When Bankei held his seclusion-weeks of meditation, pupils from many parts of Japan came to attend. During one of these gatherings a pupil was caught stealing. The matter was reported to Bankei with the request that the culprit be expelled. Bankei ignored the case.Later the pupil was caught in a similar act, and again Bankei disregarded the matter. This angered the other pupils, who drew up a petition asking for the dismissal of the thief, stating that otherwise they would leave in a body.

When Bankei had read the petition he called everyone before him. “You are wise brothers,” he told them. “You know what is right and what is not right. You may go somewhere else to study if you wish, but this poor brother does not even know right from wrong. Who will teach him if I do not? I am going to keep him here even if all the rest of you leave.”

A torrent of tears cleansed the face of the brother who had stolen. All desire to steal had vanished.

As you grow in your career in technical writing, you will become a team leader, manager or even a documentation lead. When this happens, you will have different types of technical writers in your team. Some would be very smart, some would be average and a few would be weak. The first thought would be to get rid of the weak ones.

Try not to, as the weak ones need you the most. The best of the lot will work for you for a few years and leave. The average team members will stay longer. But the weak ones, whom you help and support will stay with you forever. Provide them with more training, mentoring and protection. Realizing your increased interest in them, they will put in more effort themselves and will try and become great assets for you and your organization.