Saturday, October 13, 2007
A lefty look at the foundation of success in business
I actually looked at the title banner of the lefty blog Lawyers, Guns and Money and realized why it is a lefty blog:
The founder of that blog is unlikely to succeed in business (were he ever to try), because he has absolutely no clue in the world how important family, friends, and religion (or community, the secular version) are.
I have known a lot of enormously successful businessmen and women in my life, and I have not met one who even hinted that they believed that "family, religion, and friendship" stood in the way of success in business. In fact, most successful people would say the opposite (allowing for a little wiggle room on religion, which is probably optional). At least in real life. In the entertainment industry's conception of business success you often see this sort of idiocy -- bad guy businessmen are a staple of prime time television -- but then the entertainment industry is famously left wing.
All righties have something that they most deplore about the political left (and, I suppose, vice versa). For me it is the left's pervasive view that people in business are less likely to consider the moral implications of the decisions they make, less likely to care about their community, and less likely to help people. Yes, in my years as a corporate lawyer and then public company executive I have encountered a few dirtbags -- you find that in any line of work -- but the vast majority of people I know think deeply about the rights and wrongs of the tough decisions they have to make literally every day.
24 Comments:
By 
, at
Sat Oct 13, 08:16:00 PM:
I took a look at that blog. What an original title (when Warren Zevon used it). The blogger is talking about the implications of Israel's strike in Syria on an apparently insignificant target.
The strike, and especially the apparent acquiesence of the United States in its planning and execution, means that the NPT is pretty much a dead letter.
So...we've killed the NPT. Sweet. I guess when Iran builds the bomb (no word from LGM about the poison gas deaths of those Iranian and Syrian scud testers), somehow it'll be America's fault and folks like LGM will find a way to have been right (by right I mean correct) all along.
By 
D.E. Cloutier, at
Sat Oct 13, 08:31:00 PM:
All things equal, people do business with their friends. All things unequal, people still do business with their friends. That applies worldwide.
Most successful movie deals are put together by friends. That's why you often see the same folks working together again and again on motion picture projects. And that is usually how the offspring of people in the industry break into the business -- through friends of the family.
Am I a successful businessman? Yes, thanks to my friends.
By Neil Sinhababu, at
Sat Oct 13, 09:48:00 PM:
The quote appears to be from Montgomery Burns. My guess is that it's some kind of in-joke from the early days of the blog, when they were all law students or grad students, rather than an earnestly held opinion.
By TigerHawk, at
Sat Oct 13, 10:58:00 PM:
Needless to say, I'm not nearly hip enough to have spotted that.
By Purple Avenger, at
Sat Oct 13, 11:10:00 PM:
Classic projection, assuming all others have your own corrupt non-values.
By , at
Sun Oct 14, 12:55:00 AM:
Hey they already have a law protecting the gun makers from these certian lawsuits and i have read the book THE RULE OF LAWYERS by WALTER K. OLSON and its got a real good article on those greedy lawyers and big city mayors going after the gun makers. Q. why do vultures hate lawyers? A.They dontlikethe competition
By , at
Sun Oct 14, 08:03:00 AM:
"All things equal, people do business with their friends. All things unequal, people still do business with their friends. That applies worldwide."
Wow - for that to be true one must either have a very, very small business or a very, very large circle of friends. I don't think I've ever seen such an excellent example of projection of a somewhat quirky personal opinion onto all of reality.
Give me a break. People do business with those they can reach mutually satisfactory arrangements with - some are friends, some are merely acquaintances, some are basically strangers, some are people you wouldn't spend five minutes of personal time with.
By Robert Farley, at
Sun Oct 14, 10:15:00 AM:
Thanks very much for the attention; Neil is quite correct, however. The quote is from Montgomery Burns and was placed on the masthead fairly early in the history of the blog.
But again, thanks very much.
By Unknown, at
Sun Oct 14, 11:43:00 AM:
Hilarious. As I understand it, the title of the blog is a *reference* to the Warren Zevon song, since the academic interests of the original posters were, more or less, lawyers, guns and money.
I'm sorry you didn't come across Unfogged when our hover text was "Fontana Labs? Or Betray Us?"
By , at
Sun Oct 14, 12:41:00 PM:
What a putz! I suggest you look up 'irony' and 'sarcasm'. I know dictionaries are probably in short supply in your cave so use google; type in 'define: word_you_want_to_learn_the_meaning_of'
Are you really this stupid or did you just run out of things to whine about & this is the best you could come up with? Hip is not what you appear to lack but bright sure is missing.
By Dawnfire82, at
Sun Oct 14, 02:20:00 PM:
And referencing the latest update to the 'Asshole Comments Devoid of Purpose' Scorecard we see that Anonymous maintains their lead, with 6,652,726,002, while Everyone Else still trails behind at 627,712,864...
And for the record, irony and sarcasm are two entirely different things and (while I was not an English major) I am pretty sure that they're mutually exclusive, since real irony requires genuineness and sarcasm is, by definition, not genuine.
I recommend upgrading your dictionary to a lexicon.
By Guy Smiley, at
Sun Oct 14, 02:51:00 PM:
We all make mistakes; the important thing is how you deal with it. The important thing is that once someone pointed out how ridiculous your complaint was, you didn't even consider apologizing or correcting yourself.
That's the mark of a first-string right-of-center blogger. It's not like you'd ever see Glenn Reynolds or Michelle Malkin correcting an error, as long as they erred on the side of insulting someone to the left of them.
Great stuff. Hey, did you hear that John Kerry had an affair with an intern? And Hillary refused to meet a group of Gold Star Mothers? I heard that Waxman is going to hold hearings about shutting down right-wing talk radio...
By sugarbiscuit, at
Sun Oct 14, 02:52:00 PM:
Dawnfire82, I hope you're being ironic.
Sarcasm is the use of irony in a caustic, more direct manner.
Genuiness has little to do with either. Irony or sarcasm is used by people to prove a point by positing the opposite either subtly (irony) or pretty damn directly (sarcasm).
So, for the record, irony and sarcasm are not "entirely different things". Also, for the record, I'm not an English major either.
The point is that Tigerhawk has egg all over his face because he failed to detect irony and fell into the classic trap set by all ironists and satirists - he took the folks at LGM seriously.
Thanks for the unintentional humor though, it's always welcome.
By TigerHawk, at
Sun Oct 14, 03:05:00 PM:
Well, I'm not sure that I wrote anything that warrants an apology. I did not attack anybody other than to say it reflects a common view on the left -- that businessmen are essentially immoral -- that gets under my skin. In any case, one is either hip to the irony or not, and I am obviously not. Not so easy to detect, though. The attitude expressed in the banner may have been intended ironically, but it finds its way into popular culture quite unironically all the time. The evil business man, from the nefarious banker in "It's a Wonderful Life" to J.R. Ewing to some virtually every other episode of "Boston Legal" is a staple of popular culture.
In any case, I am delighted to hear that the proprietors of Lawyers, Guns and Money are such supporters of businessmen and women, and would certainly apologize if I caused them the least bit of distress.
By , at
Sun Oct 14, 03:22:00 PM:
Many big city officials have tried to blame the gun makers for the crime rate when instead its their own incompetence
By D.E. Cloutier, at
Sun Oct 14, 04:24:00 PM:
Locker Room: "...for that to be true one must either have a very, very small business or a very, very large circle of friends."
Before I went into business for myself, I was VP of export services at one of the world's largest banks. Today, as an entrepreneur, I do business regularly in more than 60 countries. I never use the airlines anymore. I fly in a private jet. How are you doing?
“In many cultures, who makes an offer, and how it’s made, may mean as much as—or more than—the offer itself,” wrote Neil Chesanow in his excellent 1985 book, "The World-Class Executive: How to Do Business Like a Pro Around the World."
He was right.
By D.E. Cloutier, at
Sun Oct 14, 05:38:00 PM:
Mark McCormack, the pioneer in sports marketing, also made the same point about friendships in one of his books. I think it was "On Negotiating." He also wrote "What They Don't Teach You at Harvard Business School."
Time magazine profile on McCormack:
"Tips from a top dealmaker"
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,926833-1,00.html
By David Watkins, at
Sun Oct 14, 06:33:00 PM:
No distress whatsoever; it was quite amusing. It does reveal two troubling things about you--first, that you hold some rather silly and unrealistic stereotypes about liberal views toward business, and second, that you have a shockingly deficient knowledge of The Simpsons. I'm afraid neither of these speak well of you.
By TigerHawk, at
Sun Oct 14, 06:41:00 PM:
Well, perhaps I am under the wrong impression. That John Kerry thought that the catchphrase "Benedict Arnold CEOs" was a vote-getter during the 2004 primary season confused me into thinking that a large section of the left had contempt for people in business.
By David Watkins, at
Sun Oct 14, 07:47:00 PM:
Bashing outsourcing corporations seems a bi-partisan enterprise, especially by those out of power at the moment. It's a generic populist gesture that one finds in both parties, when convenient for them.
Even on point, though, it wasn't an attack on CEOs and businesspeople in general, it was an attack on those who engage in a particular insufficiently nationalistic business strategy. Just about everyone on the left and right, save a few unusually consistent libertarians, criticize businesses when they do things the speaker things are wrong, whether it's crushing unions or hiring Ludacris for an ad campaign.
By David Watkins, at
Sun Oct 14, 07:51:00 PM:
things = thinks.
(and on that other issue, start with seasons 3 and 4, but really 2-9 are all mandatory)
By TigerHawk, at
Sun Oct 14, 07:55:00 PM:
On that other issue, my co-blogger and brother Charlottesvillain has been after me for years. I appreciate that it is a gap in my cultural education.
By The Mechanical Eye, at
Sun Oct 14, 11:49:00 PM:
I think Tigerhawk's point is that while he's wrong about the masthead's complete sincerity, it confirms his stereotypes about "The Left," since no liberals ever succeed in business because they're all filthy hippies. So, its fake, but accurate. Or something.
DU
By , at
Tue Oct 16, 01:55:00 AM:
Yes, in my years as a corporate lawyer and then public company executive I have encountered a few dirtbags -- you find that in any line of work -- but the vast majority of people I know think deeply about the rights and wrongs of the tough decisions they have to make literally every day.
I totally sympathize. As a future lawyer myself, I am looking forward to really running my conscience through the ringer. Unfortunately I won't be going into corporate law, so I won't get that lean, muscular conscience that only a corporate lawyer obtains because of his almost constant exposure to serious moral dilemmas.
