Takeover or Intervention?

Silvergate Bank failed. Signature Bank and Silicon Valley Bank were placed in "receivership" by the FDIC. This begs the question: Why do all their names start with "Si"? If not for Credit Suisse …

No, seriously: were these interventions or takeovers?

In other unrelated news: NBA superstar Ja Morant was suspended by his team. The suspension went from indefinite to now only 8 games. Again, intervention or takeover?

Some would argue these are all takeovers because of earlier and misguided intervention. But that's not my point.

Sometimes You Win. Sometimes You Learn.

Decisions were made in all the aforementioned situations that either broke rules or put people at significant risk. Or both. Those who have the “higher power” looked closer and said, “Experience and principle tell us that people are being hurt or are about to experience trauma because of your decisions. This is getting out of control.” Therefore, action was taken to mitigate the risk and fallout of those unfortunate decisions. This was both business and personal.

These situations played out on the national stage and in public spaces, but what about the average person: someone like you and I watching all of this unfold? The only good thing about our mistakes, miscalculations and plain stupidity is it happens much more privately. Painful enough. But imagine if the whole world had access to your biggest blunders?

The danger for you and I is to get distracted by the drama and theater of it all and offer our opinions about Ja's failures or a bank's supposed crooked schemes. Will we fail to examine our own selves? Do we exhibit the same Ja Morant and Silvergate, SVB and Signature bank behavior?

• You may not lose million-dollar endorsement deals (Powerade and Nike), but you could lose a spouse.

• You may not have millionaires demanding their money back, but you could lose the trust of a close friend.

• Your business may not be taken over by a federal government agency, but you could lose your job because of unethical behavior.

I remember several years ago when my current employer’s CEO began his tenure. He went around and met with all the supervisors and management at every complex we have. The thing that stuck with me and immediately earned my respect for him was when he said this:

"Some people have no business doing what they do at work. If what you do privately came out in the newspapers tomorrow, what would happen?"

Sometimes You Win. Sometimes You Learn… Sometimes.

I'll finish with this:

1. Learn from the success and failure of others.

2. Be careful how you define success and failure.

3. Think and live for long-term stability, sustainability and dignity.

It’s not about them. It’s about you and me. Will we learn?

If not, we can always blame cryptocurrency, social media or Putin.