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As entrepreneurs, we’ve all worked with a lot of Soham Parekhs. They begin okay, and then you find out that they’ve been working at 4 places, just because you weren’t that horrible, Hari Sadhu type annoying micromanaging boss. And then when the levee breaks, they first deny it (going as far as swearing on their children), before finally conceding, either with an apology, or with just plain old ghosting. This is so rampant that it doesn’t really surprise anyone. In fact, it only makes Indians laugh. I was once talking to a bunch of entrepreneurs, and as soon as this topic came up - everyone had stories. Each one more hilarious than the last. There was one entrepreneur who had his laptop and earphones stolen by the absconding employee. And as he narrated that story, neither of us were displaying shock, empathy, or disbelief. We were all taking notes. After all, we had to prepare ourselves for this "challenge" someday. Haha! India is fundamentally a low trust society, and we keep getting great reasons to be that way. But why? Why are our work ethics so incredibly questionable? Forget about work ethics, why do we display a particularly intentional disdain for other people, even on the road - with all that insessant honking and littering? I think about this a lot. A lot of people say, "India has an education problem" as they tackle this question. They believe lacking education is the reason, and more of it is the solution to this issue. But really? Soham Parekh was educated. And so is every other Soham Parekh out there. In fact, having worked with a lot of Blue Collar employees, I can say that education isn't really a differentiating factor, atleast when it comes to this behaviour. We've all seen enough educated and privileged people behaving in very strange ways. So what is it? Is it the population density? When US has a population density of less than 40 persons/Sq Km, and China stands at 150 - India is touching 500 persons/Sq. Km. Is this the reason why we behave like this? Because life in India is constantly in the "super-hard mode", and there are just "too many people" to care about? Maybe. After all, imagine that population density with the absolute population being highest in the world, along with per capita income being at 120th position out of roughly 195 countries in total (after adjusting for PPP). Life in India is clearly not easy. Maybe some of this extreme hardship, along with the ingrained trauma of hostile colonisation drives us towards the "Got to scam to survive!", or "Loot and scoot!" kind of attitude. Maybe.. If that sounds hopeless, it shouldn't. South Korea, Taiwan, Netherlands and Israel are all almost just as dense as we are (though at a much, much smaller scale, of course). It's just that they're very, very rich. Maybe we need to just be rich! And as that happens, something about our behaviour will fundamentally change. We could definitely hope. Till then, we have Bangladesh to look at and feel good about ourselves.