Two Kinds of Untrustworthiness in the Workplace

The first point: favors you can’t trust.

Commandant Zhang played the gracious host to Wu Song—offering warm clothes, kind words, and even promising to marry one of his maidservants to him. Wu Song was so moved he nearly forgot his own name. Why was he being treated so well? To use him, then destroy him. It was at the Mandarin Duck Tower that Wu Song truly came of age.

He finally understood: there’s no such thing as unprovoked appreciation or kindness. People are only valued for what they can do for you.

Second: networks won’t save you.

Old-timers only ever calculate your usefulness—over and over again.