What happened to Ethics?

[Chad Shultz]

I am sure everyone has an opinion about this topic, but I am surprised it is not more "front and center" on BP.  After all, if a fellow investor is willing to take unethical actions in a contract or against a buyer or seller, what makes anyone think this person won't also lack ethical principles when dealing with YOU directly?  Often times we look the other way and let these folks get away with their actions, which only compounds the problems for everyone.

If you search "ethics" on BP, you get about 9527 results on the topic.  Many of the posts seem to be questions about something that already happened, or questions about whether or not some particular action is ethical.  We should not be trying to piece something together after the fact, but rather:  Ethics should be front and center in everyone's mind and training in everyday life.  Everyone deserves to be treated fairly and ethically.  There used to be a time when transactions were all done with a handshake.  Now, you need pages and pages of documents signed and notarized and you still are not sure if you are dealing with an honest person.

There is certainly more than enough money in the investor arena to go around for everyone, but many people choose to conduct unethical business anyway.  Maybe we need a BP board of Unethical behavior where we can post the names of people whom we don't recommend others do business with, based on unethical actions.  It is certainly something to consider, in my opinion.

     "The true measure of a man [person] is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good." - Samuel Johnson 

This post is intentionally short.  Hopefully, it will cause you to stop a minute and think about ethics in your dealings with others.  Let's get back to "handshake business" by doing right by everyone you deal with.