Читать книгу The power of freedom - Ильдар Борисович Хусаинов - Страница 5

What does it mean to be a good person and have real inner strength? I touched on this in the introduction, but this question deserves a more detailed exploration. In my opinion, a good person is someone who, when faced with the choice between money and their values, will always choose the latter. This is important for life and critically essential for business – many aspiring entrepreneurs encounter such dilemmas. When it comes to choosing between personal principles and financial gain, principles should win.

I have faced this choice myself more than once. Let me give you a specific example related to motivational management within a company. When we started in the 2000s, many believed that salary was the only thing an employee should receive from an employer. However, from day one, I adhered to a different principle: every employee is a partner with whom we need to honestly negotiate the sharing of income. The fact that we build a partnership with our employees doesn’t mean they bear the same risks as the leadership. For instance, when employees made mistakes that led to significant losses, we never shifted the responsibility onto them. We always took on all the losses ourselves. This is our formula: the entrepreneur takes responsibility, while employees participate in the distribution of income.

There have been times when employees earned more than I did, and I've always considered that perfectly normal. My main principle is to create value for others. My job is to build a community where everyone finds it interesting and beneficial to work. Only after I make sure the interests of my employees are taken care of can I think about my own well-being.

My acquaintances often said, "Ildar, what are you doing? You're investing all your income back into the business, while your employees drive expensive cars and earn high salaries." I would respond, "That's how we agreed to operate." Our model is built on this principle. The growth of the system is impossible without strong individuals who can realize their potential. They invest in themselves and their development, striving to improve. For that, they need income. One thing has always been important to me: how much my employees earn. When I saw the rising incomes of my staff in the accounting reports, it made me happy.

Moreover, I have always been happy to see the profits of our partner realtors, senior partners, and franchisees grow. There's a special kind of satisfaction in knowing that we are all working together towards a common goal. Our system allowed for income growth, which signified the company's development and served as a tangible measure of our efforts – a visible result. It meant that the knowledge and skills of our employees were being effectively utilized and that the company was truly investing in their development. For me, this has always been a key indicator of success.

Another trait of a good person, and for me, it's a fundamental issue, is keeping agreements. For example, in 2008, we had no money at all. I remember going to the bank and taking out a loan at 25% interest to continue paying salaries at the level we had agreed upon for a certain period. Only after fulfilling my obligations did I have a serious conversation with my employees, where I explained that I had to temporarily reduce their salaries by 15–20%. Even though I had no money at that time, I didn't let my people down. As a business leader, I took on all the risks. This principle was crucial for me then and remains an important value for the company to this day.

Honesty is also vital in business relationships. You can’t build a business without it. I can't stand lies, and I always speak the truth directly to people's faces. Those who start working with me are often surprised by my straightforwardness, but over time they realize that it's much better to say what you mean rather than think one thing and say another. I always advocate for honesty in both personal and professional relationships, which sometimes leads to serious conversations with my deputies. I express my thoughts respectfully but directly, and I expect the same from others. There was an incident with our top realtor when we caught him cheating. That realtor was responsible for about 10% of our total revenue. The situation that unfolded when we started discussing measures to address this issue became a serious lesson for me. In the early 2000s, our company "Etagi" had four co-founders, so we discussed this matter together. My partners insisted that we should not terminate our relationship with the realtor caught in dishonest dealings. We were already facing financial difficulties and there was uncertainty about whether we had enough funds to keep the company afloat during such a challenging time without going bankrupt. Besides, we were concerned that he might leave for a competitor.

At that point, I urged my colleagues to think about the long-term implications: "What will we achieve with this decision? What message are we sending to our partners by condoning the dishonest actions of their colleague?" I was convinced that in the future, we would lose much more because of this. We were building a large system for the long haul, and we couldn't turn a blind eye to this misconduct. Personally, I made the decision to build a system with the future in mind, rather than living day by day. Long-term thinking is one of my principles, as I've mentioned before. At that moment, I managed to persuade my colleagues to take decisive action. We ended our partnership with the realtor who had violated the rules. My partners understood that such behavior was unacceptable in our system, and as a result, our revenue doubled the following year because all the shady schemes disappeared and turned into our profit.

In the first couple of years of managing our company, there were four of us involved. My mother and I were equal partners with Galina Vasilievna Maximova and Andrey Valeryevich Maximov. However, by 2003, my vote became the deciding one. From that point on, I was fully in charge of the company and made all the strategic decisions. For the first three years after the company's founding, my mother played the role of leader and carried the entire company on her shoulders. I was only 23 at the time and was just beginning to step into the world of senior management.

At that moment, I realized how important it is for a businessman to have clear principles and a strong inner core. When a leader faces a complex management decision filled with contradictions, it's crucial to be confident that the choice will ultimately be the right one. But how can you determine that, especially when you’re deeply involved in the situation? It can be quite challenging to take an objective view. From my management experience: the more fear arises within, the closer you are to the right decision. The human brain is wired in such a way that neurons send signals about impending danger, and the closer that danger gets, the more strongly fear affects us. However, fear doesn't always indicate that the decision is right. As the importance of a decision increases, fear can also grow. Yet, fear can also arise when you're moving away from the right choice. It manifests in both scenarios: when you're approaching an important decision, it causes anxiety, and when you're distancing yourself from that decision, the potential consequences of inaction can be frightening. I don't like to make decisions when I'm feeling fearful. When you feel fear, it often means you lack sufficient information, have conducted poor analysis, or simply lack experience. For me, the ideal point for making a decision lies between these two types of fear.

The case with the unscrupulous realtor was very telling: everyone was afraid of losing money right away, but few considered that if they ignored this incident, it could lead to a toxic culture within the company in a few years. I always focus on the future, and I'm less concerned about immediate financial losses than I am about long-term benefits.