BUSINESS BLOGS
BUSINESS BLOGS
category: business
15 Mar 2008

Successful people usually exert discipline, be it in business or personal life. Discipline entails being diplomatic: classy in victory and gracious in defeat.

Of course, the objective is to go undefeated, but you occasionally have to accept a loss to go on to win the Championship.

Either way, it is hard to be disciplined. Why? Everything in our society praises pouring it on.

Think:

- shock and awe
- run and gun
- long island iced teas… all right, that last one should be in a different post.

Bottom line: there’s no real virtue in moderation, we are shown; even though the words suggest otherwise.

This week, I couldn’t help but wonder what kind of restraint Henry Blodget displayed when his one time nemesis Eliot Spitzer was keelhauled by the press after it was disclosed that he had hired a prostitute (well, he did more than just hire here, but I digress).

I actually feel sympathy for Mr. Spitzer (note to my wife, sympathy is not the same thing as empathy), but I genuinely respect Blodget’s restraint when and since the news came out. He was, after all, keelhauled by Spitzer and banned from working on Wall Street.

What the hell does “keelhauled” mean? Check out Wikipedia… ask Henry yourself, or, well, read on:

The sailor was tied to a rope that looped beneath the vessel, thrown overboard on one side of the ship, and dragged under the ship’s keel to the other side. As the hull was often covered in barnacles and other marine growth, this could result in lacerations and other injuries. This generally happened if the offender was pulled quickly. If pulled slowly, his weight might lower him sufficiently to miss the barnacles but might result in his drowning. If the rope snapped, the Captain could conclude that the punishment was not done properly and order it carried out again.

I actually know the feeling: on February 1 2008, I was a free man, free to talk about how my erstwhile partners tried to keelhaul me last year when they orchestrated their ill-fated lawsuit against me.

I won. I could have destroyed them by counter-suing and really going off the rails, but I acted rationally while they acted emotionally and callously. I actually showed a lot of restraint and discipline then, during the lawsuit… but shockingly, I have shown quite a bit more restraint since then… particularly after February 1, the one year anniversary of the lawsuit.

The last time a bunch of idiots tried to shock and awe something, it backfired.

Bottom line: it’s very easy to act like a sailor and demonstrate a lack of class, that does not mean that you should stoop down to that level. Discipline, restraint and empathy is the only way to rise - and stay - at the top.