I spent about 15 years as a Sales Rep in the graphics field, and was one of the top earners in my company. As such, I was also subject to the highest quotas, and selling printing equipment was the fastest way to reach those quotas. I approached a company who was doing large-format printing in a small shop format, and suggested to the owner that he might increase production, expand his market, and acquire considerable contract work by investing in a fully automated system. This was very speculative on my part, but several days later this fellow said yes he wanted to do this. We're talking about someone who had maybe $15000 worth of capital equipment in his shop looking at buying $200,000 worth of it. I was a bit amazed, but I put him in touch with a lease company, who came back to me saying that there was no way this individual could qualify for such a loan. I advised the man of this, but he was adamant that he wanted to do this, and finally took a second mortgage on his home and a large loan from his brother-in-law to secure the lease. The finance company approved the purchase, but I was beginning to become very agitated about the whole deal.

To cut a very long story shorter, this company counted on instantly generating income to pay the overhead with an avalanche of contract work, left no time for learning to efficiently operate their new equipment, generated incredible amounts of rejected product, lost their contracts, and were bankrupt in 6 months. The owner sued my company and the equipment manufacturer for $750,000, and of course I was the principal representative of the defendants. The pressure was on from my side's lawyers to say little or nothing during the deposition, and to characterize the plaintiff's company as incompetent dolts(not in so many words). What I discovered was that the only thing I COULD do was tell the truth as I saw it...that the printing company and my company both made mistakes. Partially because of this, the suit was settled out of court. I was subsequently reprimanded by my company's owner for my conduct in the sale of the equipment and for a lack of loyalty in my testimony. Meanwhile the quotas rolled on, and every sales person in the company continued to sell equipment to whomever they could. But the events certainly had an impact on me. I felt that my integrity had been compromised, not by my behavior in the wake of the bankrupcy, but by my participation in the entire process that led to it. I left my company shortly afterward.

My story may not be an example of doing what's right in a clear-cut right or wrong situation, but it strikes me that life is seldom like that, and often the best we can do is step back, decide on the best course of action, and go ahead.