Of all people, it was the crusader against organized crime and corporate wrongdoing who turned out to be a high-paying customer in a prostitution ring.
So who has the last laugh now at former Governor Eliot Spitzer? His Wall Street targets, his white collar convicts, Republican radio show hosts, and even us Trubys???
HA HA – Hold it! Thanks to public confessionals from the new New York Governor David Paterson about his past affairs and drug use and to Detroit’s latest setback involving Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick’s infidelity, perjury, and incessant text messaging, we see that the nation’s top leaders are vulnerable. And whether we want to admit it or not, we are too.
The reality is that the wrong decision will be easy to make throughout our careers. Sometimes we won’t know we’re doing wrong at the time. I, for one, swear I had no idea that a blinking red light was code for “Feed me any more paper and I’ll die.” Unfortunately, my decision to continue the task at hand resulted in a company casualty. RIP Shredder.
Other times we’ll know what we’re doing isn’t right. It always seems to start off innocently – we expense a beer tab that really wasn’t business related or we indulge in flirtatious conversation with a blind eye to the ring finger. But such activity can grow beyond our control and pretty soon we might be no better than the corporate tycoons who cook the books or the politicians who allocate tax dollars towards the cause of call girls.
So I’ll suspend my judgment for now and instead admire Eliot Spitzer for stepping down immediately in the interest of the people of New York. Plus, anything I say here is subject to being hypocritical. I still have an entire career ahead to make mistakes in…
In the Real World, there is one drug addiction that’s completely acceptable: CAFFEINE. No limit. Any time of day. Available in the forms of coffee, soda, tablets, even Snickers just came out with a caffeine infused bar!
This is the good gateway drug! Caffeine allows us to maintain our youth staying up late, and then function in full the next morning alongside our seniors! Without putting our lives in jeopardy! And the only side effect seems to be overdosing on the exclamation point!
Well, not exactly. Caffeine is a cover-up. WAKE UP AND HEAR THE EXPERTS!
EXPERT #1: Dr. Charles Czeisler, Director of Sleep Medicine for Harvard Medical School, advises that if you only sleep four or five hours a night, your performance level will be that of someone who’s been awake for 24 hours.
EXPERT #2: Christopher Drake, Senior Scientist with the Henry Ford Sleep Disorders and Research Center, validates exactly what we were taught in grade school – “the human body needs approximately seven to eight hours of sleep to maintain optimal alert levels during the day.” But he goes on to dispel the myth that many accomplished people operate fine off of a four or five hour sleep. “Imagine how much more brilliant and productive they would have been if they’d gotten more sleep.”
There’s the clincher. As both a night owl and early bird – we think we’re going to build the ultimate nest egg. And we are, in fact, winging it thanks to caffeine. But how much higher could we be flying?
We won’t know for sure until we open our eyes to shutting them… three or so more hours each night.
Inspired by “Learning to Live Like an Early Bird” by Melinda Beck.
The Wall Street Journal. Tuesday, March 4, 2008.
Restoration Hardware turned down a buy-out offer from Sears.
I don’t think anyone needs experience in the business world, consumer world, or world in general to understand this one. The only thing I don’t understand is how a deal like this even approached the table. I couldn’t even imagine the table these two companies would come together at.
A simple search on the Sears website for “table” will yield a page of 20 tables - 17 air hockey/ foosball tables and 3 dining room tables, starting at $249.99. That same exact search conducted on the Restoration Hardware site yielded a page of 10 tables - all bearing titles including a synonym for “wealth” or a luxurious travel destination (i.e. Estate Coffee Table, Hamptons End Table), as well as 2 table lamps, one priced at $500.00.
The Sears and Restoration Hardware homepages showcase quite a mismatch as well. Restoration Hardware features a lavish poolside chair surrounded by the pristine green of an untouched mountain range. The only prop that appears to be missing from this scene is a service bell. Meanwhile Sears looks like they uploaded a picture taken accidentally in a garage where the only green comes from four potted plants. The place is so filled with tool chests and landscaping implements that one can only assume this is the service entrance to the set of Restoration Hardware’s photo shoot.
Is this an anti-Sears tirade? Absolutely not. I’ll be checking out with them for Fathers Day, trust me. I just don’t see the connection or strategy behind their buyout offer.
Restoration Hardware didn’t either. They took up a deal with private equity firm Catterton Partners instead. Now their website definitely resonates with Restoration Hardware. That table pictured on the homepage - you think it’s straight from the Greenwich Collection?
Sources:
www.sears.com
www.restorationhardware.com
http://www.cpequity.com/
