Small World

The world is extremely large in geographical terms. However, it is finite in terms of degrees of separation. That is, everybody knows somebody who knows somebody who is connected to you in some way.

A mistake we can all learn from is thinking what we say or what we do is anonymous. This is especially true in this digital age.

I am immediately reminded of the public official whose career  and personal life was on the upswing.  He was a blossoming politician and he was about to get married. Then some pictures he sent to some woman came back to haunt him.

He should have known better. To make matters worse the girl had already aided in the destruction of another politician’s career.

The world has gotten smaller, continents have been pulled together by the web and everything is publicly viral. I don’t know how the politician thought his racy pictures wouldn’t surface. We love to talk, tweet, post, share, and put on blast.

Our love to talk isn’t off limits from being shared either. A guy I hired turned out to be…let’s just say less than stellar. He thought he was slick and will attempt to spin you quicker than it takes Hussein bolt to run a 40. I think I am slick too so I don’t get too dizzy and I saw through his games. What he didn’t know was that people he spoke to in his leisure life speak with me. Whatever he says has the potential to get back to me, if I am interested to listen.

There are lessons to be learned here. First, don’t put your business out there if it is meant to be private, in other words don’t document your secrets. Second, keep things to yourself. Just like you enjoy telling your business so does the person you are telling it to.

Act as if there are small degrees of separation and everything you do or say can be accessed by everyone you know. It’s a small world after all.

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