Chen Ping
Seal the Gold and Send It Back
When you have to leave, leave behind what is not yours
Sima Qian, Records of the Grand Historian, 'Hereditary House of Chancellor Chen'
He ran because he was frightened. This asks how to leave when you have no choice.
What actually happened?
Chen Ping served Xiang Yu and was rewarded with gold after a campaign. Soon the Han king took the same territory, and Xiang Yu, furious, moved to punish the officers who had won it. Chen Ping panicked. He sealed up the gold and his seal of office, sent them back, and slipped away alone with a sword to join Liu Bang. Crossing a river, the boatman took him for a deserter with valuables and eyed him for the kill. Chen Ping stripped off his clothes and helped pole the boat, and the boatman, seeing he carried nothing, let it go.
Do not carry off what your old master gave you
The gold and the seal were Xiang Yu's. Taking them would make him a man who ran with the goods. He sent them back and left with nothing of his old master's. Whether he planned it as insurance, the Records do not say.
Before you resign, hand over accounts, files and client lists and leave them behind.
Suspicion is answered with what people can see
Saying he had no money would only have sounded like hiding it. He took his clothes off and let the boatman see. Suspicion lives in the eyes, so it has to be answered where the eyes can reach.
If someone suspects you of taking data, put the handover list on the table and go through it line by line.
Leaving cleanly is not the same as leaving well
He left out of fear, not because he had worked out where to go. In Liu Bang's camp he had to prove himself all over again, which is the next chapter. This one takes only how he went, not why.
A tidy exit from one job does not mean you chose the next one well; ask both questions.
How do I use it today?
Where you are: you have decided to go, or you are being pushed.
Ask first: what do I hold that this place gave me and that is not mine? Is there anything people might say I took?
Where it goes wrong: treating a clean exit as the whole job. He ran from danger, not toward a plan, and a new set of doubters was waiting.
Lines to keep
Hand back what is not yours before you go.
Answer suspicion with what they can see.
A clean exit is not a good destination.
Same situation, other people are asking
I don't know if I can stay here much longer.I don't agree with where this is going. Do I stay and soften it?I'm unhappy here and leaving is the only move I can picture.Is what I'm good at worth anything anywhere else?Should I leave this job · all 8 questions →If this one named what you are going through,
send it to someone who needs it, or keep it somewhere you will find it again.