Power, Dignity and Resilience

I was in my second year at the University of Calgary when a wise chiropractor told me this story.

One of the doctors at her clinic was disrespectful, dismissive, and overall a jerk to the administrative team. He thought they had no influence.

You would think that a smart doctor should have known better.

So what happened next? The admin people stopped booking patients with him. They indirectly encouraged people to book with other doctors who were at least decent to them.

He realized a bit too late that his patients were no longer being booked with him and no new patients were booking with him.

The same story in different shapes happens again and again

At the highest level, Trump wanted to force China to surrender (And this is China we're talking about, a country that has experienced incredible economic growth over the past few decades) to his economic policies. He restricted export controls on cutting-edge semiconductor chips, so China built DeepSeek, which disrupted the global tech market at a fraction of OpenAI's cost. 

Again, with the tariff negotiations with Canada, Trump wanted to control who Canada trades with. As a result, many USA companies lost the Canadian market. Yes, the tariffs will be very painful in the short term. But this crisis creates resilience and will make the Canadian economy anti-fragile in the long term.  As Carny said, "The old order is not coming back. We should not mourn it. Nostalgia is not a strategy. But from the fracture, we can build something better, stronger and more just"

On a more day-to-day level, I've seen the same pattern in the corporate world, not just among policymakers.

People who are full of themselves and happen to be in powerful positions underestimate the influence of people who seem to hold less prestigious positions than they do.

They don't understand that when people's pride and dignity get attacked, they push back. And they push back hard.

You squeeze suppliers to get every last penny from them; you will get bad products, late delivery, and worse, no supply at all.

You disrespect your colleagues or weaponize policies against your direct reports; what do you think will happen? Maybe nothing in the short term. But karma will get back at you.

Demonstrating respect and showing people that they are appreciated (even if it is not real) is one of the easiest ways to get a much better outcome with any stakeholder.

People support decisions more when they feel that their contribution matters.

However, when the pain keeps moving down while the benefits stay at the top, resistance and vengeance are inevitable