A male Christian S (hereinafter “S”) has been working for a cross-border group company since 1900.
He recalled that he did not enjoy either working in the city where he was, or the business atmosphere there, so buying a house there was not in his plan, as he just preferred working several years there and then returning to his hometown. At that time, when he realized that he preferred purchasing an apartment, the housing prices had soared several times already.
When we invited S to share his experience and ideas in the workplace, his conclusion was simple, yet thought-provoking - "without conflicts, there will not be breakthroughs in the workplace".
To many people, conflict is a negative and terrible thing, that's why most of us will be afraid of it, but S has been looking at conflict from a positive angle. He suggests that the reason that some people have never experienced conflict is simply that they may either not need a breakthrough or a breakthrough is simply not required in their workplace.
S shared his experience from the workplace from four angles.
Human relationships
S said that in the 1990s, it was very difficult for him to find a job. When he was being interviewed to work for a company, it took three hours to finish the interview. He was very nervous during the interview because the interviewer was not very polite to him, asking him different complicated and terrible questions and even attacked him with ad hominem. When he looked back at this experience, he realized that this was the best interviewer sent from God, since his job largely required his ability in handling pressure. If the three hours of the interview was not arranged or the mean words were not said by the interviewer, later on, he would have been unable to undergo the pressure from his work.
S said, “What I learned was to be obedient. Breakthrough is needed among people.”
People and matters
Since S works for a cross-border company, the markets of this company are globally oriented. He mentioned that their company now covers the 14 countries of the Asian Pacific Market, and ranks among the top companies in the Chinese market. Since the Asian Pacific Market is not the largest market of their company, they can take more resources from the Europe Market there. China, as the largest single market, their company can also get many resources from there; however, they are able to just take resources mainly from China and not from other countries. As a result, although there is a rapid growth in the Asian Pacific Market, the company's headquarter has not paid much attention to it.
Working for the department of the Asian Pacific Market, he confessed that after the many hard-working years of his colleagues, the Asian Pacific Market is getting better and better. They have been adhering to the principles to strive for more resources for the Asian Pacific Market.
People and things
His boss, who is Swiss, seems to be superstitious. When S entered the company, he realized that there was a huge Terracotta Warrior standing at the door of the office. Later he learned that the Terracotta Warrior was put by his boss. Although the ceramic product is not a real one but a replica, the eyes would sparkle every night, seeming scary.
In 2015, S removed the Terracotta Warrior, keeping it in the storage room of the company. "Our business was not going down but up after the removal of the Terracotta Warrior. As Christians, we have to remove the idols to keep our faith, because we know that God is our protector,” he added.
People and Self
S stated that among all of the relationships, our relationships with ourselves are the most difficult relationship to break through as our greatest enemy is ourselves. “This is not the case which can be solved by money. Cases are not that big when they can be solved by money.” Instead, every one of us has our own stubborn thinking, unwilling to walk out of our comfort zones.
So how we can conquer ourselves? We can only rely on God, the one who gives us strength. “I strike a blow to my body and make it my slave.” We should let God’s power change us and cover our weakness so that we can live out a new self in Jesus Christ.
- Translated by Jessie Cheong
