Dear Friend

I had an argument with you about a military discipline, Obey First Before You Complain,  and you feel you need to follow this in doing your job and decision making procedures due to the fact which i myself cannot deny that our Boss on most cases acts like a dictator.

Well, I admit that my military knowledge is very limited but this discipline is applicable only for them considering of course the chain of command they follow where most of the time only the high ranking military officials know what the war strategy. It is therefore critically confidential to be able to triumph and keep it secret among few therefore everybody else just have to put their trust with their commanding officers believing that they have something planned for the best outcome.

We, on the other hand, are not in the military sense of discipline and that we are in a very different world of business and ethics. We are indeed expatriates working in a foreign land under our foreign bosses which might limit our actions thinking that we are just working for them and we have to obey their commands whatever it may be. My friend, I believe that there are laws in this land, human rights protection and justice that exists regardless of race. Should you then follow whatever he might command you even though you know it's wrong, without raising a complaint?

I remembered a very wise man said,

"All that is required for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing" -Edmund Burke

Clearly, it is only by doing nothing at all that he would not change his ways. You always have a choice to speak up and fight for what you stand for. A man will never change his habit which he believes true unless another truth is presented to him that may oppose what he knew was correct. He might not listen at the first few tries but after all even inventors fail on their initial attempts. Thomas Edison for instance failed a thousand times before finally succeeding in making the light bulb.

This is not a unique situation where you face a dilemma but rather it is very common to everyone's daily life and what will distinguish you from the others is the courage to stand up to something you believe is right and face any consequences that may burden you thereafter without any regrets.

So i would ask you again, Is this military discipline applicable to the office or even in the bigger picture, Politics?


Sincerely,

Tisoy

Dear Mr. Know It All

I just want to tell you that it is alright to not know everything and it will not make you look dumb or stupid. We are all students until the day our lives will go to somewhere not of this world. Information is so vast. We cannot learn all the knowledge this world can offer but we can try and have to educate ourselves as much as possible in all aspects of life.

The Prophet, peace be upon him, has said in an authentic narration, "Seeking knowledge is an obligation upon every Muslim" (Al-Tirmidhi)

You can seek knowledge in a lot of different ways and A friend can be one of them. It might be hard for you to accept the fact that someone knows something that you do not know but you know what? It does not mean that he is more knowledgeable than you. Guess what? He probably doesn't know a lot of things too that you may have knowledge of.

Egotism is a negative trait that will make you look too proud and arrogant. You have to distance yourself from it.

It is written in the Holy Quran 7:12, Satan said: "I am better than him; You created me from fire, and you created him from dust."

You have the tendency to believe that what you know is the only fact there is and ignore anything other than what you believe is correct like how Satan reacted. You on the other hand should be humble enough to accept and learn ideas and insights from other people and thank them for sharing their thoughts.

If you have any disagreement with anything then maybe you have to try saying it in an effective and polite way. In the Holy Quran 17:53, "and tell my servants that they  should speak (only) what is best (ahsan-kind). Surely Satan stirs up trouble among them. The fact is that Satan is an open enemy among them."


Sincerely,

Tisoy