Control Your Reaction, Own Your Karma

A note to young leaders.

How people treat you is their karma. How you react is yours.

On one occasion, in my late twenties, the late, great John Caldon – former Deputy MD of Macquarie Group – asked me what I thought of a particular colleague of ours.

I replied: “A very smart and ambitious man, destined for great success.”

“Mmm, you do know that he thinks you’re an arrogant so-and-so, Adam, don’t you?” John asked, probing for a reaction.

“Yes, John”, I replied without flinching, “you asked me what I thought of him, not what he thought of me.”

John chuckled, and I understood then that I had just passed one of John’s many tests of leadership.