Schindler was a conniving, manipulative womanizer whose initial goal was to exploit a wartime economy by using the Jewish people as cheap labor to staff his start-up enamelware company. His motivation was strictly economic self-interest. What he didn't bargain for was the incredible father-son relationship he would develop with his chief accountant Itzhak Stern, and how Schindler's desire to please his surrogate father would so transform his psyche.
Stern was an astute businessman who taught Schindler how to make money. In the process, he also taught him love and compassion for the people who brought him profits. Eventually, Schindler's mission to save the people who worked for him became larger and more important than his desire to make money and did, indeed, interfere with his capitalistic motives. By the time the war was over, the wealthy Schindler was a poor man who had managed to save hundreds of lives.
After the war, without his trusted business adviser, Schindler was never able to grow a viable business again. He died a poor man, dependent on the people he'd saved for his own survival.
Was Schindler a success or a failure? In his lifetime, Schindler succeeded and failed several times. Financially, he did not succeed. In other ways, it's more difficult to judge. In Israel, he always received a hero's welcome from the people he had saved. In his native country, he was often jeered as a Jew-lover.
Maybe it isn't fair to judge a man's life in terms of some great final curtain call. Schindler's greatest accomplishments occurred in the middle of his life, when a trusted adviser and a nobler purpose created a unique window of opportunity for him to succeed financially. Ironically, at a time when he was most able to achieve financial success, he cared more for something (or someone) else.
That Oskar Schindler, a conniving, manipulative womanizer, was capable of such noble acts should give us all pause for thought.
Strong people connections were also at the heart of Dan Jansen's ability to recover from his setbacks at Calgary. Jansen (who credits much of his success to his extensive network of supportive family and friends) uses a technique called the "mental war room," which he learned from sports psychologist Jim Loer.
The room is a place he peoples with his favorite memories, photographs, conversations and even songs. When the outside world threatens to overwhelm his capacity to concentrate, he goes into his "mental war room" for comfort and calm.
If you don't have good support systems available to you during stressful times, failures become an experience of isolation rather than connection. To overcome that sense of alienation, you must force yourself to reach out to others who can help.
This can be a risk. People aren't always predictable. Sometimes, trusted buddies turn out to be fair-weather friends while more distant acquaintances move in to fill the breach. As an account executive client of mine remarked, "You really find out who your friends are when the chips are down."
For this executive, the chips were down on the day her boss at the marketing research company where she worked expressed displeasure with her leadership abilities and gave her 60 days to straighten out. The problem, it turns out, reflected a conflict of values more than a lack of leadership. The account executive has a strong people orientation and tends to lead with her heart as much as her head. Her boss, a vice president, manages strictly in accordance with the numbers on the bottom line. Employee welfare and job security aren't considerations for him. Thus, to avoid being called "too soft," the account executive had to deal with her staff in a manner markedly against her nature.
Soon, she began to question whether she really had the skills to survive in business. Certainly, no one in her company seemed to respect her abilities or regard her future. Her crisis of confidence was so strong that she sought professional assistance to determine whether she needed a career change.
As we talked, it became clear that she did need to toughen up emotionally and not take criticism of her abilities quite so seriously. She also needed to realize, though, that the respect she shows to subordinates is a strength, not a weakness. While it's important to acknowledge and deal with bottom-line concerns, this doesn't have to mean treating others disrespectfully and unfairly.
Strengthened by our conversation, the account executive approached her boss with ideas for improving the bottom line without firing staff. When her boss didn't buy in, she decided to look for a more supportive business environment where her values and style would be more compatible with those of her co-workers.
