What's Important
“I’m finished, I’m fucked. Twenty four hours ago, man, I was hot! Now… I’m a cautionary tale. You see this jacket I’m wearing, you like it? Because I don’t really need it. Because I’m cloaked in failure! I lost the number one draft picked the night before the draft! Why? Let’s recap: Because a hockey player’s kid made me feel like a superficial jerk. I ate two slices of bad pizza, went to bed and grew a conscience!” – Jerry Maguire
Hubby and I watched Jerry Maguire for the gazillionth time tonight. It is a highly entertaining movie. Even though I don’t particularly care for Renee Zellweger (Chicago being the one exception), in this movie she’s slightly less annoying than in others. And why did she later add an accent over the first “e” in Renee anyway?! Hollywood…whatever.
Back to my point if I can find it, besides being entertaining, I love the message. He gets fired from his job for developing a conscience. Corporations in general don’t like consciences. They like profit. I’m not saying that we should go all Socialist by any means. Every corporation does need to make a profit. However, there has to be a balance. Again using this movie as an example, theoretically, less clients per agent would equal better service, which would most likely lead to higher commissions, more loyalty, and better relationships with the sports’ teams managements, which would lead to even higher commissions. Maybe I’m just naive but doesn’t this make more sense than the cut-throat, strictly production oriented philosophies that have become of business today?
This leads me, as most topics do, back to the mortgage industry. Same situation. In the hey-day, the overriding corporate culture was we need to close these loans, no matter what, or someone else will. That was actually true. Since all the mortgage companies were selling their loans to all the same Wall Street firms, that philosophy was not false. However, it was short-sighted and greedy. And what about the borrower….the customer. Did anyone in executive management or Wall Street ever once consider what this lending policy was doing to the individuals that were being put into homes they couldn’t afford? Obviously not. And those of us lower level managers and staff who balked were either overridden or told if we didn’t like it, they would find someone to replace us who would. We all had families to take care of too. It was a vicious cycle of greed from the top causing fear and selling-out at the bottom. The end result? You know the answer to that…the guys at the top made fortunes and we lost our jobs anyway. Oh yes, and a global economic crisis.
And those of us who tried to walk the fine line between keeping our jobs and holding onto some shred of our own personal integrity? Most of us are still scrambling to find jobs in other industries, making much less money then we did then. Does that mean we are “cloaked in failure”? HELL NO. We did the best we could in an impossible situation and now we have the opportunity of finding jobs where we may make less money but can regain our integrity and no longer have to keep moving that line in the sand that we kept drawing to keep us from feeling like complete corporate whores. Even though it was involuntary, we are now free to pursue careers in which our consciouses and integrity will be valued. Yes, we will still need to work hard and our companies will still have to be profitable. But, I for one KNOW that I will NEVER AGAIN be afraid to refuse to do something I don’t believe in.
In the end, what is really important? People. Borrowers, customers, our friends and families, and OURSELVES. Jerry Maguire did the right thing and so can we all.
Thanks for stopping by!
Good for you! I obviously don’t mean the crisis and its adverse impact. I am referring to your freedom from fear. The crisis will come and go. You FREEDOM will remain.
Cheers!
Yes, “What’s Important”? GREAT post!
enjoy your writing! I never noticed that Renee added an accent– how pretentious.
I like your take away on the situation– not being afraid to say no to things you don’t believe. Too bad more people didn’t think that way.
drew from dumbworld
Another thing we have in common! I worked for 8 years in middle management in the mortgage industry, although in operations, not lending. But I sat in many meetings where they dreamed up fees to tack on to loans in exchange for doing NOTHING extra.
That the greed eventually breached the levees so they were giving loans to people they KNEW couldn’t afford them is not surprising. They got away with it by keeping the rest of us baffled with incomprehensible financial-babble.
None of them deserve a bailout. If they want to survive, they should repo the huge salaries, bonuses, and stock options from the knuckleheads in the corner offices, and kick them to the curb and find someone with competence and a conscience to take over.
Karen
Thank you!
Amen sister!