#hypocrisy #honesty #HonestHypocrisy #human #advantages #SmallBusiness #cheating
Is there such a thing as honest hypocrisy?
Consider this Tower of Power lyric: “I can’t stand to see the slaughter, but still I eat the meat. I can’t stand dishonest people, but still sometimes I cheat.”
Or, this advice from a small business owner to a friend considering starting a business: “I know you’re an honest person, but if you don’t cheat a little, you won’t survive.”
By such standards, honest hypocrisy might be defined as being honest about one’s hypocrisy.
But, as humans who want to do the right thing all the time, one may face times when “the right thing” may not be the best thing to do at the time.
In the above examples, “the slaughter” is ordinary meat production. Animals are raised specifically to be eventually killed for their meat. Of course, no one really likes the idea of killing animals, but even in nature, one animal kills another to feed itself.
Also, it’s human nature to want an advantage, even when you may have been told that taking that advantage is wrong.
Look at demographics as an example. In recent decades, certain demographic characteristics gave some people an advantage over others in the job market.
As much as many politicians want to take away those demographic advantages today, they are still a reality. Those who hire people often use them.
Applicants who possess those advantages often include a photo to prove they match certain demographic groups. Of course, they also have to be qualified for the jobs they are seeking.
Cheating on one’s taxes, even a little, is against the law. But, there are some parts of the tax code that some may consider “wrong,” with respect to struggling small businesses, or even struggling individual taxpayers.
They see it as right to cut through that “wrongness” by cheating a little.
No one really gets hurt by such action, the rationale goes.
But, when cheating becomes a way of life, as with some with all the advantages in the world to begin with, it can rile “honest” hypocrites.
Because we are human, complete honesty at all times can be illusive. That’s why the term “white lie” came into being.
Do you want to know how honest you really are? Ask yourself: If I found a $50 bill on the ground in a crowded area, what would I do?
Would I put it in my pocket, as in, “finders keepers, losers weepers?”
Or, would I ask people in the area whether they had dropped it, knowing that anyone can lie and say it’s theirs?
It may depend on your personal financial situation. It may depend on how you would feel if you had dropped it. Or, it may depend on how guilty you would feel if you’d kept it.
Most of us grapple with life decisions all the time. None of us is perfect, but most of us consider ourselves virtuous.
Being an honest hypocrite may not always make a person feel good, but, sometimes, it may feel like the right thing to do at the time, as long as no one else gets hurt.
So, as you go through life, be as honest as you can. Try not to be a hypocrite.
Peter
#SelfMade #CollegeAdmissionsScandal #FameFromBirth
“What does it mean to be a ‘self-made’ person of great wealth?”
Mary Sanchez, columnist for the Kansas City Star, posed that question in a recent column, also published March 12, 2019, in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Sanchez was referring to Kylie Jenner, whom Forbes magazine proclaimed to be the world’s youngest “self-made” billionaire, at age 21, from her cosmetics business.
Jenner is a member of the Kardashian-Jenner blended family. She didn’t exactly launch her business from her garage at night after working a full-time job all day, Sanchez points out.
Actually, she’s been quite savvy at leveraging her birthright fame, Sanchez says.
Alas, most of us aren’t blessed with the gift of fame from birth.
For most of us, if we want to achieve success, we have to do it gradually, over time, and many never get there.
Many of us don’t have the discipline to build wealth over time by saving more, spending less and investing properly.
Many of us never get introduced to a program that would allow us to build wealth by spending a few part-time hours off work – not unlike the folks who build a company in their garages. But, unlike the companies that start in a garage, you can build wealth by helping others do the same.
How? There are many such vehicles out there to allow you build wealth by leveraging your off-work time without taking a second, W-2 job. To check out one of the best such programs, message me.
Sanchez ‘s column was also published at a time when famous people are paying to get their children into prestigious colleges. They are not doing it by donating money to those schools. They are bribing coaches to “recruit” students to their teams who have not played the sport in question.
They are also paying others to take college entrance exams on behalf of their children – in other words, helping the children cheat their way to success. In turn, that means hard-working students who do things the right way are deprived of admission to those schools.
The whole scandal brings to mind how one defines success.
A big part of a successful life is doing everything the right way. That usually means hard work and tenacity. It also means either innovating – filling a need no one else has filled – or following a system that has created success for many others. To put that another way, it means duplicating what other successful people have done.
The college admission scandal has also brought to mind another axiom: if you cheat your way to the top, you will eventually get caught.
So how do you define success? Different people may see success in different forms. Part of defining success is knowing why you are doing something.
Good whys motivate the wise.
And when the wise are motivated, regardless of what they are doing, success will come. When success comes, wealth usually follows.
Success doesn’t come just to the lucky, though any successful person undoubtedly would say he or she has been blessed. One must put himself in the position for good fortune to come.
Kylie Jenner was helped by who she is. Most of us don’t have that advantage. But we all can put ourselves in position for success to strike. It may take some out-of-the-box thinking, but anyone can do it.
Peter
