I'd respect the second person. But, depending on the circumstances, I'd probably hire the first.
#1 - the "do what it takes at any cost" for good approach?
#2 - Keeping it real, real, real.
One of my more serious polls.
1) Someone who is savvy, manipulative, but a decent human who is wildly financially successful, but feels he needs to "screw some people over" and be false at times to provide for his/her family and can do it quite easily?
or....
2) Someone who is their own man/woman, who is 100 percent pure, doesn't kiss butt or play politics and follows their heart completely, doing everything they can to make an honest living doing what they love, even at the sacrifice of struggling financially at times - because they want to be "real."
-EarlJam
I'd respect the second person. But, depending on the circumstances, I'd probably hire the first.
I work for the first guy, and I can honestly say I would never hire a person like him, unless we were digging ditches or cleaning sceptic tanks. I hope I have the cojones to maintain honor and respect for myself even in the face of gajillions of dollars.
In my last job I worked with 2 people who fit into category #1. That's the major reason I switched jobs.
While it is hard to be happy if you are destitute, once you have "enough" having "more" doesn't make you any happier. The guy in category #1 may be financially successful, but he may not like his life.
Learning to feel like what we have is "enough" is one of life's hardest lessons. I turned down a job offer that had a lot more earning potential than my current job becaue I would have had to give up coaching my older son's AAU Bball team and my younger son's Little League baseball team. A LOT of folks thought I was nuts, but the ones who understood, really understood.
I own my own home (well, together with Wells Fargo) have a relatively new non-luxury bare bones Saturn VUE, can take my kids on vacation two weeks a year to somewhere fun, and can buy really good seafood or steak when I want to grill out. It took me a long time to learn that was not just "enough", but instead, it was a "gracious plenty" (there are some southern phrases that are just perfect, "gracious plenty" is one of them).
Unless guy #1 is also very happy, in addition to his financial success, he is a moron. And I have tried, with limited success, to avoid being a moron.
When schoolchildren of the future are taught the meaning of false dichotomy, they will hold high the memory of this poll.