: We shuffle the deck well. Each of us draws ten cards and extracts the longest sequence and adds it to his/her capture pile. The sequence must consist of at least two consecutive numbers. If more than one sequence is the longest, the player has to choose the sequence with larger summation of its numbers. We proceed with a new round of drawing ten cards each and extract the longest sequence for each round. After the deck is consumed, the winner is the one whose cards in the capture pile has the largest summation. There can be a draw between players as well.
Zixin: It looks interesting. Let us begin.
Round Number
Zixin's Cards
Xiulan's Cards
Zixin's Points
Xiulan's Points
1
1-1-2-2-3-
5-6-7-9-9
1-2-3-4-7-
7-9-9-10-10
5-6-7 = 18
1-2-3-4 = 10
2
1-1-2-2-4-
4-6-7-10-10
1-3-5-5-6-
8-8-9-9-10
6-7 = 13
8-9-10 = 27
3
1-2-3-3-5-
5-6-9-9-10
1-3-3-5-5-
6-6-8-9-9
1-2-3 = 6
8-9 = 17
4
2-2-4-4-6-
7-8-8-10-10
2-4-4-4-6-
6-8-8-8-10
6-7-8 = 21
No sequence = 0
5
1-2-4-4-7-
7-7-8-8-10
1-3-3-3-5-
5-5-6-7-7
7-8 = 15
5-6-7 = 18
Score for This Round
73
72
Zixin: I won this time although you devised the game.
Xiulan: Congratulations, Zixin. Did you enjoy the game?
Zixin: Of course. I like your game much. The principles of the two games are similar. I mean winning is determined by the summation of the captured cards for each player.
Xiulan: Yes, but the techniques for capturing the cards is different for each game.
Zixin: We can devise more games based on our imagination.
Xiulan: Do you think we are the inventors of these two games or they have been already invented by someone else?
Zixin: We are the inventors of these two games in the sense that they are our brainchildren. However, claiming that no one else has devised these two games yet is difficult. The world is big and full of smart people. Maybe someone else has already discovered these two games but we cannot tell for sure.
Xiulan: True. Even if we are the inventors of these games in China, they might be known to some people from other nations. Since our world now is disconnected and there is little communication between different nations, we cannot be certain about who is the real inventor of these games.
Zixin: If our world is better connected and there is a central organization that tracks people's inventions and discoveries, we could know for sure who first discovered these interesting games.
Xiulan: I think it is impossible that the world will be connected as you have described. There are intrinsic difficulties in how people move and travel and this puts a lot of constraints on what people can do and achieve.
Zixin: Yes, I have always thought about the limitations of people's physical and mental power. We have to be realistic and conform to what is possible in our conventions.
The Expansion of the Philanthropic Project
After the remarkable success of Zixin's philanthropic project in the Lightning City, he decided to expand this project and duplicate it across four other cities: The capital of the Crown Kingdom which is the Jasmine City in the Peace Province; the capital of the Pearl Kingdom which is the Jade City in the Rain Province; the capital of the Star Kingdom which is the Flower City in the Mountain Province; the capital of the Cloud Kingdom which is the Twilight City in the Sword Province.
To achieve this great expansion, Zixin appointed each one of his four cousins as the leader of the project in one of those cities. Guang will be the leader of the project in the Jasmine City, Jinjing will be the leader of the project in the Jade City, Shirong will be the leader of the project in the Flower City and Bingwen will the leader of the project in the Twilight City. Zixin is the leader of the project in the Lightning City and he is also the supreme leader of his four cousins. All his cousins work under his command and report to him.
Each of the four cousins started by buying a gargantuan land in the countryside of their respective cities and started to hire people from the miserable segment as they already did in the Lightning City. Over time, each of the new four lands accommodated 20000 farmers who were rescued from the harsh life conditions they were suffering and were granted a good employment opportunity with residence in the big lands.
Since the four cousins had task rotation across the four functions of the farm (the crop production, the crop sales, the livestock raising and the livestock sales), they could lead their new projects successfully with a high degree of mastery and competence. They quickly expanded and hired the expected number of people. The work was carried out smoothly across Zixin's five lands in the five different cities. The profits of the five lands were considerable and Zixin's fortune grew significantly in the recent years. His fortune is the combination of his gargantuan balance with the government that was obtained from his treasure finding trick and the profits of his five philanthropic projects across the five lands.
One day, Zixin had this conversation with Xiulan.
Xiulan: Zixin, are there still dreams that you wish to fulfill?
Zixin: Of course, human beings never stop dreaming. Whenever you reach a level, you look for what is next, above or beyond.
Xiulan: So what is your next dream?
Zixin: I want to enter the world of politics. Over the years, I have gained so much practical experience in leadership and management. Now, I aspire to become a truly influential political leader who will leave a lasting impact in Chinese history.
Xiulan: I encourage you in all what you plan to achieve. I am with you heart and soul.
Zixin: Thank you, Xiulan. You are my true partner in every stage of my life. Your standing by me greatly motivates me.
Xiulan: Sharing my life journey with you has been the best decision I have made. Nothing can separate us.
Zixin: No man is luckier than me when I look at your beautiful eyes.
Arming the Farmers
After the business of agriculture of Zixin prospered and thrived across the five capitals of the five kingdoms, he decided to take a brave step which is arming his farmers across the five cities. In each city, Zixin had around 20000 farmers and arming them at once was expensive. Zixin bought swords, spears, bows with arrows, armors, shields, etc for his farmers. Zixin also started to train his farmers in a systematic and methodical manner about different skills of fighting and military operations. Zixin told his farmers that he is going to expand his business and that they need to travel across China so he wanted them to be strong enough to protect his trade from different dangers including the danger of bandits. Zixin divided his farmers in each city into three groups. The first group trains on Thursday and Friday; the second group trains on Saturday and Sunday; the third group trains on Monday and Tuesday. All the three groups rest on Wednesday. After some time, the farmers of Zixin became all competent in warfare.
When Zixin bought a large amount of weaponry, the Ministry of Intelligence was alerted because all weapon merchants have an agreement with the government that they should report unusually large amounts of weaponry purchases. The purpose of this policy is to allow the government to track and anticipate any potential threats upfront such as the threat of rebellion, coup, etc. When the Ministry of Intelligence knew about Zixin's large purchases of weaponry, they summoned him for a formal investigation. The investigator was Yingjie Zhuang, the Deputy Imperial Minister of Intelligence. Here is a snapshot of the conversation between Yingjie and Zixin:
Yingjie: We were informed that you purchased a large amount of weaponry. What is your motivation for this?
Zixin: I plan to expand my business and diversify my trade in a significant manner. I want to use my farmers as merchants who will travel across China. I want them to be strong enough and well-prepared for threats, especially the threat of bandits. When I was a magician, I was attacked by bandits once and they usurped our belongings. I do not want to jeopardize my trade and lose my money or people for being naive, fragile or weak.
Yingjie: Are all your farmers going to become merchants or only part of them?
Zixin: Only part of them.
Yingjie: Then why did you request weaponry equal to the number of all farmers you have?
Zixin: Because I want to use my farmers with rotation. I will rotate my farmers across different journeys of trade and this requires that all my farmers are well-trained and well-acquainted with self-defense.
Yingjie: Does this mean that you are going to abandon agriculture and turn completely into commerce?
Zixin: No, I will keep running my farms but maybe with reduced capacity. I will have to juggle multiple balls at once.
Yingjie: Thank you for your time and candid answers. You may leave now.
Zixin: You are welcome. Thank you also for your professional investigation.
With his convincing answers, Zixin could persuade Yingjie about his bona fide vision for training his farmers. Due to the good record Zixin had with the government, Yingjie believed the narration of Zixin. But people show at times things that are contrary to what they hide. Overlooking one potential danger by the government can bring a disaster to a nation. Farsighted leaders have the acumen and shrewdness to anticipate dangers before they occur. Unfortunately, Yingjie fell a prey to Zixin when he trusted and believed him without taking further action to watch Zixin and his actions in the five farms across the five kingdoms. This mistake will be the most expensive decision in the history of the Chinese Empire.