It was one of those
conversations
in which, without having a lot of
background
information and
detailed
knowledge, it really isn't possible to offer an
opinion
that's worth anything. But that's exactly what she asked me to do: give
my
opinion
about an important decision she had to make, the outcome of which would
have a major impact on her financial
future,
as well as (by default) on her
family's
financial
future.
She'd just started working for a company, a tech startup
company, who were developing a product (the
details
of which aren't important to this
essay,
but a software product nonetheless) which would hopefully produce
massive revenues once it launched. For the time being at least, she
worked for a pittance, the upside of which was because she was in on
the ground floor (so to speak), she stood to benefit
enormously through shares and stock options if the company
IPO'd. Yet she was wavering, dithering with her
decision to stay with the company, or to leave. That's
why
she wanted my
opinion.
"Should I stay, or should I leave?" she asked me.
It seemed like a no brainer. Who wouldn't be
interested
in working for a company starting on the ground floor, then riding the
IPO
wave
to great wealth? So that's what I asked her:
"Why
wouldn't you want to stay and work for the company starting on the
ground floor, then riding the IPO to great wealth?". When she answered,
I began to see it wasn't a cut and dried decision for her.
Again, the
details
would be gratuitous - but basically she was concerned that the company
and its product weren't totally ... well ... honest. We spoke
about it for a while. There are some things which are common practice
in big business these days, especially in big tech business - like
starting a shell company offshore (the Caymen islands are very nice)
and registering its patents there, then licensing its patents back to
the company in the USA, which then transfers
vast
amounts of
currency
out of the country to the shell company to pay for the patents it
licenses to itself, reducing its profits and thereby its tax
obligation by millions of dollars.
They're loopholes in the law. Yes,
technically they're not illegal - at least, not until the
loopholes are closed. But while honest, hard working Americans pay
their full share of taxes in the United States, companies like those
making billions of dollars, are avoiding paying millions of dollars in
taxes using these loopholes, millions of dollars which should be used
here in the United States improving our infrastructure and social
support systems.
And that was her concern: in her
opinion,
what her company had in mind wasn't illegal ... but it was certainly
pushing the envelope of what's legal.
As far as the law is concerned, I was completely out my depth. I simply
didn't know enough about it to say anything intelligent. In any case,
if no law is being violated, loophole or not, then it's not
illegal. That's a fact. Yet it bugged her. And she was asking me
for advice in a national and international gray area.
So I said "Forget about the legal ramifications of this. It may be
legal. It may not be. I'm not a lawyer. In any case, if it's legal
today but they close the loophole tomorrow, then it'll be illegal
tomorrow. It's a moving target. How about you tell me, instead, where's
the
integrity
in it? I don't mean that you
stand
in judgement of the company or of the law. I just mean where's the
integrity
in it for you? I mean specifically, is there
integrity
in it for you?"
A crack had now begun to appear in our
conversation,
between what's legal / illegal, and
integrity.
Light began peeping through. She asked, wanting to get it: "Tell me
what you mean by 'Is there
integrity
in it for me?'.". She wasn't a
graduate
of
Werner's work,
and I didn't want to lose the edge by taking all the time necessary to
go over the definition of
integrity
and all the definition's component definitions with her. So I just put
it out there simply: "Is it something you can take a
stand
for? Is it something you can give your
word
to?". "OK, well what if it is?" she asked. "Then stay in the
integrity"
I said. "OK, well what if it isn't?" she asked. "Then
stay in the
integrity"
I said.
It was clear to me she'd started letting in ie she'd started
considering the possibility, that just because their game plan is legal
(ie no laws are being broken) doesn't mean it has
integrity.
And that's as far as we got. That's as much as we had time for.
I didn't see her for a few months after that. Then one day I ran into
her in the supermarket aisle comparing nutrition facts labels on boxes
of breakfast cereals. "Hey! How's it going?" I asked. She told me she'd
left the company soon after our last
conversation
("Wow! She actually did it" I thought). She told me that after
considering the company's
future,
it became clear she couldn't take a
stand
for it, and neither could she give her
word
to it even though others could, even though no laws were
being broken, and even though doing so could have made her a
lot of
money.
"Whether you stayed or whether you left, would have been fine with me.
But regardless of the outcome, you stayed in the
integrity.
For that, I really
respect
you. Good for you!" I said. After she left, the company never made it
to launch or IPO, she told me - by the way. It failed long before that,
due to its inability to raise the necessary venture capital, and it
disbanded completely soon afterwards. She now had another job, a well
paying job but without shares or stock options. And her new company had
already IPO'd so there's no fast track to great wealth for her in her
new job. Even though the possibility of a
future
financial windfall is no longer in the picture, her
family's
finances are in great shape. More importantly, her
integrity
is in great shape.
I watched her push her shopping cart to the end of the aisle until she
turned the corner and I lost sight of her. "How
interesting
..." I thought. No legal weighing up was needed to make this critical
decision. Hardly any financial weighing up was needed
either. Problem solved ... and she's more financially
secure now than she was then. She's
happier
now. She's satisfied. There's no more wavering and dithering. Her
family's
better off. It was, to be sure, a big decision for her.
Yet in the final analysis, it was a no brainer. All she did was stay in
the
integrity.
It's beautiful how that particular choice always puts us in a place
where things have an uncanny way of
working
out by themselves, just in the process of life itself.