Hubris – Word of the Day, Week, and possibly the Month

It’s unlikely you haven’t heard about this, as the Canadian media has been announcing this every 5 seconds. But in case you haven’t heard, Lord Conrad Black was convicted of fraud on Friday. I knew he was going to get convicted as U.S. corporate governance laws are very harsh after Enron, and in Conrad’s words there are lots of ‘corporate governance zealots’ out there.

A brilliant mind brought down by his own hubris. This is the sentiment echoed by virtually every Canadian media establishment. The Americans don’t really care for him or know him. They just view him as another corporate sleazebag. In Canada, however we are fascinated by him. He is smart, eloquent, well read, and savvy (some may call him sleazy) business man. Perhaps part of the fascination lies in the fact that he could have been so much more. Perhaps part of it is about watching him rise so high, only to dismantle everything he built in one swoop.

Didn’t he know that video cameras capture everything? That if you are going to carry out damaging evidence out of your office, that perhaps you should put it in a suitcase instead of banker’s boxes? Did you know he was expelled from Upper Canada College because he had gotten access to and sold final exam papers? I guess old habits die hard. Of course he is appealing. I wonder what his sentence is going to be. And of course now he wants his Canadian citizenship back.

Apparently all the high profile executives and society people he befriended on his trip to the top have deleted him from their blackberries. Really, why would you try to impress these people and carry out a lifestyle that you can’t keep up? The whole corporate and society ladder thing always reminds me of high school and people trying to fit in. Thankfully, I have never wanted to fit in. :)

This whole situation reminds me of this quote:‘Intelligence and hard work will get you the position and power, however it is only character that will keep you there’.

Off to read the National Post, a Canadian paper that Conrad launched. Yes, I am a die-hard Postie (This is to all the Globe readers, you know who you are).