Bloggy Business Today

The following is an excerpt from Velvet Globe, Iron Fist by Konosuke Matsushita (Panasonic founder).  This writer wishes to share this article to the readers as a reminder about the value of INTEGRITY in every person’s life.

During the later Han era in China, there lived a politician called Yang Zhen, a man known for his upright character.  After Yang Zhen was made a provincial governor, one of his earlier patrons, Wang Mi paid him an unexpected visit.  As they were conversing about the old times, Wang Mi brought out a large gold cup and presented it to Yang Zhen.  Yang Zhen refused to accept it, but Wang Mi persisted saying that, “there is no one tonight but you and me, so no one will know.”

Yang Zhen replied by saying, “that is not true that no one will know.  Heaven will know and you and I will know it too.”  Wang Mi was ashamed and backed down.  Subsequently Yang Zhen’s integrity was increasing recognition, and he rose to a higher position in the Central Government of China.

Human nature is weak and tends to yield to temptation when nobody seems to see.  In fact, if there was no police force, many people would not hesitate to steal.  This is not to say that when someone is doing bad, there is no feeling of compunction at all, just that man is weak and prone to yield to temptation.

But even if nobody witnesses a person’s sin, and not a soul knows of it, the truth cannot be hidden from the eyes of the conscience.  In the end, what is important is not that the other people know, but the individual himself.  When Yang Zhen told Wang Mi that “Heaven will know”, he meant that the gods would know what he had done: in other words, his own conscience.

A person who commits sin neither in thought or deed and is fair and just gains enormous courage and strength.  As a leader, courage born of integrity is needed, in order to be capable of powerful leadership.  To achieve this courage, the heart must be searched and make sure that conscience is clear and behavior is beyond reproach.

The real estate lending business is an interesting beast and it really illustrates how the American economy is different from every other economy on Earth. What was once the most secure way to do business is now as treacherous as can be. There have already been nine banks claimed by the treacherous waters of real estate lending gone bad and today the business world was aghast at the news that a tenth bank had fallen.

The unlucky number ten was the Integrity Bank based in Georgia. The ironically named Integrity Bank had risen from nothingness to big money holdings through the business of real estate lending and when those deals went bad, it found itself fighting for its life almost from day one. It’s something of a minor miracle that the bank lasted this long, but it’s finally thrown in the towel and divided its assets between the Regions Bank of Alabama and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.

The bank had about $974 million in deposited money that is split between deposits that were insured and deposits that were not. In both cases, the deposit load has been assumed by the Alabama-based bank, while the FDIC assumed the rest of the assets and reported that the failure of the bank resulted in a $250 million loss for the government corporation.

[tags]deposit_insurance_corporation, federal_deposit_insurance, federal_deposit_insurance_corporation, money_holdings, government_corporation, american_economy, treacherous_waters, regions_bank, business_world, integrity, banks, assets, failure, real_estate[/tags]