How much would you take to let me sleep with your spouse?

How much would you take to let me sleep with your spouse?
Shocking?
Disturbing?
Disgusting?
Not so professional?
Sounds really bad right?
Couldn’t agree more.
What you say is so very true.
Because right now at 5:20pm on Tuesday, 7th December 2010, as I sit slumped on my chair this was the question I had asked my colleague.
And how did I have the audacity to ask such a question?
Well read on.
I have worked for Quick Electric Industrial Company Limited for 5 years now.
And when you work for a company as long as I have,
You know everything about the company.
You have access to the clients of the company
You have access to the vendors of the company.
But nothing is more important to one magical ingredient of the company.
Rather I would say it is the most important bit of the company.
The Holy Grail.
The Life blood.
The Soul of the company.
I call it – the Data.
The complete information that makes the company who is it and what it is.
Now having resigned from my company, the whole Low Voltage Switchgear Industry came to know about it. And it is very common for the industry to know about it – especially if you are as noisy as I am.
So having informed the whole world, I got a call from one of my friends – who is also in the same line of work.
The chap is very well to do.
Extremely rich.
Filthy rich.
So rich, it was a benefit to even be associated with him.
And I sure as well didn’t want to lose touch with him.
Now he runs a similar line of business and is one of my good friends whom I admire.
He gave me a buzz and called me to meet him.
I did.
As I sat down in his really large office, after our niceties, he popped the question in the most indirect manner.
Though he didn’t say it directly, the question was very obvious.
Could I give him the data of my ‘ex’ company.
I felt the blood drain from my body.
As if I got stabbed.
In fact, I was not just shocked.
I was very hurt.
Extremely hurt.
I mean do I look like a guy who could betray the hand that fed him for 5 years?
I refused.
I refused very politely, firmly but in a very embarrassed manner.
And I left.
As I drove off in disgust, I wept in my car.
Trust me, I have no idea.
If you think tattooed men don’t cry – well let me be the first one to prove the theory wrong.
As I cried while driving my car, I asked myself one thing.
1) Why in the world was I crying?
2) What hurt me so much that I had to cry?
3) Do I look like a person with no integrity?
4) And finally, How can someone do this?
With the mind set that I had, I reached office and them slumped on to my chair.
And as I was about to type these thoughts, a colleague of mine came up to me and asked me what was wrong.
I shared it with him.
To which he replied, there was nothing wrong in it.
It was just ‘business’.
To that I asked him
How much would you take to let me sleep with your spouse?
He was visibly upset and shocked.
But not as much as I was.
Because then I told him, in as much as it hurt you what I said, that was how much it hurt me what that man had said – and there was no difference between the two.
If we have to remain loyal and faithful and be protective of the ones who are close to us, we need to form a value system that respects the hand that feeds us. We need to keep our dignity, our self respect and our integrity intact. And if we can do that, yes, we are people worth respecting.
I am not angry with that friend of mine.
He had a right to ask.
He exercised his right.
I am not even angry with my colleague.
He had a right to express his opinion.
He exercised his right.
But as far as I am concerned,
My values are not for sale.
And just as I would not stand someone asking me the question of
How much would I accept to let them sleep with my spouse,
I sure as hell would not accept betraying the one who took care of me for 5 years of my life.
And even after I have left him, I will forever love him.
My company - Quick Electric and my boss, Gabriel D’Souza.
You see my friends
That is where I will conclude in the famous words
That should forever right a bell in your ears.
Having a Good Boss = 80,000$ per annum
Having a Great Wife = 100,000$ per annum
Having a Good Value System = Priceless.
There are some thing in life money can’t buy.
For the rest, there is Master Card.