When Is It Wise to Choose a Fool as Your Leader

Around 400 B.C. in China, the old Marquise of Zhi, felt that his son, Yao, was the most outstanding and wanted to make him his successor. An elder of his clan, Guo, advised him saying: “Your other son, Xiao, will make a much better leader. Granted that Yao has five qualities that make him stand out from the others: he is tall and strong, he is an expert archer, he is skilled in various crafts, he is a great writer and orator, and he is strong-willed and decisive. But he is unkind. If he uses his five strengths to subdue others but do so without compassion, who would be able to serve or work with him in peace? If you choose him, he will be the doom of our clan.”

The old Marquise ignored the counsel. Guo the elder exiled himself from the court and changed his last name to show that he is voluntarily no longer even part of the ruling clan.

When Yao became the new marquise upon his father’s death, he feasted the Marquise of Han, the Marquis of Wei, and the Marquis of Zhao, and belittled them during the banquet. Another of his advisors said to Yao: “You must prepare for trouble from the other marquises. Surely trouble will soon descend upon our house.” Yao replied: “I am more powerful than them. I hold their lives in my hands. Who are they to defy me?” His advisor said: “Small as they are, even the mosquitos, ants, bees, and scorpions can…