Learn Sanbox

Growing up poor in rural Idaho, I was taught to
play by the rules. Be tough, be competitive, give the

game all you have—but do it fairly. They were simple
values that formed a basis for how families,
neighborhoods, and communities behaved. My two
brothers and I had something in common with the
kids on the upscale side of the tracks: a value system
learned in homes, sandboxes, playgrounds, classrooms,
Sunday schools, and athletic fields.
Those values did not lose their legitimacy when
I became a player in the business world. Yet they are
missing in segments of today’s marketplace. Wall
Street overdoses on greed. Corporate lawyers make
fortunes by manipulating contracts and finding ways
out of signed deals. Many CEOs enjoy princely
lifestyles even as stakeholders lose their jobs, pensions,
benefits, investments, and trust in the
American way.
Cooked ledgers, irresponsibility, look-the-otherway
auditors, kickbacks, and flimflams of every sort
have burrowed into today’s corporate climate. Many
outside corporate directors bask in perks and fees,
concerned only in keeping Wall Street happy and
their fees intact.
In the past 20 years,
investor greed has become
obsessive and a force with
which CEOs must deal.
Public companies are
pushed for higher and higher
quarterly performances
lest shareholders rebel.
Less-than-honest financial
reports are tempting when
the market penalizes flat performances and candid
accounting. Wall Street consistently signals that it is
comfortable with the lucrative lie.