The ladder on the wall

The tanking of the US economy and its ripples across the world have had a profound effect on me. No, I did not lose my job nor is my home being foreclosed but this thought came at the demise of Lehman Brothers 'Thank God I was not working there'. All my MBA brethren will know what status this company used to have in B School campuses just a year back, for others it really was tough to get into this place, very smart people made the cut so if you are the CEO of a company which recruits the brightest from around the world then by logica simplica you are on top of the smart food chain, but can anyone of you remember his name (the CEO's). I bet except for the ardent quizzer no one else knows, its Dick Fuld.

Now Dick must have been a really intelligent and hard working guy to be up there (they don't let you go back home unless you clock in a minimum of 18-20hrs a day) and he was surrounded by all intelligent hard working people, then what went wrong. This guy really had an ignominious exit from Wall Street if you tracked the news items. I personally think for people of such calibre to have to see such times in itself is sad, but the bigger question is that if this can happen to them then it sure can happen to the rest of us also.....years of hard work and reputation go up in smoke in 6 months, I am sure nobody will be ready to touch him with a barge pole right now.

And he epitomised success as is taught to all of us.

I would not debate and discuss the follies that Lehman made but will take a higher view of things in which companies come and go, its a law of nature. Then why do we waste our lives missing on so many things which are so important while we put all our energy and resources climbing up the corporate ladder (really they make us work hard), its like we work real hard to climb the ladder only that it is against a wall that is very shaky....can fall any time, can change any time.....maybe its the wrong wall.

Thinking....would it have done Dick good to have harnessed all this energy and effort towards something else, more meaningful, more permanent. Maybe we need to go back and revisit our definition of success, this one doesn't guarantee anything.