Convicted Felon

 

CONGRATS TO OUR TWIN GRANDDAUGHTERS ON GRADUATION FROM GDS

 

NEW INC. MAGAZINE COLUMN BY HOWARD TULLMAN

 

As a Founder, You Need to Be More Forgiving

You've poured your heart and soul into your startup, so any mistake or transgression your team makes seems like a betrayal. But learning how and when to give second chances is an important part of growing your business. 

 

EXPERT OPINION BY HOWARD TULLMAN, GENERAL MANAGING PARTNER, G2T3V AND CHICAGO HIGH TECH INVESTORS @HOWARDTULLMAN1

JUN 11, 2024

 

As a group, entrepreneurs are among the least empathetic individuals in the world and, for better or worse, that's probably responsible for a significant portion of their success. They're also horrible listeners, which is undoubtedly part of the empathy problem, but not really much of an excuse for their studied obliviousness. They're also not very good at being grateful or saying, "thank you," but that's a story.

By way of further explanation, there are any number of drivers built into the entrepreneurial equation:  a constant need for speed and being forever in a hurry; a single-minded focus on getting things done; no patience and plenty of paranoia; and  a refusal to look backwards, admit their mistakes, or learn from them. None of this rearview mirror stuff for these folks. Of course, these attributes don't exactly help to make them into warm and caring "people" persons.

But there are a couple of elements of the prototypical personality that seem to dwarf all the others in terms of explicating their inability to empathize with, understand, or appreciate the pain and problems of their people.

New business builders believe that there's always an alternative path and a straightforward solution to every problem, so their focus and attention jumps immediately to solutions and the future rather than the present. This is the "get busy and get on with it" element of the process. Let's figure out how to fix the situation. Trouble is, trying to solve the "problem" without listening to the person and addressing their ills as well is -- at the very best -- only going to get you halfway to a satisfactory answer; it's much more like searching in the dark for a candle.

Even more important is entrepreneurs' inflated belief that they've also been there emotionally and otherwise and had plenty of tough times and difficulties of their own. Somehow, they survived, so why can't you? I call this the "get over and forget it" element of the process. Forget your feelings and frailties. Pick yourself up and put it behind you. Don't dwell on the past. Entrepreneurs are always ready to tell you how rough things have been for them and how the struggle only made them stronger. They're all heroic mini-Nietzsches.

Given all the charitable chatter, you would think at least that entrepreneurs are among the very best practitioners of the "forgive and forget" doctrine of personnel management. But they're among the worst even though in building their own businesses virtually every one of them has benefitted from a boatload of breaks, do-overs, and second chances. Notwithstanding their own good fortune, most still have a chip on at least one shoulder and love carrying a grudge or two. This isn't just mentally unhealthy, it's really bad for business.

Learning to truly forgive (even if you never exactly forget) takes some time and practice. When you forgive, you're also acknowledging that you can't change the past. There's a lot to be said for giving folks a second chance. If you don't make room for mistakes and even occasional misdeeds, you're likely to lose a bunch of talented people, cost your company plenty in terms of churn and turnover, and waste a bunch of time that no growing business can spare.

The leader's job is to forgive first when the circumstances are right. But you've got to be careful and know when and where to draw the lines. It takes a lot more strength in many cases to forgive than to struggle on, but you need to be smart about it. There are four critical considerations to keep in mind.

First, any person whose actions impair or demean the basic values of the business -- honesty, loyalty, mutual commitment and sacrifice - gets no pass because the impact and injury is not limited in any sense to the actor alone.  It harms everyone. Consistently honoring and enforcing the core values of your company and trusting in them is more important than any given decision or any individual because - especially in a new business where the culture is still being built and affirmed - once you slide, compromise, or change the rules to accommodate a specific case, it's all downhill from there. As Clay Christensen said: "It's easier to hold your principles 100 percent of the time than it is to hold them 98 percent of the time." Decide what you stand for and stand for it all the time. You can't overlook obvious offenses and then pretend that excusing the behavior is a charitable act of forgiveness rather than a craven refusal to avoid conflict and controversy.

Second, disappointment is not necessarily disqualifying. Great expectations (of everyone) are part of the entrepreneur's disease right alongside the highs of unbridled optimism and boundless enthusiasm and the lows of despair, regret and impostor's syndrome. Few, if any, team members (who are merely human) can ever live up to the high standards and demands that the best entrepreneurs ask of themselves and foolishly expect of others. Be smart enough to know when you shouldn't trust your own feelings. Spoiler alert: get ready to be regularly disappointed, but don't take it out on your team members.

An entrepreneur's life is constantly suspended between excitement and disillusionment, doubt and despair, and the occasional nauseous feeling of betrayal. So, it should come as no surprise that, as dedicated and committed as others may be to your dreams, they also have their own lives and families and other obligations. Get used to it. We've all got our duffels of disappointment to lug around. You expect people to be as loyal to you as you believe you are to them and when they're not, you're devastated.

The cruelest disappointment of all is when you let yourself down and the easiest way to do that is to abandon hope in order to theoretically protect yourself from any impending downsides. Don't give up on yourself or your team members as long as they're doing their best, committed to the mission, and giving it all that they can. Not everyone signs up to set the world on fire every day. Forgiveness in these cases is a gift you give yourself.

   Third, a breach of trust or law is, by definition, unforgivable. Especially today, trust is at the very heart of every team and every enterprise. For brands and businesses alike, to be trusted is an even greater compliment than to be loved. And, while Hemingway said that "the best way to find out if you can trust somebody is to trust them," a better rule in instances of lying, theft or other dishonesty, is "one strike and you're out." Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. As harsh and draconian as an ironclad rule may seem, there's simply no room for excuse or negotiation when the firm's integrity, reputation and honesty is at risk.

Finally, if you're prepared to forgive, make damn sure that the beneficiary is prepared to be forgiven. Acceptance and accountability are central to the process and without a demonstrable and immediate change in behavior, an apology is just words. Convicted felon Donald Trump -- 34 counts -- is a perfect example of a criminal without the slightest sense of remorse; we can only hope that New York State Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan acts accordingly in sentencing him. Lip service, a smug shrug, or anything else that manifests a lack of seriousness -- "whatever" is one of my favorites-- means that all bets are off, and the business would do much better without the presence of the poseur.

But also, be careful not to make the entire process more painful than remedial and more personal than productive because no one ever really forgets where the hatchet is buried.

 

MAGA SHEEP

WHAT A GREAT LOSS - WLS HEADS IN WRONG DIRECTION - STEVE COCHRAN IS A MAJOR PART OF THE HEART OF CHICAGO

 

Only Do-nothing Useless Dick Durbin is More Asleep than Roberts - Wake Up Dick and Do Your Job

 

GOOD LOOK AT DEMENTED DIAPER DONNY

 

Palestinian Pigs

 

CHICKENS, LEMMINGS AND MORONS

 

FAFO

 

TRUMP IS A PIG AND A CONVICTED FELON

 

EXACTLY

 

BOOTLICKING DR. PHONY PHIL

Trump can’t be talked out of his threats or turned away from it by bootlickers like Sean Hannity or the pathetic Dr. Phil, who decided to reprise his abuse of Britney Spears and multitudes more by corrupting the truth in defense of the indefensible. Only, this time the snake oil balm came in the form of legal and political non sequiturs wrapped in deceptions forged by a vast ignorance about everything he smugly asserted to be so in his down home and affected baritone.

 

WHY ISN'T DO-NOTHING DURBIN DOING ANYTHING ABOUT AMERICAN HOSTAGES HELD BY HAMAS? HE'S GOT LOTS OF TIME SINCE HE'S DOING NOTHING ABOUT THE CROOKED SUPREME COURT.

 

THE FOUR ISRAELI HOSTAGES JUST FREED BY THE IDF WERE HELD IN CIVILIAN HOMES AND GUARDED BY HAMAS TERRORISTS AND PALESTINIAN (COLLABORATING PIGS) CIVILIANS

 

Americans are being held hostage in Gaza. We cannot forget them.

Outside of synagogues and the Jewish community, those taken by Hamas are largely out of mind.

 

By Ruth Marcus

Associate editor|

June 8, 2024 at 12:36 p.m. EDT

 

 

The hostages being held by Hamas in Gaza — the ones who we hope are still alive, and the ones who have been murdered but whose bodies remain — are not just an Israeli tragedy. They are an American tragedy, for the simple but often forgotten reason that eight of them, five living and three dead, are Americans.

 

We cannot forget them — not any more than we can forget Evan Gershkovich, imprisoned in Vladimir Putin’s Russia, or Austin Tice, held for more than a decade in Syria. They are American citizens, to whom we owe a fundamental duty of protection.

And yet, I am afraid, we do forget. In Israel, the hostages are omnipresent, their faces on posters that plead, that demand, “Bring them home.” In this country, the hostages, even the American hostages, are — outside of synagogues and the Jewish community — largely out of mind.

 

I met last week — on Day 243 of their captivity — with the families of three hostages. Edan Alexander, 20, from Tenafly, N.J., had graduated from high school and volunteered to serve in the Israel Defense Forces; he was guarding a kibbutz near Gaza when he was kidnapped. Omer Neutra, 22, a Long Island native and Knicks fan; a tank commander near Gaza, he was taken captive when Hamas attacked.

 

Judy Weinstein, a haiku-writing special needs teacher, mother of four and grandmother of seven, killed alongside her husband, Gad Haggai, while they were on an early-morning walk at Kibbutz Nir Oz. For weeks, the couple was believed to have been taken alive, but their children, and Judy’s 95-year-old mother, cannot sit shiva, the traditional Jewish mourning ritual, until their bodies are returned.

 

I have met over the years with other families facing terrible circumstances — mothers whose children were gunned down at Sandy Hook Elementary; the wife of an American contractor jailed in Cuba — and I do not mean to rank tragedies. But there was something particularly haunting in the stricken faces of the hostage families: the not knowing, day after day, whether their loved ones are still alive, or how long this hellish captivity will last. Last week’s grim news that four more hostages have been confirmed dead only adds to the unbearable anxiety; Saturday’s report of four hostages rescued alive is an occasion for rejoicing, but also evidence of the roller-coaster reality the families endure, deals that are dangled yet slip away.

 

Of course, “hellish” applies to the continuing war in Gaza itself. The death and suffering of innocent civilians are tragic. As President Biden has said, “It’s time for this war to end.” But it should be possible to keep both sets of horrors in focus. The hostages — in particular the American hostages — have been notably absent from the public consciousness in the United States.

 

From the accounts of the families, that is not true of the Biden administration, which they describe as responsive and attentive from the start. The day before our meeting, they spoke — for the ninth time since Oct. 7 — with national security adviser Jake Sullivan, even as he prepared to leave with the president later that day for the ceremonies commemorating the 80th anniversary of D-Day. They have spoken twice with Biden himself, once on a Zoom call and once in person; they went to CIA headquarters to meet with Director William J. Burns.

 

Still, they insist, the truest measure of commitment is concrete results. “That’s when we’ll know it’s enough: when our loved ones come home,” said Andrea Weinstein, Judy’s sister.

They are less charitable toward Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the U.S. congressional leaders who have invited Netanyahu to address a joint session. “It’s totally inappropriate right now,” while the hostages remain, said Adi Alexander, Edan’s father.

 

But, most of all, they have a message for their fellow Americans: Do not forget us. “The narrative is not being told enough that this was an attack … on the United States, not only on Israel — this was an attack on citizens from 24 states,” said Orna Neutra, Omer’s mother. “And more specifically, there were 44 Americans murdered on Oct. 7. … There were 12 taken hostage and eight are still hostage. I think that gets lost.”

 

Why, I ask, do they think that is happening? “Personally, we have suspicions, but I think part of it is that it’s perceived that those Americans are dual citizens, and maybe more Israelis than Americans,” said Ronen Neutra, Omer’s father. “So maybe … not equally important.”

 

Adi Alexander was, as he put it, “a little bit bold” in quoting his congressman, Rep. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.), to the effect that the Americans killed and held hostage are “not being mentioned enough only because of the fact that they are Jews.”

 

Whatever the reason, the consequences are chilling. “If the United States allows the American hostages to rot in Gaza, my fear [is] — and everybody’s fear should be — that this proves to be a successful strategy for terrorism,” said Ronen Neutra. “And just like we saw 9/11 happening on our soil, it’s going to be continuing.”

Just lock Trump up already

 

Just lock Trump up already

Donald Trump has been involved in one court case after another over the years. After his conviction in the hush money case, he shows no remorse, only contempt and defiance. Judge Juan Merchan may have no choice but to give him prison time.

By  Gene Lyons

 

  Jun 7, 2024, 3:31pm CDT

 

To hear angry MAGA Republicans tell it, former President Donald J. Trump’s conviction on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records is a shock and an outrage. But how could anybody be surprised? Never mind the evidence presented to the New York jury was voluminous and pretty much uncontested.

For all his bragging and whining, Trump didn’t dare testify — officially. But the judge’s gag order didn’t prevent him from spouting off. That was a Trump lie for the MAGA chumps in the cheap seats.

Legally speaking, has there ever been a bigger loser than Trump? Kevin Drum compiled a list on his invaluable website, jabberwocking.com.

He’s pretty much constantly in one court or another, Trump. And he nearly always loses. Following his 2020 election defeat, the candidate filed 62 — yes, 62 — lawsuits alleging election fraud.

And lost every single one.

Back in 2018, a federal court ordered him to pay $25 million in restitution to students defrauded by the Trump University scam. In 2019, a New York judge ordered the Trump Foundation permanently closed for playing fast and loose with the charitable organization’s funds. He and his family were fined $2 million and forbidden to operate a charity in the state again. Trump whined they should have investigated Bill and Hillary Clinton instead.

So, he sued Hillary. That one ended up costing him only $1 million after a federal judge in Florida ruled the suit was “completely frivolous” and should never have been brought. Trump, the judge wrote, was no babe in the woods: “Mr. Trump is a prolific and sophisticated litigant who is repeatedly using the courts to seek revenge on political adversaries. He is the mastermind of strategic abuse of the judicial process.”

That same day, Trump dropped a lawsuit against New York State Attorney General Letitia James that sought to stall her office’s civil case against the Trump Organization. The resulting trial found the Trump Organization guilty of massive tax fraud. “Their complete lack of contrition and remorse borders on pathological,” Judge Arthur Engoron wrote.

The chief financial officer of the Trump Organization, Allen Weisselberg, pleaded guilty to tax evasion and was sentenced to five months in prison. He subsequently pleaded guilty to perjury and returned to the slammer for another five months.

For his part, Trump called the ruling a “sham,” the judge “crooked” and James “corrupt.” He denounced the case against him as “ELECTION INTERFERENCE” and a “WITCH HUNT.”

Sound familiar? Evidently, the Trump Organization was staffed by cheats and perjurers like Weisselberg and star prosecution witness Michael Cohen from top to bottom.

Everybody but Boss Trump, who knew nothing.

Elsewhere, Trump has brought lawsuits against The New York Times, CNN, NBC News and The Washington Post. All were dismissed due to lack of evidence. He was successfully sued for sexual abuse by magazine columnist E. Jean Carroll and ordered to pay her $5 million in restitution. When Trump continued to mock and malign her publicly, a second jury ordered him to pay her $83 million for defamation. But for the statute of limitations, the judge in the Carroll case commented, Trump could have been convicted of rape.

Needless to say, these levies are all on appeal. Chances are that Trump’s estate will end up owing E. Jean Carroll and the State of New York many millions of dollars in fines and interest.

Meanwhile, the hot-button issue of the day is whether Judge Juan Merchan will put Trump behind bars come his July 11 sentencing. And there, I fear, Trump’s big mouth is giving Merchan no choice.

Normally, a first-time offender of a paper crime would be sentenced to probation. But Trump shows no remorse, only contempt and defiance. During the trial, he openly and repeatedly violated a gag order intended to protect the proceedings against threats to court personnel, witnesses and jurors.

Indeed, Trump continues to defy that order, which remains in force until the judge says it doesn’t. He’s aided and abetted, it must be said, by canting Republican politicians who fear the MAGA horde.

Trump went on “Fox & Friends” the other day to vend the preposterous lie that he never chanted “lock her up” about Hillary Clinton. Anybody who believes that will believe anything — the hallmark of a MAGA cultist. As for jail time, he said the prospect doesn’t trouble him, but he’s “not sure the public would stand for it … You know, at a certain point, there’s a breaking point.”

And then what? To me, it’s an empty threat. Trump’s been trying to raise a MAGA mob throughout his tenure, and they keep not showing up. People aren’t going to risk their own freedom to save his mangy a**.

But a threat is a threat, and no American court can stand for it. Even if it’s only for a couple of months, Merchan is going to have little choice but to lock him up.

Gene Lyons is a National Magazine Award winner and co-author of “The Hunting of the President.”

JAIL'S TOO GOOD FOR THIS CONVICTED FELON AND TRAITOR