Just heard another loyalty story … a 59 year old man who was
fired by his company … a company he helped build from scratch, a place he considered as his
second home, an organization he spent 29 years in, giving his complete loyalty for
his boss whom he thought was a loyal friend. At the end of the day, he was
asked to leave with absolutely nothing.
Now to be fair … I am sure the company has valid reasons to
ask him to leave … I am not going to delve into that. What I want to talk about
here is loyalty.
Time and time again I hear people who pledge their complete loyalty
to their work, their companies and their bosses … at the end of the day, they
were either ignored, overlooked, disregarded and some were even betrayed.
For me, an old school type person ... loyalty is something I
hold tight and proud … I can say I am a loyal person. But for all those
like me, the sad truth is … loyalty is always placed in a very precarious spot …
it hangs dangerously between honor and exploit … and sadly, it is much easier
being exploited than to be honored.
I am a loyal person … loyal to many and as much as I still
want to believe that loyalty will somewhat create a bond to hold people
together … but over time, I realize that it is those that I have been loyal to
that are now shunning away.
Though at times I still want to place a bit of faith in
loyalty but it has proven many times that loyalty is always never honored with
the same. Well, let’s be fair ... maybe the problem is with me, maybe I am not
loyal enough.
I still believe in loyalty … in fact, I am a sucker for it.
I am sure there are people like me (though not many) who still hold loyalty close to
their hearts, who still honor the values of devotion, faithfulness and reliability.
I think loyalty is admirable … but only to followers. To
leaders, loyalty is a weakness. The fact is … in the real world, most people don't want to be like me … I am a follower.
