February 24, 2026

Business by the Book

Nehemiah 2: 11-12 So I came to Jerusalem, and was there three days. And I arose in the night, I and some few men with me; neither told I any man what my God had put in my heart to do at Jerusalem…

Nehemiah’s patience in communicating all that was in his mind is a wonderful illustration of Proverbs 29:11. A fool uttereth all his mind: but a wise man keepeth it in till afterwards. Before this man could tell those in Jerusalem all his plan he needed to do some recognizance. At night he went out and looked over the state of the walls, gates, and ports of the wall. What was left, what was still usable, where was the greatest damage, where should he start, how could this be fixed, and so many other questions needed to be answered before he could even tell the men of Jerusalem about his task.

There already was some opposition, and they didn’t even really know why he was there. Nehemiah knew that once he told them his plans the opposition would worsen. So, in order to complete his planning he kept his mind to himself.

I was once took part in a seminar in which managers were trained on the proper way to interview candidates for sales positions. The seminar covered legal aspects of interviewing, how to address compensation questions, how to extract information from the candidates and many other facets of interviewing. One of the exercises was to video tape us role playing the two sides of the interview. We were each videoed once as the potential employee, and once as the employer.

One of the main errors that the course instructor kept warning us about was talking too much. We were to draw out information from the candidate, and if we did all the speaking we would learn little, or nothing, from the possible new hire. Toward the end of the seminar we all gathered in a comfortable environment and watched the video tape of the interviews. We all knew each other and most were on a friendly basis so naturally good natured kidding was the order of the day. This was no place for thin skinned people. The videos were humbling, and they highlighted our absolute failure to be good interviewers. Every person there was highly motivated and over the top successful, but turn a camera on and no one knew how to act.

Then we watched the video of one of the most senior managers. He was one of the neatest and most accomplished people you could ever meet. He was Mr. California; he looked like Paul Newman and was as cool as James Dean. However, when it was his turn to interview the candidate, he did all the talking. He talked, and talked and talked. At one time the person being interviewed asked, “Do you want me to tell you about my qualifications?”   He ignored this question and kept on pontificating about our company, the structure, and the parameters of the job for which the person was interviewing. You should have heard our critique. It was merciless.

What happened? He became nervous and spilled out his whole mind. All of the other managers of our organization learned from a perfect videotaped example what not to do during a job interview. Nehemiah knew when it was appropriate to reveal his plans and when to refrain from doing so. It’s a lesson from which we can all learn.

Dr. William Howe