A Bargain

Right outside a Duane Reade Drugstore here on Fifth Avenue in NYC, just across the street from the Empire State Building, stood a tall, gaunt, unshaven young man holding up a handwritten sign which read:

As I went into the drugstore I made a mental note to snap a photo of the guy for this blog on my way out, but by the time I left he was gone.  So is the transient nature of our city. 

But I thought about this man's offer.  Most people would think that it was a terrible offer.  Who wants to pay anything for bad advice?  Yet we do on a regular basis.  Think about all of the highly paid bank CEO's who over this past year got their companies into financial trouble.  Companies like Merrill Lynch go hat in hand to raise billions of dollars to stay solvent.  The top management was paid a lot more than a dollar to give the bad advice which landed their company in hot water, and the shareholders paid for management's bad advice when their stock holdings plummeted in value.

Other companies, like Bear Stearns, were not so lucky and simply went out of business.  In addition to the outside shareholders, Bear Stearns employees paid heavily for their executives' bad advice when their pensions filled with Bear Stearns' stock, earned over years of faithful service, became worthless. 

I could go on and on, but I think you get the idea.  Considering the offer of the guy standing on the street corner now, it seems like a real bargain.

Technorati Tags: Merrill Lynch, Bear Stearns, Fifth Avenue, advice, Duane Reade, drugstore, Empire State Building

Comments

[Car Hire Cyprus]

Its really an interesting article,most of us passes through the same experience in our daily life.

[Steve Cotton]

And I see new possibilities for promotion. From here on out, I will label all of my advice as bad advice. If it turns out that way, I told the truth. If it turns out to be good advice, I surpassed expectations. Sounds like a win-win to me. -- I'll let you know how it works out for me.