Ethics and Behaviors

"Every choice has a consequence" ~ Chuck Gallagher

Ethics sometimes can seem like a very big word. Google ethics and you will find over 151 million pages of content on ethical decision-making, ethical theories, business ethics, ethics vs. morals, etc. The truth is, ethics are found in just about every decision we make. We are presented with choices, the choices have different and varying results, and those results will have different consequences. One choice may be better than the other. The weight we place on good/bad, right/wrong, better/worse comprises our ethical barometer.

I once heard a sermon in church from a pastor talking about winning the lottery. That would be pretty nice, right? To go from just making it to a multimillionaire with one drawing would make all our problems go away, right? How many of us have prayed to win the lottery? Really, what would you do if your won 100 million overnight?

USA Today suggests almost 70% of lottery winners go broke in a matter of years after winning large amounts (Ogg, 2013). Most people who fully understand the values of investing, saving, and working a plan to become independently wealthy (or rich, there is a difference) do not play the lottery. Those of us living paycheck to paycheck comprise the bulk of $1 investors. The pastor's point was that God will not reward those who can't manage small amounts of income with millions because we have proven to be less than adequate stewards of our money. If we don't make good decisions with our 50K a year, would it stand to reason we probably wouldn't make good decisions with 500K a year?

The conversation about lottery winners and ethics are closely tied together in this sense... The foundations of our ethical choices in small decisions will establish habits that will be ethical with big decisions. For example, let's say it is easy to cheat a little on the expense report at work and charge a few non-business dinners to the corporate card. No biggie, right? Everybody does it, right? If you make a habit out of cutting the small corners, how could you guarantee you wouldn't take the bait if the chance at scamming millions (or billions) from investors? Do you think Bernie Madoff woke up one day and just decided to run the largest Ponzi scheme ever conceived? Probably not. There were probably a series of unethical choices, much smaller in scale, Madoff made during his life that led him to the point of breaking the law, scamming billions from pension and hedge funds, and landing him in prison for 150 years.

Sometimes it is not the end result that matters most. Most of the time it is the journey, or steps we take to get to the end results that matter. Every choice has a consequence. Make the right choices in your life... big and small. Making the right choices creates a habit of making the right choices. ONce the slippery slope begins it gets easier and easier to slide down the unethical path.

JP

Ogg, J. (2013, August 25). Twelve things not to do if you win the lottery. Retrieved December 5, 2015, from http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/personalfinance/2013/08/25/what-not-to-do-lottery-winners/2696845/