To illustrate this point, I have a few examples. Here are two additional videos that focus on the ver many quotable quotes that comprise only 14 characters of the English alphabet. You can play, then press pause, so that the videos load better, before you watch them.

Here is Part 1

Here is Part 2

Here is the presentation on video, followed by the three dramatic stings. By the way, in the photo above, taken by Belinda Christie, we see David Malouf (author), The Honourable Virginia Judge MP, George Basher (actor), Regina Sutton (State Librarian and CEO), Jonar Nader, and Professor Fadia Ghossayn (President of the Australian Lebanese Foundation). After the fourth video below, is a transcript of the speech.

To explore the mysteries of the power of 14, click here.

Below are three additional videos of the dramatic music stings that were used on the night.

1) The walk-in that also featured the roll-call at the end, listing the names of everyone in the room.

2) The 2-minute energetic sting used to introduce the official speeches.

3) The 2-minute high-energy sting that preceded Jonar’s introduction.


Below is a transcript of Jonar’s lecture:

Greg Ward: Now, the video introduction that you have just seen concluded with these words. “I am alive like you and I am standing beside you. Close your eyes and look around, you will see me in front of you.” These were the words written by Gibran himself that were placed on his final place. And these beautiful and haunting words are truly words of encouragement.

So, with Gibran’s spirit undoubtedly here in front of us tonight, we arrive at the keynote presentation. But before we start, we need to ask a question. Why? Why did the Australian Lebanese Foundation invite Jonar Nader to present the keynote address? I mean there must have been dozens of scholars and academics and eminent dignitaries who could have been considered. So, what is it about Jonar that makes him the obvious choice?

Well, maybe it’s because both Jonar and Gibran have a great deal in common. Both men have mothers who are born in the village of Bsharri. Both Gibran and Jonar played in the same fields and they climbed the same trees, ate fruit from the same orchards, drank from the same streams.

As a boy, Gibran was taken to the United States. And as a boy, Jonar was brought here to Sydney. Both men could not speak English when they changed countries. Yet both men went on to become international authors and both write poetically. In fact, Jonar also writes about crime and terrorism and high technology and management. I’m sure that a great deal of you have been listening to Jonar on Arabic and English radio for the last 20 years.

Gibran was fond of painting. And Jonar too is an artist. Of the 24 paintings in Jonar’s home, Jonar painted all 24 of them. Both men infuriate people. Both upset people. Both challenge leaders in government and in industry. And both men have changed people’s lives with their literary work. Now, you heard the president of Australian Lebanese Foundation, Professor Fadia Ghossayn, say that Jonar was the little Gibran. We could think of no one better qualified to present the keynote address here tonight to celebrate Gibran’s life.

Ladies and gentlemen, to explore the genius of Gibran, we would like to call on our own resident genius. Ladies and gentlemen, please a big round of applause for Mr. Jonar Nader.

Jonar Nader: Thank, you Greg.

Greg Ward: You’re welcome.

Jonar Nader: Thank you. Beloved friends, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, members of my family, it’s so lovely to see you. I wanted to just give out a little bit of a question here, was Gibran a genius? That’s a question that some gentlemen asked me the other day. So, that’s going to be the question I would post.

Now, you all know he’s fantastic. You all know he’s great. You all know he’s brilliant. But we called upon the proof because anyone can say, “Oh, you’re brilliant. You’re fantastic. But where is the proof?” So, I would like to talk to you about the proof today. But before we begin, just to those of us who might have forgotten where Lebanon is but you all know where Italy is, don’t you? OK.

Now, this is the Mediterranean Sea. And Lebanon has the best view of Mediterranean. We get this very straight wonderful view. Now, what does Lebanon look like? It’s sort of smothered away by it’s cozy being Lebanon surrounded by this wonderful nations around us. And let me just ask you, if we compare Lebanon with Australia, where do you think, look at this, where do you think that Lebanon would fit? No,no, not there. I’ll show you. So someone already said, “Really? I didn’t think of that mate?”

Jonar Nader: No, no, no. Here it is. This is Lebanon fitting in Australia for you.

If you want to start a new house and drive down, you wouldn’t even get to warm on it because it shows a short drive. And I did that everyday from where I live down and I think all of us as well.

Now, this was where I was born in the city space of Lebanon but my mother came from Bsharri and that was her environment.

Jonar Nader: Now, to find my mum’s house because I used to go there and I grew up there and I played there, this photo couldn’t quite get it so it’s actually to the bottom left of this photo and I have to hire a commercial Russian satellite to show you the house and zoom in on it. Now, this was where they grew up, our cousins, uncles, etc. Now, for you to understand how magnificent this property was, I need to peel away the front. And we used to go there and enjoy the lunches and the dinners and the most freshest of food. And if you thought that was fantastic, hold your breath as you look out the balcony and think.

If you were even brave a little bit more, you go further and further and further. Now, when you have these vantages, the next question has to be, if you were standing there, what would you see? And the views both in summer and winter were the most stunning of views. You can see why the people here in Lebanon and people from Lebanon absolutely love their country because whether it’s summer or winter, it is still likable. And I used to go there as a child and at the age of six, here I am.

Jonar Nader: Someone said to me, “Quick. Let’s go.” And I thought, oh another baiter because they’re always saying, quick, let’s go. And this time they took me to the museum of Gibran, Kahlil (Khalil) Gibran. And I was – there it is. That was the photo. And I was this young kid walking to this thing that was more Australian is now a beautiful museum. I thought, what is this? And people would cheer me. It’s like, “Wow! Jonar is being introduced to Gibran.” Well, thanks.

Since I was 13, I feel in love with his work and when I was 16 and to this day, I read his book, The Prophet, twice a year. And every time I read it, I think how stupid can I be? I’m still learning. And I read the book and I think, oh, I didn’t know that. I still learn from his work day and night.

So, let me now get to the question. Is/Was Gibran a genius? Well, let’s say if we can even prove this point. First, I believe that to be a genius you have to be an original thinker because if everyone is like you, where is the genius in that, right? So, was Gibran an original thinker? On marriage in The Prophet, when he wrote and we read and he says, “Stand together. You’re not tuned in together for the pillars of the temples stand apart.” He was saying that at the time when no one would dare and utter those words or think them. In a culture that was completely different, was that original or what? And was that daring or what? He said, “Even though they quiver with the same music, the strings of the lute are aligned.”

For a man so young, he died at 48 don’t forget, if I’m right. Is that right?

Audience: Yes.

Jonar Nader: For a man so young to dare to utter these words about marriage that says to me, he was thinking in a way that was original. That’s proof point number one.

Was this man ahead of his time? Well, you know, I was watching an interview with Buzz Aldrin, one of the men who were the first to walk on the moon and I remember Buzz Aldrin saying something like when we left this earth and I look back, I could not see the geography that I was taught at school. At school, we’re taught of these maps and he say, “But when I look at the earth, I couldn’t see the geography. It was just one beautiful planet, one beautiful place. Why on earth do we have conflict when we’re a little tiny dot in the universe?”

And now, this was a gentleman who had to spend $2 billion to get to the moon to work that out and here is Gibran 46 years prior having noticed this before the airplane, before the space shuttle, before anyone ever thought we’d ever get to the moon. Gibran’s mind was elevating to the satellite status. And he said, “You know, if you were to sit upon a cloud, you would not see the boundary line between one country than other nor the boundary standing between one farm than the next.” Gibran said, “It is a pity we cannot sit upon a cloud.” Basically saying, stupid people why do you fighting about? We’re all one nation. We’re all one country. We’re all one earth. We’re all one globe that should be pulling together.

So, do you think he was ahead of his time when long before even anyone could conceive of the rocket or the spaceship that if we actually can see that we really ought to just spend a moment to look down and see how funny it is.

He was shifting power before the Feminist Movement started and before the Women’s Rights Movement started. And he was talking about equality before anyone dare utter those words and he said, “Are you a husband who regards the wrongs he had committed as lawful but those of his wife as unlawful? At a time were men were dominant and dominating. Or are you a faithful companion whose wife is ever at his side sharing his every thought, rapture, and victory?” Long before the Women’s Movement, long before the Equal Rights Movement. This was a man way ahead of his time shifting power.

But as a fourth proof point, we ask, okay, is he a genius? I think you need to be somebody innovative. Well, were you? Was he innovative? Let us look at some of these questions. Back then and to this very day, everyone thinks that work is always work. And back then long before the management gurus and the total quality management and the quality insurance and long before all this play stuffing this of let’s not fight off, let’s hug each other. And I don’t know what they’re doing in this corporate thing is you know, you would go to them.

People saw work as they’re still seeing work sometimes as a burden. And way back then, was this innovative or not when he said, “People, work is love made visible.” And he was the guru talking about management staff engagement and talking about everything that you do you must do it with passion and with love. Not because it makes you feel better but because you’re doing it for someone who is your kin, your friend, your family. We are all one family. Build a house as if you’re building it for your mother.

What about proof point number five? Was he brave? Boy was he brave to speak like this at the time when no one even dared speak like this. You know they used to burn his books in the City Square. Here, we are celebrating the man that has touched our lives and back then some audacious person especially in the churches were burning his books. No disrespect, Your Excellency. I don’t think you did that today, would you?

Jonar Nader: Well, he certainly was brave and he knew that he would probably be killed if he went back home because he was back in the US and people were ostracizing him out of the country. And he loved it. I mean he was at pains with it and he was dying with it but he said, “I know now I’ve touched a nerve and when you touch a nerve, you’re getting close to something that’s called truth. And therefore, that’s okay. I’ll forego my beautiful homeland but I’d rather do what I have to do.” And he said of these empires who were dominating that when he said, “The ignorant nations arrested good men and turn them into this false.” Because that’s what they were trying to do things because they know he’s a nobody.

A country ruled by a tyrant persecutes those who try to free the people from the burden of slavery. They were persecuting him because he was saying, “Stop allowing anyone to oppress you.” And he who does not prefer exile to slavery is not free by any meter of freedom. He was free in his mind and he loved that, even if that meant being deprived from his very own home.

Was Gibran a genius? Well, a genius seems to be insightful. And was he being insightful when he said these words which I wish learned a long time ago. That’s what I tell you. I think I’m stupid because I’m still learning. I wish I knew this before. Gentlemen, how long did it take you to learn this? Gibran said, “Listen to a woman when she looks at you not when she speaks at you.”

Jonar Nader: It took me a long time to work that out. You see I’m so literal. I hear words but this got nothing to do with the words and the man sorted that out.

Let’s get proof point number seven going. Did he achieve amazing results? Well, someone would measure results then commercially but how many books did he sell? How many movies did he make? Was he in the top ten? And what does XYZ newspaper published his books out? It does not matter. He doesn’t care whether he sells one book or as it so happens now, millions of books. They did achieve amazing results and the result that I think is amazing is that Gibran could kiss you and hit you at the same time. He could love you and chastise you and slap you and yet, you know that he’s doing it with love. He was able to stir our mind into thinking into ways that no one even dared to utter. And yet, at the same time while he stirred our mind, he was touching our heart. That is the skill that I did not know too many writers can do.

He himself started personal challenges. And if you can’t handle that kind of personal challenge, you can never get to the stage of success or on the stage of genius. I mean as you know, anything you do, you’re all very successful people in this room. You know nothing is easy. Gibran look at you like, “Oh, you’re so successful.” Only you know the hundreds and millions of hours and heart and blood pressure and blood, sweat, and tears that you pour into it. And he himself had tremendous personal challenges, going to a new country, new language because his mum was sick and his brother died and his father was in jail. And like it was just very tumultuous and difficult but he himself as you know died only – and yes, he died unconscious to this hospital in New York, that’s how much pain he was in the medications back then weren’t as lucky as they are today. They’re not as great as they are today.

But did he know pain? My goodness, he said, “Pain is an unseen and powerful hand that breaks the skin of the stone in order to extract the pulp.” Now, my friend, Suzanne Mansour brought this to my attention and we discussed that he’s courageous. Can you see a man so in pain that he thinks that pain, first of all, is unseen. You can’t arrest it because if you know where it is, you can go and grab it and keep it. But no, it’s just all and it is unseen so that means you can’t do anything about it. It engulfs you and is so powerful that something all of a sudden can be ripped like as if it were a fig or a mango and the stone could be pulped. My goodness, that’s crushing. And he suffered that.

And yet, he did not give up. He did not go on at all. He did not sort of go, oh well. He persisted and persisted and would not give up and he continued. But did he continue? He continued to amaze. That was the most difficult of all. He could have, for example, said, “Let go of the war against these people.” But he didn’t. He could have said, “I’ll be a dictator and make it my way or no way. If you don’t do it my way, you’re in trouble.” He didn’t do that either.

Gibran stirred the world but he didn’t dominate anybody. He didn’t intimidate people. He didn’t hate a religious life. And he could have and he could have been very useful but he didn’t. He chose something hard. He wasn’t a police officer nor was he an outlaw. How did laws change the world for us? Law enforces help us to improve our lives. He was neither. I wish he chose one of those lives. It would have been easier. But no, he chose an even harder life.

Did he go into law? Did he become a judge? No. He could have done it and being a great one at it. He could have been a philanthropist or a generous man but he didn’t have the money. He could have built things and infrastructures. He couldn’t do it. Had he’d done that, it would have been easier. He chose an even harder path. He didn’t go for rallies and demonstrations and he didn’t enter parliament. What did he do? He could have done any of those and be powerful. But he chose the worst one of those and that is the art. The art is the most difficult way in which to communicate and address people. Yet, the most loving and the most penetrating as Honorable Virginia Judge mentioned.

We need to start speaking in culture rather than war and money and get into the hearts and minds of people because that’s where they live not in the bank down. And no disrespect to our friends in common who are banking the arrow bank.

Jonar Nader: But you know, James [Wakim CEO of Arab bank], you would agree, wouldn’t you? Family, love, and heart and not about how much money you’ve got.

So, he didn’t choose any of those. He chose the arts. And then he used to pass on his problem. Not only did he choose the arts, he chose the most difficult of all the arts. What did he choose? He chose writing. Of course, he was a painter too. But his painting could not exist without his works. I mean every work of art that he has produced is relevant to his poetry, to his philosophy. So, he was a writer.

I’m not saying to you that being a writer is the most difficult of all the arts. So, what a problem this man has put on his shoulders? Now, can I prove to you that writing is the most difficult of all the arts? That seems strange, doesn’t it? Dr Taouk, because anyone could pick up a pen and paper. Isn’t it fantastic? Anyone could write, ‘Roses are red, violets are blue, hello darling how are you’. I mean it’s very simple. Hey, go publish that.

Well, let’s see now. Can we prove this point? I think food is an art. And growing up with my mother who is here tonight, she’s the best cook in the world. I’m sure your mother is too. But to me, food is fantastic and she feeds me day and night I think well. Now, food is an art. You must admit, you can’t say, “Well, chef there you go. Here are nice pieces of lettuce. Do something.” But the thing is, that though food is delicious, the beginning points of food come from Mother Nature, come from God. And we take what God has given us and we turn it into delicious stuff, order fillet and everything else you want.

Jonar Nader: Now – but you know, I don’t know if I told you but I know on TV that have these shows about a great chef or whatever. I mean what are you boasting about? God made the tomato. Who do you think you are? So yes, of course, we have a good chefs and bad chefs but seeing what they’ve got to begin with, they have a wonderful foundation to begin with.

What does the write have to begin with? I could ask you. He didn’t have Mother Nature’s own beauty that gives the shift that would lift a good starting point. What does the write had? The writer has unnatural language. I look at a human and I think bones and fingers and teeth and eyes, isn’t it amazing that the biology of a human, can’t you see? Can you hear and feel but yet, I don’t understand how we’re born but not language.

Language has to be taught and you have to learn it and we have had thousands and still have thousands of languages. And now, a writer has to communicate to you, to me through an unnatural process. There are only three natural things to do with communication and one of them is cry. I find that funny too. Can you imagine a meeting with God? He says, “I want to create this human and I want him to cry.” Someone like me would say, what for? What’s crying all about? That’s one. That’s the only thing we’re in common. The same thing we have in common is screaming.

Of all the languages in the world, we all know screaming. I think that’s a very universal piece of language. And when screaming, it’s when the brain goes into overdrive and cannot think anymore and goes into its natural state.

Now, watch this little video here of this girl on the right-hand side. She gets to the point where she doesn’t know what to say. Her natural instincts take over. Watch how she screams in this show.

Jonar Nader: That’s what happens. You just get to a point of no more words and that’s the natural state. And the other one is laughter. It’s a very funny little engineering thing that we laugh, we cry, and we scream. They’re the only things we have in common.

And so, the writer doesn’t have beautiful tomatoes and all these things to work with. The writer has nothing. And has to work with a manufactured language to somehow then go into meaning. And somehow, I’m supposed to think it, feel it, and then somehow express it to you and give it to you. And while you are on a train or on a bus, you somehow going to do the same thing and I don’t know. That makes it very difficult. So, by comparison to cooking, the writer has it tough.

What about writing in comparison to say, the fine artists? Indeed, the fine artist can take a simple piece of lead and turn it into a lovely illustration of what can keep cook silver and what life was like. But the great thing about this is that the artist has the privilege of color to somehow show we can mix and mix and create a wonderful creations and I’m not putting down the arts in dispense at all but I’m saying, isn’t the fine artist so lucky that they have color. What does Gibran had? What does the writer had? They don’t have anything other than maybe the exclamation mark, maybe the question mark. And if you want to be so bold, you can put color but only show what that does. You’re restricted.

What about then – let’s compare the writer to the engineer and the architect. All it takes is a great mind to build the Harbour Bridge, the Opera House, the wonderful. Imagine the beauty that this was developed so beautifully through architecture. But I say to you, the author has it tougher than the architect because when this bridge was built, it was built once. You don’t have people driving up to, you know, North Sydney and they get out their hammers and tools to build the bridge each time.

But for a writer, we may present the book to you, you have to read it and construct it in your head every single time. Every single passage when it comes to any of Gibran’s book, one has to read it and construct it in their head every single. That makes it difficult for the writer because I don’t know where you’re at, what you’re thinking about, your level of understanding, and the writer is useless, pointless. It’s a dead piece of paper until you reconstruct it every single time. That makes it pretty tough.

Then we have to compare the writer with the movie maker. Now, in the movie world, you’ve got multimedia, special effects, sounds, color, movement, and many, many actors, location. Isn’t that marvelous? And yes, moviemaking is difficult. It’s rich. But it’s so much easier because you’ve got all the weakness of multimedia and computer animation. What does the writer have? Twenty-six letters of the alphabet if you’re just thinking in English.

Now, you got to take 26 letter of the English alphabet and somehow put them and give them to someone who’s on a train or on a bus, somewhere far away from you and that person to reconstruct the bridge in their head and fill it – and change their life where they will change their world with it. But I have to say, you don’t have 26 letters of the English alphabet. If you take some of the greatest speeches of the world… Those of you who do crosswords, you can now have new hobby. You grab any finest speech you like. Like this Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg address, the last line says, at the last line, Government of the people, for the people, by the people.” But that’s not 26 letters. It’s 44 characters but if you actually look at those, there are 11 E’s and 6 O’s.

So, when you strip all the doubles away, you end up with not 44 characters but simply 14. And somehow, with 14 characters, I’ve got a marshal, an army, or stop a war or change your life with 14 characters of the alphabet somewhere when you are on a train and I can’t be there with you, and expect you to rebuild it in your mind that is difficult. You’ve all heard this.

Jonar Nader: Indeed, these were the words from Gibran himself. And Gibran wrote these words when John F. Kennedy was eight years old. And John F. Kennedy used those words but he was ill-advised because if JFK was saying, “My fellow citizens, ask not …” to these Americans, “… what your country can …” Gibran wasn’t – didn’t mean that. This is from a long essay. It’s a beautiful essay called New Frontier and you can find it on internet. Gibran was actually to the likes of President JFK. How dare the President turned it back to the people. Gibran was saying to the president, don’t you get into public power and position and work thing that this is for you, mate. You’re there to serve your people.” And the next sentence was, “And if you are a member of the church or clergy for goodness sake, you’re not there to fatten your belly you’re there to serve the others.”

Truly, these are Gibran’s words. I could tell you what he said about corporations and banks but really he is saying, “Look outwards and stop looking inwards.”

Okay. So, we’ve got 26 letters or 14 letter of the English alphabet that I have to string together or the writer does and gives them to you and they’re there until you construct them and that has to evoke emotion and evoke action. Is that hard work or what? Because it could have been as easy as starting a war, wouldn’t it? If it was just kind of a detailed as essay. Is that difficult or what?

Okay. I know there are mathematicians in the room who would say, “No, no, no. Math is much harder.” Math is definitely harder than English and writing. Well, that’s handle it with this question. Indeed, when you look at an equation or any sort of problem at school, you would see something like this, X minus A times X minus B times X minus C time X minus D, and X minus E. Now, if you have to sit there and work that out, you’d have to write this stuff like this and the teacher would give you ten out of ten. That’s fantastic. And then you’d go to the next grade and the teacher said, “And now, you multiply that by X minus F.”

Then you broke it well and look like this. And then when you get to a little bit higher, you know, as far as 15 years old, when you get to 15 years old and they give you this equation and say, go all the way to X minus Z. Well, to go to all the way to Z, there would be 134 million phrases and that’s about 670,000 pages so it’s easy to say math is much harder. But no, math is easier because when I say to you, what’s 100 times 2, you don’t sit there counting 101, 102, do you? We have shortcuts. And you know when I say to you 100 times 2, you know it’s 200. You don’t sit there working it up. And when I show you – if you show me to sit there and write 670,000 pages because if you did, it would look like this. Please now write 670,000 pages. You wouldn’t. A child of 15 cannot read those books and work it out in ten minutes.

Yet, an author who writes a complete shelf of 670,000 pages. Is there a shortcut to literature? What is the shortcut? There isn’t. And no child of 15 can read those books and work it out in ten minutes.

Music – hang on, perhaps music is harder than writing. Well, when musician writes something or composes something, they don’t need your keyboard and say, “There you go, darling. I composed something for you.” No. They play it for you. And not only the musicians play one note at a time they put their entire 10-key designed keyboard and play.

A writer cannot put ten anything and play because if a writer has a thought and wanted another thought on top of it, they would like this. It’s just impossible. But a musician can have 10, 20, 30, 60 pieces in an orchestra to play rhythm. And the other fantastic thing is this. That in music, you have a beat. When a writer writes, you are far away from them. And here we are, decades later from Gibran, decades later.

And we are expected to read Gibran’s work and know the beat and that is hard. So, it takes a very skilled writer to be able to write and quiver and beat your heart so you can get into the rhythm of the philosophy.

Now, how many people in the audience can play this? This is called the tabla [drum]. And this gives us the beat. And I have for you an expert in this area who is going to demonstrate how this works so I can show you how in fact music is so much easier than writing.

Ladies and gentlemen, would you please welcome Nabi Charr to play the tabla for us. Come on, Nabi.

Jonar Nader: Show us how this works.

Jonar Nader: And now, we’re going to add some percussion so we’ll bring out the Daff [tambourine]. Khalid, please join us on stage.

Jonar Nader: And for the soul, we need the nai. The nai is the flute. Would you please welcome, Tony Chalitta on the nai.

Jonar Nader: And the most beautiful of Arabic instruments will be oud [guitar]. Please welcome Nabil.

Jonar Nader: We need one more, the violin. Please welcome, Emad.

Jonar Nader: Thank you. A round of applause, ladies and gentlemen.

Jonar Nader: Now, a writer doesn’t have the richness of agony and agony and agony, They have to work with the 14 letters or the 26 letters and they have to work it one at a time. There’s no such thing of an orchestra playing multiple 10 notes at a time, 60 people at a time. The writer has to do it one little bit at a time.

So, what about the sculptor? Is sculpture harder than writing? When you say the brilliant thing about sculpture is that it is in fact three-dimensional but you can start looking at a piece of art from any – which way you like, three-dimensional whereas the writer has to suffer the flat process of one word at a time.

Now, I’ll show you what would happen. If the writer gets it in the wrong order, you see with the sculpture, you can start anywhere you like, with writing you cannot start anywhere you like. You have to start at the same spot because if you start to mean something, you sound a great teacher and if you don’t get those in the right order, you’re insane and a great teacher.

You might go to your bank and say, “Really, I’d buy the debit card.” But then you might actually accidentally say that I have bad credit. Sequence is vital. And you have to be patient enough with the sequence.

Now, the most wonderful of pieces of architecture in terms of sculpture for me is the tree. It’s a wonder I don’t fall down when walking because I’m always looking up and I think trees are just absolutely marvelous when it comes to sculpture and God’s creation.

Now, the tree of Lebanon is the cedar tree, the ariz as we call it. And you know, Lebanon’s name comes from this start, from this vision that we see what. And the word Lebanon comes from the word lubnan which means white. And this was the vision of this white. Lebanon is the only country in the Middle East that doesn’t have a desert. And whether it’s summer or whether it’s winter, it is divine to see this cedar tree. And this is the tree that really represents Lebanon on the flag, the Lebanese flag.

Now, there was a Lebanese cedar tree in Sydney at the Royal Botanic Gardens that was donated to Sydney 100 years, 126 years ago and this tree is the one, donated from Lebanon and here it is in Sydney but unfortunately the roots are going to salt water and had to be chopped down. So, word got out and this lady in red you see was interrupting. Someone was trying to take great photo and then she’s saying, “What? They’re tearing that down?” And that lady was Lama Mourad and she called her husband in and he comes in a little bit later and he says, “Oh my goodness, how could we chop this tree down?” He knew it had to be done. But he also heard it can be pulped and he said, “Not over my dead body. You wouldn’t pulp it.”

So he waited until they chopped it down. And what did he do with it? He took it home. And he rescued this tree all the way from Lebanon. It stood in Sydney for 126 years and he began to ponder and write and think and draw until he came up with some sketches.

Now, Tom Mourad has been a sculptor in his head since the age of 8 and he entered the profession at the age of 19. And he then began to sculpt. And would you like to see what he had sculpted? Ladies and gentlemen, I will unveil to you the wonderful work of the very cedar tree by Tom Mourad.

Jonar Nader: Now, this particular piece is not from that tree but these three pieces here are, and this is the first one, and Lama Mourad and Tom Mourad are with us today. You can check on table 25. We can give them a round of applause.

Jonar Nader: Lama has the job also of naming them and she called this Rebirth. And this is one piece from the cedar tree. In fact, Tom has 50 pieces from that cedar tree.

Now, as I conclude, as I conclude, Gibran himself knew that writing was difficult. He knew that communication was difficult. And his only solution at the end was to say to his friends, “I wish we could condense the language to seven words.” He knew that it was very difficult to communicate and still tried his best and he succeeded with the art.

What were those seven words that he believes are at the core of humanity? I should share them with you and will encourage to speak about this with your friends. Let us see which were the seven words that Gibran chose, you, I, give, God, love, beauty, and earth.

Well, ladies and gentlemen, I hope that in this short time that I brought you along with me to the proof points that Gibran in my books, he was a genius. There are a number of speeches beyond me. We assume you’re enjoying your dessert and I thank you very much for having me.

Greg Ward: Ladies and gentlemen, I would ask you once again, please put your hands together for Mr. Jonar Nader.

Greg Ward: Now, Jonar did say that there are many speeches after him but we cannot let Jonar get away without thanking him here on the stage. So, I would like to welcome here to the stage The University of Sydney’s Executive Director of External Affairs and Officer of Foundations, Marion Theobald. Come and join us please.

Marion Theobald: Thank you very much. That was not a keynote. That was a multimedia extravaganza. I would just like on behalf of The University of Sydney and the Australian Lebanese Foundation, everybody who’s here tonight to say thank you very much to Jonar for a wonderful keynote address. And to also thank you for all the commitment and care and passion that he’s put to making tonight possible.

Jonar Nader: Thank you very much. Wow. [Jonar reads the inscription from the gift he was given, being a large book from the Gibran Museum] ‘These are the children of Lebanon; they are those who migrate with nothing but courage in their hearts and arms, but who return with wealth in their hands and a wreath of glory upon their heads.’ Thank you very much.

Here is the transcript:

Jane: Yes, and it’s good book for thinkers when we find out more with a thinker, who is the author, and it’s Jonar Nader.

Hello, Jonar. Welcome.

Jonar Nader: Hi, thanks. Jane.

Jane: How to Lose Friends and Infuriate People? It’s all about conquering your life and your workplace.

Jonar Nader: Yes. Well, the title is funny that people say, “Do you really mean that I should lose friends?” Surely, it mean for me to win friends and I say,” What I want you to do is to learn the opposites of everything you have been taught.” You can never be successful unless you understand yourself. You can never be successful unless you understand how to work with others. And even then you can’t be successful unless you understand the environment, the modern world, the digital age in which we live. So, therefore, the book is in straight path because it says, “Let’s look at how to develop ourselves, how to work with others, and how to understand the environment in which we work.”

And one of the single biggest things we can do about success, for example, people say “What are the secrets to success?” and I say, “It is not about amassing things, but about discarding things.” I mean, how many of us think, “Well, if I have a lovely car, and lovely home, and lots of money, that’s success.”

No, for me, it’s “Have I gotten rid of the intimidators? Have I gotten rid of the people who set my energy and set my time?” because when you wake in the morning, you have this much energy. And someone steals your car and you – how much energy you’re going to give to that? And then your boss intimidates you, how much energy you’re going to give to that? We have to decide that we are just a little bundle of energy. Let’s not let people steal it away from us.

Jane: What if we don’t have the personality to be like that? What if we’re really frail and shy and we can’t do it?

Jonar Nader: Well, but you see, being powerful to take control of your life isn’t about having this apt of personality, it’s about you deciding. For example, if I say “I don’t’ like your shirt, or your hair” or whatever, are you going to let that thought penetrate you and make you upset? Do you know there are some people who go through the whole day upset because their boss said something? And you go, “Hang on a minute.” No one is authorized to upset you, so you don’t have to have an extrovert personality.

Anybody must realize that no one is authorized to upset you. Why give the key to your confidence to someone else? And many of us live in this abdication society and we give everything to the other person. We give our career to our teachers and we say, ”Go on, educate me.” We give our happiness to our lover and we say, “Go ahead, make me happy.” We give our welfare to our government and we say, “Go ahead, look after me.” And so, all our lives, we give our whole control to other people. It’s not about having…

Jane: And then there’s nothing left for us, and so we’ve been…

Jonar Nader: Well, we don’t know…

Jane: Become insecure.

Jonar Nader: We don’t know how to take charge because then when you are left out in the wind and you’re left to control your own destiny, you can’t because you’ve never actually being taught how to do it.

Jane: Well, I know we’re out of time but this is success in marriage, in work, in laws…

Jonar Nader: In all areas…

Jane: Everything in the book.

Jonar Nader: Because, actually, although we work and some of us don’t work, whatever, we all live. And when you go to bed, ask yourself, “What’s tormenting me?” And usually, it’s just everything to do with life.

Jane: It’s so true. We worry about all the things that we shouldn’t worry about because we haven’t got the power within us. So, let’s just say, “I’m going to get rid of that and think about something positive.” We need to – Robin, we need to read this from cover to cover. It’s 1995 recommended retail in good bookstores available everywhere. Your sixth book?

Jonar Nader: Yes.

Jane: And two more to come, you are a winner.

Jonar Nader: Thank you.

Jane: Thank you. What do you think – what do you think?

Jonar Nader: I think it’s a great idea, and I really subscribe to everything that you’re saying. I’m hundred percent with you.

Here is the transcript:

Host: If you are feeling fed up and frustrated with the inefficiency and inaccuracy in your workplace, don’t give up. There could be a cure in the new book, “How to Lose Friends and Infuriate People”. We welcome the author, Jonar Nader to the show. That just strikes me as odd that somehow infuriating people and, you know, making things sort of – really sort of jumbling things up can actually have a positive effect.

Jonar Nader: Well, absolutely, it is positive because what it says is, “Look, life is too precious, it’s too valuable, it’s too beautiful to let all these idiots come your way and steal your life from you,” because at the end of the day what have you got but a little bit of energy and a little bit of life and it goes so quickly.

Host: Let me tell you, where did you learn that lesson, because you learned that lesson a hard way?

Jonar Nader: Yeah, well, I grew up in Lebanon, in Beirut, and went to Australia, I couldn’t speak a word of English, went back and the war started. And in the war, I could see life and death within seconds. And then when I went back to Australia I saw these people playing games, wasting life, and I should of think it was me, you know. Life is so beautiful, what are you guys doing? So, I left school at 14, went to study part time, joined the corporate jungle. And then as I got older and more senior and more senior, I thought, “You guys are the same kids at school, except now you’re wearing fancy ties, you drive fancy cars, and you’re still a bunch of idiots. Get out there and, you know, leave people alone. I’m going to say no. I’m not going to put up with this anymore.” It doesn’t mean you have to be unfriendly, it doesn’t mean you have to be obnoxious. It doesn’t mean you have to be difficult to get along with. Quite the opposite. You’re actually relaxed because you know the value of life.

Host: One of the things that you say in your book that is “How do we – How and why to infuriate your boss.” I mean this – for most of us – this is just, you know, unthinkable.

Jonar Nader: Yeah, and for how long is your boss and by boss, I mean, the whole corporate structure have their, you know, thumb on your head and they go, “You will do as I tell you.”

Host: I got a fake fingerprint right on the clock there.

Jonar Nader: I know, and I’m going bald from it. But the boss actually is normally a nice guy or a nice girl, right?

Host: Yeah.

Jonar Nader: But they have to put up with this culture, this thing we call culture. It’s not going to change until it changes right down at the bottom. And it’s usually the law of permissibility. If you accept all that nonsense that comes your way, most of your colleagues will accept it. If you stand up and rise and say, “Look boss, you know, I really don’t think this is the way we should be doing it.” The others will gain energy from you because it usually just takes the minority to create something big.

Host: And you’re talking about picking your fight because you’ve got to pick something that you know is winnable and right down to the core, you can solve the problems. Give me an example of the right fight.

Jonar Nader: Well, okay, first, before you pick any fight, you have to actually understand what value you add. You can’t just say, “I don’t like this. I’m going to change it.” Well, can you change it? So, before you pick any fight, build yourself. Learn about communication skills. Learn about the skill and the craft so that you become an expert. So many people out there are just loudmouths and they don’t know how to do it better. You know, everyone is politician and they go, “We should did this. We should do that,” but they don’t know how to do it better. Go learn how to do it better. Understand the network world in which we live. Now, you’re actually a real person, you’re not just some loudmouth running around, trying to change the world, you know, without any real value. Then, you can go and say, “Look, this is what I can do for you.” And most people are grateful if you can go to your boss. If you can go to your boss and say, “You know what? I can really do this for you.” And if you build the reputation, your boss will say, “Go for it.” And then when you go to negotiate a better deal, it doesn’t have to be about money, it could be about the work conditions, it could be about the environment.

Host: Sure.

Jonar Nader: Corporate life today is so depressing. And, look, they’re earning more and more money, and they’re just more and more depressed.

Host: Also, you’re talking about know the problem in the sense that maybe the problem really isn’t your boss. Maybe it’s the part of the culture. Maybe your boss, you have a high turnover rate. What happens there?

Jonar Nader: Let’s talk about culture. People would come and say, “Let’s change the culture.” Let me tell you, “You can not change the culture.” What you’ve got to do is to say, “Where does culture comes from?” Culture comes from things that are habits. Where did the habit from? It came from things that were once actions and activities that were permissible.

Host: Right.

Jonar Nader: And then once they’re permissible, they’re invisible. And people will end up doing them and, all of a sudden, it’s the actions that turn into habits that turn into culture. And I say if you want to change your culture, find someone who’s doing something, the habit, and stomp on it. But if you stump on it, they say, “Oh, why are you reacting?”

Host: All right. We’ve got to go very quickly, like 30 seconds.

Jonar Nader: Yeah.

Host: But you say very wisely, have an exit plan. And that means?

Jonar Nader: Well, it means have a backup plan. If you going to throw a punch, know where you’re going to fall. It’s a bit stupid jumping on horse without knowing, without a safety net. Have a safety net, whether that be your education, or another job or your own a small business, but – people to back you up.

Host: Jonar, thanks very much.

Jonar Nader: Yeah.

Host: I really appreciate it. And I like the different point of view, as well. And we’re going to tell the people that is a different take on corporate leadership. And if you’d like to learn more about it, you can read the book called “How to Lose Friends and Infuriate People”.

Here is the transcript:

Jonar Nader: How can we engineer your future? Oh, well, I left school at fourteen, by the way. And I went to our school reunion out of courtesy – curiosity, I mean – and they said to me, this kid walks up to me and says, “Hey, Nader, what do you do for a job now, mate?” sporting two Jim Beam bottles as his idea of a balanced diet. Knowing he was being mischievous, I thought, “Okay.” I said, “I’m a futurist.” He said, “You’re always the weird one.”

Jonar Nader: “What do you do?” I said. He said, “I’m a historian at Sydney Union.” I thought, “Fancy, lecturing in history and thinking that’s normal and okay and I’m weird because I study the future.” Well, let me put it to you this way. When you went to bed last night – and I must say I saw a few of you happily go to bed last night – but were you not thinking about the future? Of course, you had the troubles of the past and, gosh, that was that a joke, funny, and did I crack on to that person well enough and, you know, can I afford and that and – yeah, we think about it. But are we hoping for the future?

Jonar Nader: Now, if we think abut our business and we want a prosperous future, why don’t we teach people about looking at the future? How hard is it? Very simple. The idea about being a futurist is not that you’re this clairvoyant. My friend’s father was a clairvoyant and his mother was a contortionist and as a result he could foresee his own end. I’m not talking about being sort of this psychic. I’m saying, “A clever business person preempts and says, ‘What are the likely scenarios? We might not know perfectly which one, but what are the likely scenarios and how can I plan and pre-empt to get there so when it hits me in the face I am ready? We have a bumper bar.’” A lot of companies today fall because there’s not bumper bar. That bumper bar is what I call the SAF I spoke to you in Christ’s Church – surprise absorption factor. What absorption to surprise can you cope with? There’s the smart business operator for you.

Jonar Nader: Well, I’m going to ask you eight disturbing questions. Now a lot of speakers get up on stage and they tell you stats. Their numbers and stats are impressive and they’re real and that’s great. But I’m going to do something different. I’m going to show you a bit of stats but I’m going to show you the formula so that you can go to your office on Monday and actually run the formula yourself so that I’m not talking to you about the world and 30% of people said that and 50% of others said that. I’m going to tell you exactly what percent of you matters to this question. So I dare you to apply these eight questions to your business on Monday and you will know and you don’t need me or any other consultant to tell you what’s going to happen to you. What would happen if you had to pay for the time you put people on hold. You’re a corporation and you say, “Please hold the line,” and ding-dong music goes on. Well, as a futurist I’m predicting that there will come a time when we will have to pay for abusing people’s time on hold. And I’m saying just at $20 an hour – if that’s what we agree a human’s cost is – it’s a 70-billion dollar problem for the Australian industry. Tell me if we can afford that kind of thing. Well, can we preempt it? What would happen if the funds froze when the service you provided didn’t suit me, when the toaster you sold me doesn’t work, when the software has to be re-booted ten times a day? Where would the richest man be in the world today if every time I had to re-boot my computer? The money in his bank account froze. Now, apply that to your business. If you promise, make a promise and you don’t deliver, what happens if the money that you are paid froze? And in the network world, that’s where we are heading. If only 5% of the services that you offer to me are not what you promised them to be, the staff time it takes to fix them is 30% of staff time. Would you agree with that? Little, tiny, stupid mistakes that consume a third of your time, what a waste of money. And here we are trying to make an extra percentage point and there’s 30 down the drain.

Jonar Nader: Question number three: What would happen if your staff who did not like to go to work did not go to work? Well, what would happen if 10% of your staff did not show up? In companies that are 50 people or less, if 10% of their staff did not show up to work tomorrow, the business would come to a standstill in 15% of them. There’d be a major disruption in 52%, and there’d be no disruption in, you know, 20% of them, and we have others. Well, don’t worry about these figures. Take the equation back home. Say, 10% of my staff, what would happen? What are your contingencies? Maybe it won’t affect you. But if it does, do something about it to handle staff better so that they want to come to work. And don’t do it when it’s too late. Too late is too late. Don’t wait for the catastrophe. What if you are forced to disclose your force?

Jonar Nader: What if you’re forced to disclose your history as a director? How many customers have complained this week? How many refunds you’ve had to give? How many litigations there are? How many times this mobile phone’s battery breaks down? How many times my engine has a problem in all the cars you sell me? I want to see your dirty laundry before I buy a product because laws will be passed to force you to show your dirty laundry to the customers.

Jonar Nader: And, funnily enough, I was having breakfast this morning. I’m full. Look at this. This is the local paper, The Courier Mail, front page reads, “If the Federal Court action succeeds, banks could be forced to reveal valuations in cases where buyers are paying more than 10% above their market value.” Banks charged of a scam, the law will force banks to give you an evaluation or valuation on the land before they sell it to you and if it’s more than 10%. It is by law that they show it to you because then you don’t buy a block of land and realize later in fact you’ve been overcharged. What if that law spread further and further and further? Because when you come to buy this new mobile phone, yeah, it looks funky, great price, but how many times does the battery fail? How would you know?

Well, I’d like to know, because I don’t want to trek through town while they say to me, “Well, bring it in for a pair and wait two weeks.” “No, give me my money back or give me a product.” What about if the customer can record you? “Please hold the line and this call maybe monitored for quality assurance purposes.” Quality assurance? What a joke. Have you noticed now it doesn’t say that anymore? It says, “This call maybe recorded for staff training purposes,” because they’ve given up on the quality. It didn’t work. Well, okay, record it. Go ahead, I beg them. Sometimes, I say, “Please record this. No one’s going to believe this hideous conversation I’m having with you.” Well, what if the customer can record you, because when you’re on the phone you press one button, just one, and if I don’t like this conversation, I go, beep, yeah, yeah, yeah, and it’s going on to my MPEG, MP3, goes down to my website, and there in my website within seconds is the conversation and all my mates can hear? So, monitor your calls and say, “What are my staff saying? What would happen if this ended up for the world to hear?” Preempt, train, so that doesn’t happen to you.

Jonar Nader: In the hospitality sector, the clients who object to being recorded or eavesdropped or listened to are only 1%. People actually want management to listen in because there’s just not much happening for them. And those who want the call recorded are actually 83%. And those who want the managers to monitor the call are very high. They don’t want to deal with people anymore who can’t handle their call, not because these phone operators are bad, the poor kids on the phone, it’s not their fault, but they haven’t been empowered to make the decision. Therefore, either empower them to make the decision, all that they have to do or don’t have it. What about if we ban the asterisk and the fine print? Can you open up an offer today where the bottom bit has 300 times more words than the top bit? And not only – it used to be the asterisk, now, notice next time you see an offer, it’s got a squiggle, an infinity symbol, a caret sign, a dagger, a double dagger, a triple asterisk. It’s like now everything has a code at the bottom.

Jonar Nader: I’m putting it to you, there will come a time when a law will be passed that will say, “You are not allowed to put an asterisk.” If you can’t make an offer to me right there in my face and mean it for me, don’t make the offer in public. You’re wasting everyone’s time. So, take this to your own company on Monday. Ask to see all your ads. Ask to see all your offers. Ask to see all your brochures and read them. And if there’s fine print on it, I challenge you to rewrite those offers in a way that makes sense without the slimy business if I don’t know what you’re talking about.

Jonar Nader: In the hospitality sector, the clients who see an asterisk doubt the ad immediately. Ninety-two percent of them say, “No. The moment I see an asterisk, that’s it. I don’t know.” Stop tricking your customers. You don’t even believe it yourself so don’t do that. What about those who can’t comprehend the fine print? Most people can’t. Honestly, they can’t. It’s so ambiguous and so confusing. And the customers who had their fingers burned by thinking they were buying something ended up with something else, bang.

Here is the transcript:

Jonar Nader: Yes, who aggress with that? Yes. They were never there to help anybody in the first place. And so what do we end up with? Complaints. And what do they do? Consume your time, energy, and effort. And when we file complaints, “I’m too busy. I’m the manager. Talk to that person.” And that person became a 500 strong department. Remember, building a 5-storey building did not make our company. A 5-storey building, and I said, “Wow. Can I have one of those offices?” They said, “No. They are for none of you people. They are for the help desks.” Five storeys of help desks. Well, it’s very easy. I said, “Has anyone gone to the warehouse and worked out why this thing doesn’t work?” None. No one’s thought to fix the root of the problem.

Jonar Nader: Well, I’m putting it to you your help desk will be a thing of the past because they’re an absolute waste of time, energy and effort and it’s because of the gutless one that’s at the top who call themselves executives and drive their fancy cars? You haven’t got a clue, and they say to me, “The customer is genuinely with an American accent.” I’m sorry, because, you know. They say, “You know, Jonar,” they sing a lot, these Americans. I can teach you how to speak Americans very simple. All you need to know is four words and you’re going to have a conversation with Bill all day long. “Uh-huh? Oh, really? Sure. Great.” You can just go, “Uh-huh? Really? Sure? Great,” all day long and he’ll think you’re a yank.

Jonar Nader: In large corporates where help desks are involved, customers say that help desks are impersonal. They say that they want to resolve their issue, but 40% of them say, “I hung up and never got anywhere.” Customers who want to choose their own agent, they like speaking to Mary, “I want to speak to Mary.” “No, sorry, you can’t speak to Mary. Just dial the one, three number.” You never get the assigned person again. You have to repeat yourself again. If you say, “Escalate me,” they go, “I can’t escalate you,” escalate me. I was on to a large company that day and they wouldn’t escalate me. And I said – and I had to, that’s why I record myself – I said, “What would you say if I said there’s a bomb in your building?” Boy, I was escalated, quick smart. That’s how bad it for knowing the legalities I was standing in for here, 10 phone calls.

Jonar Nader: And that’s 98% of people say, “Can I talk to Mary again, please? I want the person I want to talk to” and calls that it could have been avoided, because stupidity is a waste of money. Boy, when I see all this business about, oh, we have to retrench 500 people, why? Retrench yourself first because it was your stupid decision in the company. One of these days, they’re going to take their responsibility seriously. Staff say managers do not understand. The staff at the help desk are abused left, right and center and they say, “I go to my management and my management doesn’t understand.” And these – the yanks, used to say to me is customers want this and that. And you can silence them by saying, “Name two.” They’re never so much as being out to meet a customer. And they’re telling me, people like black and what – how do you know they like black computers or whatever you’re selling?

Jonar Nader: Staff say say, “Managers do not understand.” They are frustrated to death. And they got this junior supposed supervisors who are on a power hungry trip and and no one can understand what’s going on. And, finally – not that I’ve ended, these are just finally on this segment. It’s a long way to go. “Where is John K? Who’s keeping time here? Listen, here is, here is the final one, the exit poll. You know they I keep asking you questions. Like I love it when I check in to every hotel in the world and there’s the “Please, give us your comments.” I just loved that. What do you want my comments for? It says, “Was the TV working?” Why you’re asking me? You go up there. You check the TV and you tell me if it’s working. “Was the hairdryer working?” Goodness gracious, I don’t want anymore surveys.

Jonar Nader: You know what I want? I want exit polls. Just before you hang up, it goes beep, beep, “Excuse me, Mr. Nader, before you hang up, this is a robot talking, can you please tell us: Do you think we’re a bunch of rat bags? Press one for yes, two for no.” Beep. Did we answer your question? One for yes, two for no. Beep. “And would you like a senior executive to call you back straight away to resolve your problem? Press one for yes, two for no.” So all these three questions I want, very simple. And there, linking to the executive screen is the immediate blip by blip as to how many people think that they are happy with you, frustrated with you. Tell me there and then on the spot I want to know how to run my business, not a year later when, for example, the survey comes through that’s been washed and milled and hygienically cleansed by everybody from their ad agency to the PR agency to the consultant to the marketing department and gets the, “Hey, no one knows what’s going on.” Get your exit polls happening. Ask on the spot and there you will know what customers think of you.

Jonar Nader: In all of the sectors that we studied over a five-year period, customers willing to engage in an exit poll is very high as 77%. Executives who can respond, executives who said, “Yes, if I knew, I could respond, 14%. Most executives know that they live in a complex bureaucratic hell hole and they don’t quite know what to do about any customer who complains about anything because they have – we have this thing called metrics management that the yanks brought in to us. Thanks very much. And metrics management says, “I’ll do my bit and I don’t care what you do with it.” And no one – I can’t find anyone responsible. I work for large companies. I suggest that we have to change the paper from – I think it was 70 gsm, because we save money to 80 because it kept jamming in the photocopier. I said, “I want 80 gsm photocopy paper.” It took seven people and like months and I never even got around to doing it because everyone was responsible – one for the paper, one for the color, one for the purchasing manager, one for the pricing one. Forget it.

Jonar Nader: And what about executives willing to be paid on the results of the exit poll? Hardly anyone? Managers admit that they have no power. And the investors who do want to know what the exit poll is, the investors who own the company say, “Oh, yes, we all want to know.” Are you willing to implement one? No. They don’t want to know. What can that do to my share price? I don’t know. I just want to sell.

Jonar Nader: Where is John? He’s come and gone. How many minutes have I got? Ten minutes. They called me into their North Sydney office; I was telling you, so I got distracted. And they said, “We want you to answer all these questions.” And I said, “When is your conference?” And they said, “29 November to 2 December.” I said, “You all can do that in three days.” He said, “No. You’ve got 55 and a half minutes.” He’s learned my trick. And that’s just like when my teacher used to gamble down the street. I went to Holy Cross College in Ryde. Down the street was a TAB betting shop, a betting shop. And he would set us to work with a huge amount of questions and he’d go on bet. And one day, he walked in and he said, “Class, I want you to develop for me an essay in three parts covering religion, royalty, sex, and mystery.” So he thought that it’d keep us busy. And as he was walking out the door, “Finished, sir,” said little Mary. “Mary, do you mean to tell me that in two seconds flat you have written for me a three part essay covering religion, royalty, sex, and mystery? I want to hear it.” So up she got and she read. “Oh, my god”, said the Princess. “I think I’m pregnant. I wonder who done it?” So as long as you get the job done.

Here is the transcript:

Lisa Weir: Welcome back. We hear a lot in the workplace about, we’re one big family, we’re a big team, and this is going to take teamwork to get to the top of what we need.

Jonar Nader: Yes.

Lisa Weir: You really, kind of say, “Nah, teamwork…”

Jonar Nader: Yeah.

Lisa Weir: Not your thing.

Jonar Nader: No, it doesn’t work. You see, it’s not about teamwork. I want teams that work. And how do you construct teams that work? Look, we can play golf or we like together. That doesn’t help it. We can like each other or dislike each other, that’s got nothing to do with teamwork. Teamwork is like ingredients. It’s like how a chef makes a chocolate cake. A chef cannot make a chocolate cake out of a bag of potatoes. It’s just not possible. And you cannot make a team that works out of people who like each other or dislike each other or whatever. So, it is incumbent upon managers and CEOs and the leaders of the organization to actually construct with the due diligence that a chef would construct a team that works. And within that process, in the same way the chef has to pounce on the cockroach in the kitchen, you have to pounce on the cockroaches in your organization. But there’s a trick to that. See, I was in town for the fourth of July; in fact I was in St. Louis under the arches watching the fourth of July.

Lisa Weir: Oh wow.

Jonas Nadir: And look at, there’s a great analogy about this, you know when the fireworks are going up, there’s a huge thud, “Boom” and everyone is excited by that. To me, it brings back memories of, you know, Beirut in Lebanon where that was going off 24 hours a day for twenty years. And, you know, you wonder which building’s gone down. But anyway, “Boom” and they look up. And what they were hoping to see is this big firework that had this big boom. But the funny thing about light and sound is that light travels faster than sound, so when they look up, in fact, there was nothing to see, because the fireworks already done its thing. Then they hear the thud. And that’s how managers always get into trouble. The deed is done, the criminality has taken place, the intimidations happened and then they get a detection, they go, “Where is it? Oh, can’t see it. See Jonas, there’s nothing to worry about, there’s nothing there.” I go, “But it was there a second ago, you just didn’t look.” And so that – they never react when they should. And then when they look there’s nothing there to see. And that’s the, you know, the wisdom of actually knowing what’s going on. So teamwork is not about deciding to work together, it’s constructing a team that works together.

Lisa Weir: And how do you construct a team that works together? Because of course, you’ve got multiple personalities. You’ve probably, you’ve got someone like you, maybe that’s willing to speak up, take risks, bug everybody to some degree, because doggone it, Jonar, you’re just not doing what the rest of us think is right. And then you’ve got some followers too. You’ve got people who’ll just say, “Okay whatever. I just want to get out of this meeting. I don’t want to be here anymore.” And yet, you’ll have maybe the manager of this group saying, “No, we’re fine, we’re getting along. We’re okay. This is a good team. We’ll get it done, boss.” How do they know who’s going to work in that team?

Jonas Nadir: Right. Well, that’s why I don’t care for PhDs and MBAs because that doesn’t teach you how to know. There’s no Chinese philosophy that says, “Don’t find me a good horse-rider. Find me a man who can pick good horse-riders.” You know, it’s on knowing. And one of the steps is to actually realize that there’s no such thing as self-led teams. These new, you know, wonderful things that sell books to people that have placed corporate America really well on the center-stage of this new hype that keeps going. And one of the latest bits of hype is self-led, self-manage highly effective teams. And there is no such thing either. How? Have a single leader, and the leader must have full authority and full control. Do not appoint a leader to be a team leader if that person cannot hire, fire, move, and shake on-the-spot as quickly as a tennis player throws a backhand. Have you ever seen a tennis player stop midstream at Wimbledon, run up to the coach and say, “Do you think I should do it backhand here?” You just do it. And that’s the level of expertise you need. So then the point is, hire experts. Experts work wonderfully well with experts. They love it. It inspires them to see people bouncing off each other, “You’re a great electrician. I’m a great builder. You’re a great plumber. And together we’re going to make a great building.” But it’s when the fake, supposed experts are together, “Oh, I’m the marketing director.” “How did you become a marketing director?” “Well, I did ten million dollars last year in sales.” “Well what that has got to do with understanding marketing and channel development and advertising and…” “Oh, nothing. But I’m a marketing director, so be quiet, and I’m, you know…” So, don’t put idiots who don’t have the skills together. That’s a very simple way. But now you’re at a dilemma because you have a head-count freeze. And if you get rid of somebody, you’re not going to have the authority to bring them back again, so we’re just going to make-do. And the whole world is a make-do world. And that’s just won’t worked. And we know it won’t work but we can fudge it; we can just pretend because it’s – the bottom line, it’s easy to manufacture. And thanks to our accountants, who spent seven years of college teaching us how to do it. Because any accountant can fudge, you know, fudge any figure you like. We want truth and essence. But which CEO wakes up in the morning and looks at their product, and uses their product, and sleeps in their own hotel, and uses their own ironing service and eats their own food? None. They’re out there somewhere on another planet checking the stock market, and that’s all they see. And I say, any CEO who gets up and checks that ticket type; and any executive who has a ticket type of their stock price or to be sacked on the spot. Your job is not to check the stock price. It’s to check poor Mrs. Smith the last time she paid you good money to buy her husband and I, something rather, that just doesn’t work. And when she calls to complain, you say, “Oh wow, well, twenty minutes on hold, your call is important to us, and please bring it down; it might take two weeks to repair it.” Theft. You know, if someone stole your watch or something, you’d be after them. But corporations out there, stealing your time, energy, money, effort and they just get away with it, and get away with it. And we just have to stand up and say, not because stand up for our rights, I’m not saying, “Let’s stand up for our rights.”

Lisa Weir: Right.

Jonar Nader: I’m saying, let’s stand up for life. Let’s just start living. Life is so important, yet people steal it all the time.

Lisa Weir: True. I’m going to stop you one more time. Let’s take another break. Stay with us.

Here is the transcript:

Michelle Merker: Welcome back. The book again is “How to Lose Friends and Infuriate People”. Yes, you heard that right. It is available in bookstores as well as online. Empowerment is one of those buzz words that we hear all the time. You must be empowered to achieve. What’s wrong with empowerment?

Jonar Nader: Well, because we – the moment you think that someone can empower you, you automatically have agreed that someone can also disempower you.

Michelle Merker: Controlling.

Jonar Nader: Yeah, absolutely

Michelle Merker: Someone else is controlling you.

Jonar Nader: And that doesn’t work. I cannot stand up on stage and say “I empower you” no more than I can say “you are no longer scared of spiders.” Can I do that? Can I say, “You now have confidence. You now have creativity. You are empowered.” Ridiculous. We need to look at self-empowerment. And what the boss should do to empower you is to remove things. You remove intimidations, stupidity, bureaucracy. Now, people have the opportunity to be self-empowered. We don’t want motivation; we want self-motivation. We don’t want inspiration; we want self-inspiration, because if it doesn’t happen from the self, it’s called a layer that can come on and come off at whim and it’s not part of you. It has to be a substance within you. So, beware, others who control you through either intimidation or bribery or they call it motivation or they call it incentive – it’s the new word – as a reward. Forget it. If you can’t do it at all within yourself, then you’re a nobody.

Michelle Merker: Yeah.

Jonar Nader: So, start working on it.