Do the Right Thing Not the Easy Thing
[Music]
[Applause]
i was having a sleepless night
tossing and turning
i couldn’t get that article in ink
magazine out of my head
the one about the company in the chicago
area whose accounting manager had stolen
over 200 000
as i tossed and turned i thought about
that article
and then something clicked
that could happen to me
the very next day i went to my office
to review my payroll and financial
records
only to discover something that would
haunt me for the rest of my life
i discovered that the company’s
accounting manager
my accounting manager had stolen over
two hundred and fifty thousand dollars
from us
just like the firm in chicago
yet
when i looked at the dates
the theft started within days after my
older brother dropped dead out of
nowhere
i then asked myself
what kind of human being
would do that to another
in their darkest hours
and what could i do now
what were my options
this was humiliating a potential
disaster that my employees found out
what about my clients and vendors
could i afford to confront this head-on
in public like the firm the article did
could i afford not to
i’m used to making decisions fast i’m
hyper and i wear my emotions on my
sleeve
but i’m also a man of faith and i never
laid a hand in my own children
i’ve also never shied away from the
fight
and i’m not about to now
the stakes were just too high my
employees
their families
my family and my soul
i’ve given everything to this business
and now this woman wants to take it away
but i want letter
so i do what i do best
i act
yet there was a decision to make
would i choose to prosecute our
accounting manager
and do something other small business
owners don’t do
because of the bad publicity the expense
and
want the courts just leaving the slap on
the wrist anyway
it was at that point
that i had to look in the mirror
and ask myself some hard questions
who are you
what do you stand for
and maybe the toughest question
what are you made of
i then reminded myself that my father
and brother ran the better business
bureau in the memphis area for over four
decades
i was raised
my entire life on honesty integrity and
ethics
in my mind
there was no decision to make
we were going to go after our accounting
manager and we were going to go after
with everything we had
so we did choose to prosecute
but we also went public
and put the names of the embezzlers in
the newspaper in order to warn other
small business owners not to hire them
risky decision oh yeah
painful to disclose
of course it was
but at the end of the day
we chose to do right by our community in
an effort to help other small business
owners learn from our story and avoid a
potentially catastrophic situation that
could occur in their businesses
and by doing the right thing not the
easy thing we enhance the company’s
reputation for honesty integrity and
ethics
for years to come
now doing the right thing not the easy
thing
also applied to our customers
i remember the day my operations manager
came to my office to discuss a project
we had an installation down the gulf
coast with a casino
it was after hurricane katrina
i was sure he was going to tell me that
the project had been put on indefinite
hold
to my surprise he turns to me and says
news flash the casino still wants us to
install the equipment
and oh by the way they need to install
before the christmas holidays
i looked into sheer amazement
they want us to do
four months worth of work
in less than two
that’s impossible right
he chuckling said it might be
but he said our customer is in a world
of hurt and desperately needs our help
they need to get back up and running and
back into business before the christmas
holidays
well what happened next was nothing
short of a miracle
my team arrives on the gulf coast to a
scene that looked like something
at a world war ii
everywhere they looked
total devastation destruction building
schools
everything destroyed
on top of that
there was no electricity available so my
team would have to install the equipment
working off the generators
and if that wasn’t enough the closest
restaurants and hotels were over two
hours away
yet despite these incredible obstacles
my team got the project done in record
time to meet the deadline
and in taking care of our customer in
their most difficult times
we enhanced the company’s reputation for
exceptional customer service that would
pay dividends for years to come
now doing the right thing not the easy
thing
also applied to our employees
i remember vividly
the day my accounts payable manager came
into my office
she shut the door
it was after a doctor’s visit
and she proceeded to tell me i got some
bad news
she then told me
she had cancer
and that it was not looking good
and then she said that she’d have to be
out of the office for quite a while
doing chemo and radiation treatment
well i had to gulp at first honestly
and i looked at her and told her how
sorry i was to hear about the diagnosis
and let her know that everybody in the
company would be praying for her
in these difficult times
it was at that point that i contacted
our human resource consulting firm to
get their advice about how to handle the
situation
their response
well you can pay her for vacation and
personal time
but then you gotta cut her off
now while i knew that was kind of a
standard answer
it also just didn’t seem right to me
my accounts payable manager had been
loyal to me in the company for a number
of years and was going through a very
difficult time
it just didn’t seem right
to add money to a list of words
so after
prayerful consideration
i chose to leave with my heart
and i chose to pay our accounts payable
manager
for as long as it took for her to get
back on her feet and back in the office
it ended up being nine months later
expensive decision oh yeah
heroic gesture
i’m not sure about that but i do know
that when my head hit the pillow that
night i was at peace with my decision
now another example doing right by your
employees include the company’s service
manager
i remember the day
that he heard about him having a family
crisis
in fact what i heard was
that his mother was dying
it was that point that i opened the door
in my office and walked down the hall
only to see the company service manager
walking in front of me
i was so stunned i wasn’t really sure
what to do and then finally
i pulled him aside
and i said what are you doing here
he said well he had no more personal
vacation times and didn’t think he had a
choice
i looked at him and
i had to gulp and i didn’t really know
what to say at first
and then finally i turned him i said you
listen to me
you go be with your mother and your
family do not worry about your job or
this business
please know that your mother and your
family would be in our thoughts and
prayers
doing the right thing
that was the only thing to do
because through the years employees have
always been like family to me
and family takes care of family
no matter what
i also believe that a business has to be
about more than just making money
a business
has to have a conscience
so in conclusion
i challenge all the small business
owners out there
to go out and do the right thing not
because it’s easy but because it is hard
but in doing so you can build a
reputation that you and your company can
be proud of for the rest of your life
as dr martin luther king once said the
time
is always right
to do what is right
thank you
[Music]