As a young girl my father taught me mini-lessons in business: how to properly shake hands, the importance of looking someone in the eye when speaking, you don't get paid your allowance if you don't do your chores and the really BIG topic "Your word is your bond and demonstrates your character". This topic was A TALK and it made such an impression that I remember every detail of the room in which it was held.
My father's lessons paid dividends for a young woman seeking a career path. My firm handshake combined with eye contact made me appear confident, my understanding that receiving a paycheck required work made me valuable and my determination to keep my word made me trustworthy.
Then, when in my thirties, my father upped the ante and taught his greatest lesson - ethics. My father's career was in insurance. He took a small, struggling, insurance agency to one of the largest independent agencies in the state. After 30 (or so) years, he retired and sold the company to the relative of a well-known politician.
Within a couple of years of that sale, financial discrepancies came to light through an audit. The discrepancies resulted in an investigation that demonstrated the problems were far greater than financial mismanagement. Clients' insurance premiums had not been forwarded to the insurance companies, employees' social security had not been paid and money was being intentionally moved between companies. The investigators came to my father and told him he had two choices: recover the money or prosecute, it would not be possible to accomplish both. Had the thief robbed a 7-11 there would be no question that he would be prosecuted and go to jail but because the thief was well-connected and it was a white collar crime, my father had to choose between pursuing legal action or honoring what was right for his past clients and employees.
They didn't know my father. He chose to prosecute and went back to work to correct a problem not of his making. While he refuses to discuss money, I am fairly certain he went back to work without pay to negotiate with the insurance companies, the IRS, and others to protect his past clients and employees. In the end, the well-connected, white collar thief was found guilty and went to jail.
Ethics are often referred to as the gray area between the law and what is right. My father demonstrated that both can be accomplished. I have held my father's lessons at the forefront of my mind throughout my career. It started with teaching a little girl "Your word is your bond and demonstrates your character" and ended with proof of how to live it and do what is right.
Dad (aka Thomas Caswell Jr.), I have hundreds clients who are NOT in default or losing their homes who don't know to thank you. This is my thanks from all of us.
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