D.J. Coffman - Sequential Artist, Thinker

I guess it’s safe to say I’m pretty transparent. I’ve been “blogging” since 1999. There are times though where I can’t talk about something that’s too personal, or if I’m working with companies I can’t go around blabbing about things I overheard, or told to me in confidence or trade secrets, or who’s in talks to play what on what movie before they’re locked in, that sort of thing. I think it’s just that I like being honest, I think it’s the best policy, in all things.

Also… Ethics. I like thinking about ethics, more and more as I grow older. There are indeed different forms, based on different codes of morals, from Stoicism to Determinism, Causality and on and on… but they all boil down to a few things. Seeking the truth, getting to the truth, finding the truth, telling the truth, and doing good things to others. Most of society now have lost many of these values, instead people are just out for themselves. Many more than not will say anything or do anything to protect their own personal bottom line, even when it’s not the truth and not the right thing to do.

I bring up ethics because, as I was taught, these different codes of conduct all came about by great thinkers, who would try to determine WHY something was the right decision to make, and when do you know how to come to that decision and what it is. Some codes even go as far as to look beyond what the consequences might be, and you know it’s the right decision if ultimately the path lead to something good.

So yeah, I guess I know what’s right and wrong pretty well. I know how to dance the line between, the tightrope called satire. There’s a reason in my bookmarks I call some of my favorite bloggers “thinkers” instead.

Transparency can get you in trouble I guess too. I know a few bloggers who were fired from their jobs because of something they wrote or expressed. But was it the truth? That’s what I would ask. Here’s something, a story that just popped to mind, and I won’t name names in case said person is reading and doesn’t want his situation outed, but the story should be told.

A cautionary tale, I suppose.

I know a guy who worked for a company in New York involved with real estate. I think it was real estate, but that’s probably the wrong industry, but it involved this company buying out other companies, sometimes buildings and property, and then resell it to other companies. Sort of like an auction maybe. Well anyway, this agent guy I know, he was their best agent. Always on time, bringing in different deals, always talking up this group and how great his job was. Then one day he was on the instant messenger in a very bad mood and his status line was disturbing so I asked what was wrong. He told me he hadn’t been paid for awhile, like 4 months, but continued closing deals for this company. Why would he do that?! Well, they kept making him promises of this and that to make up for the lateness, and he trusted them because they all seemed like good people with good ethics that would do the right thing when the time came. Plus, he had a contract, which ironically the company had broken first by not paying him on time. So they promised him this house in a really nice area of New York, it was “like a Puff-Daddy” mansion, his words. My friend also found himself spending money he didn’t have to get by. He’d been living off credit cards and loans thinking he’d be able to pay it all off easy. Well, suddenly the well ran dry, and he got an eviction notice, he was losing his apartment. From his Dad’s place in New Jersey he made an update on his blog, explaining the situation he was in so his friends and family would know where he was at with limited net access, etc, but he finally had to tell the company he was done doing deals for them until they paid him what he was owed. He wasn’t happy at this point. I asked him, how could this company not afford to pay him what he was owed, but they’re selling all these high rises, and in some cases bringing in income from some of the office rentals? He said he was told it was because of budget errors, where they had bought other properties ahead of time in hopes of selling them off, they had golf courses, office buildings, small companies they owned, but nobody was buying as the market had bottomed out. Maybe that was the truth, and it was just a shitty situation. My friend didn’t feel that way though, he was pretty infuriated. The company in trying to buy some time with him dangled the offer to  him again on this house near the Hamptons, but my friend knew he couldn’t afford the gardner bill at this point, but he figured if they wanted to give him this property he’d try to make this work while waiting to be paid.

Weeks went by, and there was no word, only voicemails unanswered. When he finally did get ahold of them about the “deal”, they said they had changed their mind because they had read his blog post about not being paid, and it had stirred up a bunch of controversy. He was one of thier best agents afterall, and they blamed him now for some deals not going through, and some properties being complete losses to them and that’s why he and the other agents weren’t being paid. The company took no responsibility whatsoever. Suddenly, these people he thought were good friends, were reduced to a cold email that started with “Dear John” - He said the last contact he had with the company before they went bankrupt 2 months later was them telling him in a round about way to be quiet and maybe they’d get back to talking with him about his deal. My buddy ended up persuing legal action of some kind, but he said it wasn’t worth the time or money, he basically got nothing. I asked him if he regretted blogging about it, and he said not at all. He gave me the advice that if I were ever in a similar situation, to tell the truth. And to not wait as long as he did. He wished he would have spoke up sooner when they originally had broken their contracts. My friend is doing well again for himself, and that story is just a cautionary tale from his past.

This is a very odd to me, because I find myself in a  similar situation now, not the same, but similar to the point where it makes you wonder if there are patterns in these things . My friend e-mailed me and said, hey, remember when I worked for that property company?…. yeah. yeah, I remember.

I guess no matter what, I have the truth. People should ask themselves though, are the decisions I’m making the RIGHT thing to do? Or am I just being a dick?

Maybe I’ll have much much more to say about this topic if situations don’t improve within the next 24 hours.