Signals of Our Success

You don’t have to be a sports fan to be aware of the scandal regarding the Houston Astros that is engulfing baseball.

The 'Stros devised a way to detect and communicate to their batters the impending pitches they were about to receive. This coincided with their most successful period - winning one World Series and almost a second. 

Understandably this has led to a tidal wave of opinions from the media and fans. 

*The punishment was too severe. 

*It was not severe enough. 

*The wrong people were punished. 

*There should be no punishment as everything about this is MLB’s fault. 

We love nothing more than to kick people while they're down. While it's so easy for us to pontificate and pass judgement on others, if you had the chance for a significant competitive advantage and much better results, would you take it?

Many may think they're impervious to temptation, the desire to push the envelope and gain an edge is a natural one.

The problem is that what starts off as ok, leads to a gray area and then cheating and on an industrial level. Sometimes you can throw in espionage and blackmail to the mix.

What if you were in some sort of competition where the person who received the most likes/shares wins? You start off by asking your family and friends. It’s not enough so you create an affiliate scheme whereby you want them to email their family and friends. You’ve come this far to fail so top it off by buying likes. 

If you’d do this for something as meaningless as some Facebook/Twitter/Instagram competition what would you do to win a Grammy Award, a Nobel Prize or even an election?

People don't quit when they're ahead - especially when the taste of success is so sweet and so intoxicating. If you did something once, you could leave it in the past, but the thrill of it all and the spoils that come with it are so enticing. Problem is that hubris leads to sloppiness which leads to mistakes being made.

Companies and bosses demand success and often they don’t care how the sausage gets made. They push a mantra of doing whatever it takes where the definition of whatever is largely up to interpretation.

If the sausage is kosher, there is nothing to worry about. If it’s not, this is when things start to get extremely murky.

*Does there need to be a cover up? 

*Are we going to have to play the who-knew-what when game?

*Does everyone have to start to CYA? If someone doesn’t know what CYA means, they’re the likely candidate to throw under the bus.

*Is it so serious that someone will turn and testify against all that happened? What evidence do they have?

Whether it's insider trading and other financial crimes, Lance Armstrong, the College Admissions Scandal, Cambridge Analytica, Theranos or Enron we see pattern over and over and over again.

It’s easy to look at the story of the Tortoise and the Hare and think it only applies to suckers. That those who play by the rules are bound to be lapped by those who don’t. In some instances, this is 100% correct. 

Many lie, cheat, swindle, hoodwink their way to success and get away with it and this is an unfortunate reality of life. 

But when people do get caught and there is naming and shaming as happened here with the baseball, the short term gain is replaced by long term pain and a stigma that follows them around for the rest of their lives. 

They issue a statement filled with remorse, but do they regret their actions, or do they regret getting caught?

What do you think?

As for what I think, this is a subject for another article!

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