{"id":2388,"date":"2018-04-27T16:20:03","date_gmt":"2018-04-27T16:20:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailystoic.com\/?p=2388"},"modified":"2018-04-27T16:20:03","modified_gmt":"2018-04-27T16:20:03","slug":"the-important-thing-is-to-do-the-right-thing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailystoic.com\/the-important-thing-is-to-do-the-right-thing\/","title":{"rendered":"The Important Thing Is To Do The Right Thing"},"content":{"rendered":"

In early 2014, an employee of the multi-billion dollar medical company Theranos\u00a0began to worry<\/a>\u00a0that the company may be engaged in fraudulent activities. Despite being a relatively low-level employee in his early twenties, he decided to do something about it. So he wrote a letter to the company\u2019s CEO outlining the problems as he saw them. The response? A nasty, dismissive note from the company president. Undeterred and convinced the public had a right to know about these problems, the employee then contacted authorities in New York City and a reporter for the\u00a0Wall Street Journal<\/em>.<\/p>\n

In time, almost all of the employee\u2019s concerns would be validated in the media and in subsequent investigations. High-flying Theranos would see its business crumble, its billionaire founder\u2019s wealth would evaporate, and the company would be\u00a0banned from its core business activity<\/a>\u00a0for two years by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. In 2018, it was\u00a0charged by the S.E.C.<\/a>\u00a0for years-long fraud of deceiving investors and lying to the public.<\/p>\n

Obviously things worked out well for the whistleblower right? Wrong. Not only was this young man repeatedly threatened, bullied and attacked by Theranos, but his family had to consider selling their house to pay for the legal bills. His relationship with his grandfather\u2014who sat on the Theranos board\u2014is strained and perhaps irreparable.\u00a0The Wall Street Journal<\/em>\u00a0reported that<\/a>\u00a0his parents have spent more than $400,000 dollars defending their son in the matter.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s an important reminder. Doing the right thing isn\u2019t free. Doing the right thing might even cost you everything. And yet, the Stoics would remind us that this should have absolutely no bearing on whether we should do it or not. As Marcus Aurelius\u00a0reminded himself<\/a>, and us:\u00a0\u201cJust that you do the right thing. The rest doesn\u2019t matter. Cold or warm. Tired or well-rested. Despised or honored.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

This young man did the right thing as he saw it. It cost him and his family an incredible amount. It cost people that he loved and respected\u2014even though they were doing the wrong thing\u2014an incredible amount. But it was the right thing. He refused to be silenced. He would not countenance to bullying.<\/p>\n

The modern Stoic writer Nassim Taleb has a famous epigram: \u201cIf you see fraud and do not say fraud, you are a fraud.\u201d Tyler, the young man in question, believed he was faced with this choice\u2014despised or honored for it\u2014he did what he believed he had to do. His parents summed it up well in a statement: \u201cTyler has acted exactly like the man we raised him to be, and we are extraordinarily proud of him.\u201d<\/p>\n

This philosophy you\u2019re reading about is raising you the same way. Now the question remains: Will you do the right thing when it counts? When it could cost you everything?<\/p>\n

P.S. Sign up today for\u00a0the Daily Stoic\u2019s email<\/a>\u00a0and get our popular free 7-day course on Stoicism.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

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