The age of greed.
“Nations will rise and fall, but equality remains the ideal. The universal aim is to achieve respect for the entire human race, not for the dominant few.” ~ Carlos P. Romulo
I’ve never told this story (I promised that I wouldn’t). But enough time has passed, and the situation has become so obscene, that I feel compelled to reveal the essence of my encounter. I’ll try not to disclose any details that may betray confidences. But who knows?
It happened around the turn of the century in a hotel bar.
My flight was delayed (again), so I checked in late, tossed my bag in my room and rushed to the hotel restaurant to grab a bite to eat. I was scheduled to give a talk to a large audience of business executives that next morning.
The restaurant was closed, but the bar and kitchen were still open.
I was sitting alone at the bar, enjoying a cold one and looking through the menu, when another weary traveler strolled in and sat down. It appeared that we were the closing customers. I glanced over and asked if he was here for the conference.
He said yes, and that he was giving a keynote speech the next day as well. I put two and two together and realized that he was the co-founder and CEO of an iconic brand; a fun-loving, values-led company. And he looked totally dejected and burnt out.
I asked him how everything was going, and that’s when he swore me to secrecy.
He said that he wasn’t doing well, at all. He was in the process of selling the business to a large conglomerate, but it looked like, in order to complete the deal, he would have to break a long-standing and very meaningful pledge.
He explained that one of the company’s key principles was that no one should or would make more than 7 times the lowest paid employee. He went on to say that the sale was contingent upon hiring a new CEO, and that the conglomerate couldn’t find anyone willing to take the job under such meager pay conditions (insert sarcasm emoji).
Welcome to the beginning of the age of greed.
It’s now less than 25 years later and a recent AFL-CIO Executive Paywatch Report revealed that S&P 500 CEOs averaged 324 times the median worker’s pay, and some firms had ratios above 1,000-to-1 (Amazon’s CEO makes 6,474 times the company’s median pay).
So if you’ve been wondering why the nation is being torn apart, look no further. Yes, I’m being quite sincere. You can not create a great country—a strong and unified community of accountability, virtue and honor—in a dog-eat-dog, winner-take-all culture devoid of the equality of human dignity.
It has never happened and… it never will.
Stay passionate!
I agree , Billy. And that’s a perfect example. I wouldn’t say that you’re disciplined. In my view, you do it because you enjoy doing it! All of it.
Hi Tom, I prefer to define "discipline" as a positive action that is taken in order to achieve something. For example, if I want to improve my golf I need to practice effectively, hitting lots of practice balls in an organized manner, playing golf (testing the practical effectiveness of my practice and having fun while doing so), reflecting on the outcome. i.e., any improvement and then taking further action.