Ignoring Mount Everest

Discovering A Better Life
P.O Box 1540, Albany Western Australia 6331
Phone/Fax: (08) 98 418 418
E-mail: abl-alb@omninet.net.au

Ignoring Mount Everest
Friends, just recently, the esteemed Xerox Company disclosed that it improperly booked $6.4 billion U.S. dollars in revenue over a five-year period. From Enron to WorldCom to Xerox and Merc, an unnerving series of financial mismanagement disclosures involving billions of dollars has shaken both eh markets and public confidence in big business throughout the United States and many other parts of the world. “These numbers have gotten so large that it’s akin to auditors driving past Mount Everest and saying they never saw it. How can you miss $6 billion?” said Lynn Turner a former SEC chief accountant. “It’s a shame that corporate America has somehow gotten into the mindset that this is OK.” She’s right, you know. President Bush spoke of the growing number of scandals in big business and said, “Corporate America has got to understand there’s a higher calling than trying o fudge the numbers, trying to slip a billion here or a billion there and maybe hope nobody notices.” Well friends, whether it was the real Ivan Boesky or the fictional Gordon Gekko the few people who dared to say aloud that greed is good appear to have been putting into words a widespread philosophy for doing business. A system that once functioned to raise the general standard of living in the U.S.A. has been prostituted into a system that lies and commits fraud to create the appearance of success in order to reward its executives with lavish lifestyles. Sadly, we have also seen this stem of “Freed is good” erupt in big businesses throughout Australia as well! So what can you and I do about any of this? First of all, we can get clear about our own attitude toward money and material possessions. Then, we can renounce a me-first, pleasure-at-any concession attitude toward living. We can also put the larger good ahead of personal advantage, as well as framing and living by a principle code of behaviour. And we can pray for the courage both to honour high standards, as well as refusing to keep silent when we see obvious abuses of fundamental integrity being committed. There must be people yet, here in Australia, who are beyond-the-bottom-line men and women in the market place. They must care more about being role models than getting rich. Even if no one ever hears about their deeds, they must pursue the quiet satisfaction of being morally upright over the gaudy attraction of being filthy rich. For believers, the ultimate profit-and-loss statement on a life is this one from Jesus: “What good would it do to get everything you want and to lose you, the real you? What could you ever trade your soul for?” (Mark 8:36, The Message) Friends, life is never lived well accidentally. There is a need for some strong, resolutions to keep us on the right path. So, if you would like some help in living a better life, just write to me for a FREE booklet titled “Four Powerful Resolutions.” Anyone who will make the effort to practice these points each day will live a happy life and be a blessing to others. To receive your copy by return mail, Email me or write to me at P.O Box 1540, Albany W.A 6331. Telephone / Fax (08) 98 418 418

Friends, just recently, the esteemed Xerox Company disclosed that it improperly booked $6.4 billion U.S. dollars in revenue over a five-year period. From Enron to WorldCom to Xerox and Merc, an unnerving series of financial mismanagement disclosures involving billions of dollars has shaken both eh markets and public confidence in big business throughout the United States and many other parts of the world.

“These numbers have gotten so large that it’s akin to auditors driving past Mount Everest and saying they never saw it. How can you miss $6 billion?” said Lynn Turner a former SEC chief accountant. “It’s a shame that corporate America has somehow gotten into the mindset that this is OK.” She’s right, you know.

President Bush spoke of the growing number of scandals in big business and said, “Corporate America has got to understand there’s a higher calling than trying o fudge the numbers, trying to slip a billion here or a billion there and maybe hope nobody notices.”

Well friends, whether it was the real Ivan Boesky or the fictional Gordon Gekko the few people who dared to say aloud that greed is good appear to have been putting into words a widespread philosophy for doing business. A system that once functioned to raise the general standard of living in the U.S.A. has been prostituted into a system that lies and commits fraud to create the appearance of success in order to reward its executives with lavish lifestyles. Sadly, we have also seen this stem of “Freed is good” erupt in big businesses throughout Australia as well!

So what can you and I do about any of this? First of all, we can get clear about our own attitude toward money and material possessions. Then, we can renounce a me-first, pleasure-at-any concession attitude toward living. We can also put the larger good ahead of personal advantage, as well as framing and living by a principle code of behaviour. And we can pray for the courage both to honour high standards, as well as refusing to keep silent when we see obvious abuses of fundamental integrity being committed.

There must be people yet, here in Australia, who are beyond-the-bottom-line men and women in the market place. They must care more about being role models than getting rich. Even if no one ever hears about their deeds, they must pursue the quiet satisfaction of being morally upright over the gaudy attraction of being filthy rich.

For believers, the ultimate profit-and-loss statement on a life is this one from Jesus: “What good would it do to get everything you want and to lose you, the real you? What could you ever trade your soul for?” (Mark 8:36, The Message)

Friends, life is never lived well accidentally. There is a need for some strong, resolutions to keep us on the right path. So, if you would like some help in living a better life, just write to me for a FREE booklet titled “Four Powerful Resolutions.” Anyone who will make the effort to practice these points each day will live a happy life and be a blessing to others. To receive your copy by return mail,

Email me
or write to me at
P.O Box 1540,
Albany W.A 6331.

Telephone / Fax (08) 98 418 418