Why couldn't anyone else see that Dennis (this may or may not have been his real name) was a con artist? I had worked with him long enough to know that I was right about him being a scoundrel. Oddly, being right about Dennis was making me miserable. Let me explain.
Years ago the company I was working for hired Dennis as a consultant for an aggressive research project we had undertaken. At first blush, he was a perfect candidate to help us. His fees were as large as his ego, and seemingly as large as his knowledge base and network outreach. He said all the right things to all the right people, including me. I was very impressed with Dennis and very much wanted to impress him in return. For a short time, I was proud to be his "teachers pet". My boss and I did everything he asked .... for a while.
It didn't take long for the honeymoon to end. His perceived expertise was only skin deep, and the more we worked together, the easier it was to identify his fraudulent behavior. Soon, my boss and I started comparing notes and came to realize Dennis was a fake. And he was really good at it too. I suppose that is the definition of a con artist.
My boss and I mistakenly thought we could swoop in and save the day. We were going to expose Dennis to the executive team, and save the company loads of money in the process. We would be congratulated for our commitment and loyalty to our employer. It could be a game-changer for our career paths!
My boss and I were right about two things.
- Dennis was indeed a crook, and
- Our attempts to expose him nearly changed the trajectory of our careers, but not the way we had envisioned.
I couldn't believe what I was hearing. I certainly would have been fired if the CEO could have read my mind. "What?" "Are you kidding me?" "I work with this snake more than anyone else, and I know more than anyone else how right I am about him." "He is stealing money from the company, and this is how I am treated for trying to prevent it from happening!" And so on...
(By the way, as a side note, all of this was handled very professionally. It was never an immature process, as you might assume. By this time, my boss and I had "converted" a few others to the cause and they could see it as well. We even had a PI do some digging to confirm our suspicions.)
I walked away from the CEO's office completely deflated. As did my boss. So, this is how it was going to be? We were right about this guy, and we knew for a fact we were right.
But ... being right was making us miserable. We both started disliking our jobs more than ever. Which was odd because we had both agreed it was our favorite job just months before. Weeks later nothing had changed, except my attitude. Being right was turning out to be an unhealthy burden.
Over one particular weekend, having taken the time to reflect on our dilemma, both my boss and I came to the same conclusion. Sometimes being happy is more important than being right. We had both lost sight of the many joys that we had come to love about our jobs. We had both turned our attention to being right, and making sure everyone around us knew we were right. That very day, we committed to each other that we were going to worry more about being happy, and worry less about being right.
The next day Dennis didn't change, but I did. He was still as counterfeit as always, but I was happy. And I stayed that way. My boss was happier as well. We both loved coming to work again.
To this day, I regularly remind myself that "being happy is more important than being right". It is a principle I use at work, at home, and in my social life on a very regular basis.
Turns out, trying to expose Dennis did indeed change the trajectory of my career after all, but still not the way I had envisioned. It's been better than I could have imagined. Much, much better. It makes me happy just thinking about it.
p.s. - in case you were wondering, everyone did slowly realize what we already knew, and Dennis lost his consulting agreement with us. And, the CEO took the opportunity to sincerely apologize to me and my boss for what had happened.
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R. Dru Laws is Vice President of Seljan Company in Lake Mills Wisconsin, the Vice President of ARM (Association of Rotational Molding), and a global contributing editor to RotoWorld Magazine. Dru has a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Brigham Young University, and an MSc in Polymer Engineering from the Queens University of Belfast.
Well written Bro!
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