Does it make sense to sacrifice your scruples in order to secure success?
You may not work in the high-pressure world of fashion, but the chances are you have found yourself facing that dilemma, just as Anne Hathaway’s character does in The Devil Wears Prada.
Andy Sachs is a budding journalist who, though completely naive when it comes to haute couture, takes a job as PA to the editor of a fashion magazine - a boss who makes Alan Sugar look like Father Christmas. (OK, so he does a bit anyway…)
Her aim is to survive for just a year so she can launch herself into a career as a serious reporter. However, as she becomes embroiled in the world of Gucci and Galliano, she succumbs and the dowdy out-of-town girl transforms into a fully paid-up New York fashionista.
Her scruples are challenged when she’s given the chance to leapfrog a colleague and take a trip with ‘the Dragon Lady’ to the Paris Fashion Week. An opportunity that will provide her with a black-bookful of contacts with which she can secure her career in the media. Now, the colleague has been nothing but nasty to her, and also she’s not as good at her job as Andy. So, what should she do…?
No spoilers here, so head down to your local multiplex if you want to know the answer.
According to a new book, The Art of Being Kind, what Andy ought to do is win her colleague’s trust by stepping aside – even if it costs her her career.
It doesn’t sound like a formula for business success, but (as the Observer reported) the author, Stefan Einhorn, is convinced that generosity of spirit can guarantee profitability:
‘True success is not achieved by those who are smart or inconsiderate, by hard-baked egotists or psychopathic bosses … We gain by being generous towards those around us … When people do not perceive any competition, they themselves stop competing and instead start to co-operate, which everyone benefits from.’
A business community in which people are committed to selflessness on the basis that it’s beneficial for everyone? If only religion could get hold of that concept!
Being generous, being honest, may cost us that promotion or that contract; but if we’re committed to being pioneers for God’s kingdom come, ultimately it’s a small price to pay.
Jason Gardner
