Actually, I’m stealing this one from Avram Grumer:
“If you quote a political speech and don?t link back to the full text
(or at least provide a good reason why not), I?m going to presume that
you?re lying. This is the web, people. Google makes the minimal
standard of good faith I?m proposing here pretty damn easy to meet.”
By the way, this is why I also distrust people who don’t allow comments
on their site– it shows that they aren’t willing to let other people
talk about their ideas. My favorite example of this, BTW, is John Ellis.
A shame, too– he’s so good on many topics, but he has a couple of
gigantic blind spots in his worldview that really skew his analysis.
Take, for example, his latest column for Fast Company, where he talks about leadership:
If adversity is the test of character, then so far, today’s
CEOs are failing miserably. By turns disagreeable, petulant, and
self-pitying, they have as a group failed their employees, their
investors, and their customers. They border on the pathetic.
Here’s what real business leaders do. They go out and rally the troops,
plant the flag, and make a stand. They confront hostile audiences, and
they deal with the press. They go after the short sellers. If the issue
is confidence, they conduct themselves confidently. If the issue is
trust, they make their company’s business transparent. If the issue is
character, they tell the truth. They do not shirk responsibility; they
assume command.
Here’s what leaders don’t do. They don’t blame underlings. They don’t
blame their predecessor. They don’t complain about press coverage. They
don’t whine about Wall Street. They don’t mindlessly cut research and
development. They don’t fire 4,000 people in the hope that it will bump
up their company’s stock for the weekend. They don’t obfuscate,
dissemble, or lie. They don’t hide behind a retinue of handlers and
lawyers and public-relations fools.
Perfectly reasonable. But does he apply the same criteria to our “CEO
president” who does all of the things he says leaders shouldn’t do? No.
Of course, there’s a certain amount of family loyalty– John Ellis is George W. Bush’s cousin. More, he was Fox
News?s senior decision desk official during Election Night 2000, and
called both the Florida and national election for George W. Bush, being
the first network to do so.
And yes, he doesn’t take comments on his site. Can’t imagine why.