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]