Musashi's Dokkodo (The Way of Walking Alone)

part because nobody was willing to look beyond the economics and
talk about right and wrong; they let the bean-counters prevail and
suffered mightily for it in the end.
Countless other disastrous decisions are made based on partial data
and/or partial feelings. Would you embrace a decision to kill or
cripple a few of your customers if it makes a few extra bucks, or
would you listen to your gut feeling, determine that it’s wrong no
matter what the numbers say, and do the right thing? To be clear, not
everyone would. Drug dealers know what their products do to their

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clientele but they justify their actions anyway, thinking something
along the lines of, “If not from me they’d just buy it from somebody
else, so I might as well get mine…” Even certain legitimate
businesses act callously despite knowing better. Undoubtedly
somebody in Enron (fraud, misrepresentation), Arthur Anderson
(accounting fraud, obstruction of justice), Tyco (securities fraud,
grand larceny), Galleon (insider trading), WorldCom (insider training,
securities fraud), Hollinger International (fraud, tax evasion,
racketeering), and Barings Bank (rogue trading) must have had an
inkling that what they were about to do wasn’t on the up and up,
hence could have acted differently if they’d only had the courage to
do so. Instead, most of them are languishing in federal prison.
So, if we have doubts, if we cannot embrace a decision or action
wholeheartedly, we are in all likelihood setting ourselves up for
failure. Or worse… We must examine our misgivings, our suspicions
and fears, and determine why we are feeling them. Uncertainty is
okay, it’s a normal aspect of business, but it is imperative to listen to
our gut and engage in a little introspection before doing anything
rash.

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