It’s probably the season of scams! There was this whole financial crisis and then came Madoff, not too far away from his heels came Stanford. The reactions to the Stanford scandal were probably much more muted when compared to the intensity with which the media covered the others – maybe they lost steam, or maybe they were left wondering yea, here’s another one and I don’t know how many more!

In a bid to match the IPL dollar for dollar, Stanford had staged a T20 series recently in the West Indies – albeit with just 2 national teams. The hosts were joined by the Englishmen who looked at this as an opportunity to lick their wounds, having missed out on a chance to play the IPL. The money was big and the Englishmen were simply raving about this. I recall how some of them even went to the extent of saying this could probably upstage the IPL over time!

Probably the most interesting reaction to the latest Stanford scandal to my mind came from KP – Kevin Pieterson, the former England skipper and the IPL’s latest million dollar baby! He called Stanford a “sleazebag”.

Funny are the ways of the world they say – look how things can change in a span of around 6 months. From raving about Stanford to letting him have a ball with the WAGs, while the game was on, the English cricketers would do anything for the money that Stanford got to their lives! With Stanford being exposed, these guys seem to be on the run for cover and hence come yet another English word – the Sleazebag! For me, this is like the kettle calling the teapot black!

I’m not for a moment trying to say that Stanford was a saint. His lure for money was very similar to the one that most of us have. Have we ever stopped to wonder if there was anything in this world called enough money? I recall a conversation I had about 5 yrs ago with an old boss of mine. I told him that I’d retire if I had 10 million Indian bucks! He broke out laughing saying I was nuts. My vice for betting took me to the extent of saying, let’s have a bet – I don’t know if it is good sense or his words – I didn’t and I am so glad!

Those were early days in my career, more specifically in my stint in compensation. Like most people, I used to compare my compensation numbers with the other numbers on the payroll and say, yes, this is the number that I need. As I started to spend more time in that area, I started becoming numb to numbers and have realized that there is nothing in this world called enough money! What’s enough today is not enough tomorrow – Literally!!!

We all do different things to make some money – some of us hop jobs, some of us turn into becoming punters, we leverage investments in real estate, short sell and the list if just endless. To my mind, the fact that there are so many complicated financial instruments means that the world is no different from the way most people think. We all need money and are willing to do anything to make it – logical, illogical, high risk – whatever (except illegal!) A lesson I learnt early on in life is on the trade off of Risk Vs Reward. The higher the risk, the higher the reward. There are several parallels to this, the closest being, the fall from a great height leaves you hurt the most!

People calling the grapes sour when they realized they lost out is insane to me – you walked in for the lure, so why make a fuss of it when you lost? If you were so much the saint that you think you are, get off your morale high ground and just stick to playing for your country – why sign up for the million and a half bucks? Isn’t this greed?

The bottom line is the fact that there is greed. With greed, there will be issues. Be prepared to deal with them, else get set to walk off to the Himalayas! I’m staying where I am – where are you?

Image Credit: D Borman

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