It reminded me of some people who grow up under extremely thrifty (in their perception) circumstances, and feel they “have to” have nice things — with disastrous financial consequences upon them and their families. I sometimes feel sorry for these folks, too.

In both cases, people feel trapped — whether they truly are or not is something I’ll leave to the philosophers — their problems are largely of their own making, but they feel/felt helpless to stop themselves.

If you know me you know what I’m thinking, but here I’ll just say that Stephen “7 Habits” Covey and his ilk don’t have the solution; all they have is a “Do this, don’t do that.” They can tell you what to do (or not do) but can’t give you the power.

Honestly, I don’t think that the demise of Elliot has anything to do with his success. As it turns out, lurking beneath every highly successful person is a human being, replete with all the highs and lows of humanity – the joys of sexuality and the sometimes-carnal pull of the underbelly. The only difference is: these people are on stage, so instead of the cops busting you and you going back to work the next day, you have to stand on a podium and resign in front of the world.

This is not a double-standard. If you live at the podium, you die at the podium. And as an entrepreneur, you should know that your stage of honor may also be your stage of disgrace one day. Think about that before you call that escort again. :)

In short, I just want to make the distinction that I don’t believe that success plays a factor into the biological pull that so overpowered Elliot and forced him into a serious of bad decisions. Rather, I believe this is the pull of being human, and Elliot just happens to be a guy we have heard of.

The Feds could fill your inbox with stories about thousands of other men in this country — doing the same thing. The difference is just that that we haven’t heard of them. Therefore, I can’t quite accept the hypothesis that success played a role in his decisions.

Keep up the great postings!

–
Chris Lyman
Fonality CEO & Janitor
Janitor Blog: http://www.trixbox.com/about-us/blog