STFU #24 - The Case of Yuyutsu (Mahabharata) and Mazu (Taiwan) - Hiring from/for Competition

As the epic war of Mahabharata was about to begin, Yudhishthira made an announcement on the battlefield, saying anybody who wishes to change sides can do it now, before the conches are blown. As it was their choice which side they wanted to fight from, they could choose to either leave ‘his’ side and cross over or join him from the ‘other’ side. It is at this moment that Yuyutsu changed sides and joined Pandavas.?

Known as the 101st son of Dhritarashtra (with Gandhari's maid, Sughada), Yuyutsu was a half-brother of the 100 Kauravas.?

Yuyutsu fought the battle on the side of the Pandavas, as he thought they were morally on the ‘right’ side.?He subsequently saved a lot of lives by leaking information on?Duryodhana's cunning schemes. One of them included poisoning water to kill Bhima; a plan that didn’t work out, thanks to Yuyutsu alarming the Pandavas about it.

He was one of the only 11 warriors who?survived the war!

Eventually, after the war, as a token of appreciation for helping them out, Pandavas made?Yuyutsu the king of ‘Indraprastha’!

In more recent times, under similar circumstances like Yuyutsu, a U.S. soldier illegally crossed into North Korea in July. Travis King, a US Army soldier for nearly 2.5 years, joined a tour group to the Demilitarized Zone from South Korea and ran across the heavily fortified border into North Korea. As per the officials there, he was tired of the racist discrimination and the human maltreatment by the US Army officials!

While these 2 moved over to the other side, what if the other side wanted someone to cross over?

Goddess Mazu in Taiwan

Mazu is a goddess who?lived in southern China during the tenth century—and used her mystical powers to save relatives from a shipwreck. Even though she originated in China, she is highly worshipped in Taiwan?as the one who will fulfill all promises of the Taiwanese. Each year her statue is carried across the island on a multi-day tour.?Mazu was blessed with supernatural abilities and could accurately forecast the weather and predict the future.

But the Communist party in China believes that since she had roots in China, she is almost ‘theirs’. Given the political stress between China and Taiwan, Chinese authorities believe that Mazu might be their ticket to build bridges between the two countries, metaphorically speaking.?They want to turn?Taiwan’s love of Mazu into love of the motherland, and then make it easier to peacefully bring Taiwan back under the mainland’s rule (and Taiwanese to believe that they are part of China!)

Yuyutsu and Mazu in your team?

Yuyutsu changed sides when asked, Travis jumped over on his own and Mazu is a goddess who is being sought after by the other side to get the rest of the team. One set changed sides, the other is being sought out.?

In the startup world, Yuyutsus and Travises move on when they think they are in the wrong place or someone convinces them that they are in the wrong place, and will be rewarded with a kingdom once they move over (Senior roles or ESOPs are what ‘kingdoms’ are called these days). On the other hand, Mazus are the ‘icons’ of your team, mostly the founding members or very senior leaders - if they leave, it can significantly impact employee morale as well. Some of them might follow their leader as well!

When Yuyutsus leave, a lot of information can get passed on to competition, as they have negativity towards your organization. When Mazus leave, you risk losing a lot of team members who respected their ‘goddesses’. Whatever the narrative be, you are the one who will get screwed!?

At True Elements , we lost a few Yuyutsus in our team to distant competitors, some of whom went with a lot of negativity towards us. What they soon realized, though, is that they just moved from one set of evil brothers to another set of Kauravas. Incidentally, they are still seeking their Pandavas!

But we have lost a few Mazus also. Except for one, where most of our Taiwanese moved over to China, in other cases, the team has stuck around.?

What is important is the culture you build. If it is toxic, it is natural to get the Yuyutsus to move out. They should know why they are working with you and what’s in it for them - respect, money, status, role - or something else. But if their inner drive is only the ‘kingdom’ opportunistically, there is little that you can do about it. As long as they find their Pandavas, good for them!??

However, in the case of Mazus, the issue is different.?If you have key leaders who are such ‘Goddesses’, keep in mind that they might move on the basis their Maslow’s hierarchy, and might choose another temple. Solution - On one hand, you should keep worshipping your Mazus. Admire their supernatural abilities and carry them around, showing them off!

Alternatively,?sometimes it is important for the team to have multiple gods and goddesses to worship - polytheists as they call it. This helps them to not be obsessed with one God when she moves on.?Mazu might be one reason, but not the only one. Get leaders the team can respect, such that they know that it is more than one Mazu who motivates them to come to the office every day!

At the end of the day, as Bhishm Pitamah told Duryodhana on the battlefield, ‘Dharma’ is an individual’s call - and what drives you might not drive others - if someone finds their calling outside, it’s their call.

In summary, you have two options -

Option 1: treat your team well, be it your half-brother colleagues or your key goddess-leaders, for as they become dearer and more important to the business, they will always be sought after. And like China, even though your competition might keep launching military drills to ‘warn’ you, deep down they are insecure and don’t know how they can beat you, so will keep looking out for your Mazus and Yuyutsus!

OR you can choose the other option of reacting the way Duryodhana reacts after listening to the entire explanation - “Huh!” is all he said!

You know how it ended with the primary antagonist of the story!

Stfu!

References:?Goddess Mazu,?Yuyutsu,?Yuyutsu 2,?Travis King?| Image:?Mazu,?Duryodhana

P.S. If you are an 80s or 90s kid, you will recall your childhood in this?4-min clip from the TV show?depicting the story above