[:en]Business Lesson #8 from the Book of Proverbs: Watch your words[:]

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by Stevenson Q. Yu

Proverbs 13:2
From the fruit of his mouth, a man eats what is good, but the desire of the treacherous is for violence.

 

Elon Musk, CEO of electric carmaker Tesla Inc., is a visionary often compared to Thomas Edison, who is perhaps America’s greatest inventor. In addition to his vision for environmentally friendly cars and a solar-powered society, he has dreams to offer space tourism, shoot people through underground tunnels in a “Hyperloop”, and even colonize Mars.

Unfortunately, he has a habit of behaving erratically, with problems controlling his mouth. In 2018 alone, he insulted stock analysts covering his company, smoked marijuana live in an interview, and made a joke on Twitter that caused the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission to charge him with misleading investors.1 Tesla was already in poor financial condition in 2018; its CEO’s antics made the situation worse.

Elon Musk is not the only offender. Michael Leary, CEO of discount airliner Ryanair, called customers who show up at an airport without a boarding pass as “stupid.” Chip Wilson, the founder of Lululemon (seller of yoga-inspired athletic apparel), suggested that some customers were too heavy for his company’s yoga pants. Mike Jeffries, the CEO of fashion retailer Abercrombie and Fitch, once said2 he only wants to sell clothes to “cool, good-looking people.”

Joseph Calata was hailed as a genius when he became the Philippines’ youngest self-made billionaire.3 The fall from grace was swift. In quick succession, the company was investigated by the PSE for stock manipulation, and the SEC ordered the delisting of Calata Corp. from the stock exchange due to several violations of securities laws.

The unapologetic Calata cried Filipino crab mentality, saying that the violations were all honest mistakes all young entrepreneurs can commit. This defiance caused the SEC to impose a harsh penalty, banning him from leading or sitting on the board of a publicly-listed company for life.

The Chinese saying 「病從口入，禍從口出」 literally translates as: “Disease goes in through the mouth, and trouble comes out through the mouth.” This advice exists in many other languages. English has “If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say it at all.” Bisaya has “daghang sulti, daghang sayop; way sulti, way sayop” — more talk more mistakes, no talk, no mistakes.

These adages apply equally to business as they do to life. If you say good and sensible things, you will reap its fruits. If you can’t control your mouth, and either say something bad about someone else or start blurting out your company secrets, that’s when you get in trouble. In the past, what you say might blow up very fast, but just as quickly be forgotten once something more juicy comes out.

Today however, everything that you say and do can be preserved forever on the Internet and circulated again and again on social media for years to come. So, since something said or done decades ago can and will return to haunt you, be very careful what you say!

 

Endnotes

  1. Robinson, Matt, and Benjamin Bain. 2018. “Elon Musk Is Sued by SEC Over ‘Funding Secured’ Tweet – Bloomberg.” Bloomberg.Com, September 28, 2018.
  2. Scudder, Virgil. 2014. “Careless Word Choice: When the CEO Has Foot-in-Mouth Disease. ” The Public Relations Strategist, April 9, 2014.
  3. Enriquez, Marge. 2014. “Joseph Calata gets so far so fast.” Philippine Daily Inquirer, June 22, 2014.
(Link to Lesson 7)

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