Richard Zinkiewicz - Personal Blog - Seeking to understand

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I like Vijay’s TODs because they always get me thinking. There’s one in particular which is a favourite of mine....”It’s better to seek to understand, than to be understood.” I can really relate to this one. Because many years ago, I had some trouble with one of our ex-Directors, Mr. Kurt Rinck. I had trouble understanding him and I could never, never rationalise the way he did things. Of course, today when I look back at the whole situation, I think I learned a lot through him which helped me develop my own personal philosophies.

For instance, I believe in the concept of ‘winnable and worthy’. You see, Kurt was always fighting battles which I felt were sometimes unnecessary. I used to ask myself, “Why...why is he doing this? How do I convince him to do otherwise?” And looking at this, I always told myself that I needed to keep things simple and uncomplicated. When it came to Kurt, what I really wanted to tell him was “Kurt, here’s my view. You’re fighting battles that are not winnable. Save your resources and bullets for a winnable battle! You’re going to get tired and still not win. You’re also fighting battles that are not worthy, not valuable. You just have an ego, you’re unable to admit your mistakes.” I’m someone who chooses my battles very carefully. If I have to fight a battle that’s winnable but not worthy, I’d make sure that I’m fighting for something that’s principled.

Vijay's value systems are far more defined than mine. Vijay’s applications in terms of TAPs (truth applications) are more black and white. Mine..? Well mine seem to move. Vijay goes out of his way to make a point. But I just ask myself “Why do I need to?” And I just let it go. You know..I didn’t get it the first few times..but as I read that TOD three or four times, things became clearer...I realise I’ve always been approaching Kurt the wrong way. You want to know what the real problem was...? Kurt and I were too much alike. He was trying to tell me about himself. And here I was doing the same thing. I don’t know what made me think that he’d want to get to know me better...it was my selfish presumption, I guess. In my mind, I thought, “Ok..I’ve told him what annoys and angers me..so now if he does it anyway, it’s my right to be upset.” But what I failed to do was to consider these things – What motivates Kurt? Why is he different from me? Basically I didn’t make the effort to understand him as a person.

“It’s better to seek to understand, than to be understood.” This TOD was like a hook..a foundation for many other things that came after that. And today what I’ve learnt is that if we spend 60 percent more time trying to understand others instead of fighting to be understood ourselves, the world will be a much better place.

Interesting story? How about sharing?

Monday, August 17, 2009 9:50:14 PM (China Standard Time, UTC+08:00)

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Richard Zinkiewicz
Group Director for International Operations
QI Ltd

Richard Zinkiewicz is Group Director for International Operations on the Board of QI Ltd, a global conglomerate with over 25 offices worldwide, including 3 major centres in Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong.

Joining QI in April 1999 as Chief Financial Officer, Mr. Zi, as he is popularly known, has been a critical member of the core management team responsible for the Group's expansion through vertical integration of its core businesses, balancing of cash flow needs, and diversification into new business sectors through investment opportunities.

Mr. Zinkiewicz has over 25 years international business experience, initially qualifying as a Canadian Chartered Accountant with Ernst & Whinney (now Ernst & Young), and later on holding key senior positions in Canada, Europe and Asia. It was in the early 90's where Mr. Zinkiewicz gained a deep understanding of the powerful and unique network marketing business model and the art of balancing and managing the needs of the company against the needs of its distributors.

It was this experience that kept him in good stead when he joined QI Ltd, whose flagship subsidiary, QuestNet, operated as an international direct selling and network marketing company. In the years that followed, he helped with the phenomenal growth of the QI Group of Companies, representing the Group as its public spokesperson and advocating the tremendous potential of the network marketing industry in different parts of the world as well as proudly touting its corporate mission of RYTHM (Raise Yourself To Help Mankind) and its consensus management style decision making.

Born in Poland on a farm outside Luban, Mr. Zinkiewicz moved to Canada with his mother and sister at the age of 10. He was significantly influenced by his mother whom he considers his true hero and from whom he learnt his most important lesson, the importance of black and white honesty. He says, "the human mind often tends to rationalise in the grey area, but my mother taught me the importance of simple, straight forward and sincere honesty''.

Surprisingly, apart from his mother, his heroes are not any major world leaders of the past or present, but everyday people that he meets in the course of his life. "I believe you can learn a little bit from everyone, even and especially those you may not like much because those are lessons you will remember always." He counts his elementary math teacher and a former boss in Ernst & Whinney as two significant people who helped shape his thinking. He respects and admires historic explorers, international athletes, and anybody who embodies the attributes of hard work and excellence.

His philosophy in life is simple, "everyday I remind myself it is important I do something positive to help someone and leave the world a better place to live in".

An avid outdoor person, Mr. Zinkiewicz hikes regularly, works out at the gym and loves adventure sports. When he is not zipping around the world closing business deals, he lives in Hong Kong with his wife Vanessa Liu and their two dogs, Oscar and Milky.