Courage versus Hubris

Courage enables us to face danger without caving in to fear. Hemingway called it "grace under pressure." Hubris, on the other hand, is arrogance, pride and egotism. When we confuse one for the other, we get burned. Martha Stuart sees herself as courageous because she spent a few months locked up with women she'd never have over for tea. But her nobles oblige response to prosecutor questions was the hubris that cost her half her fortune, at least for a while.

All Martha had to tell the Feds to stay out of the slammer was "Call my lawyer and he’ll straighten it all out." Instead, she confused courage with the hubris of believing she would outsmart people whose living comes from being smart. Oops.

Courage is the word Dan Rather used in concluding broadcast, but his hubris, led to the CBS faulty report of George Bush’s Air National Guard career that will always dog Dan. Does such hubris result in failures in our every day business world? You bet.

Recently, a health insurance agent showed us a plan to cut our health costs in half if we would join "a small business association" that didn't associate with anything, didn't require us to, could not be found in any phone book and could not even be found on Google.

"How can we trust that they are legit?" I asked.

"Because I say so and you can trust me." The agent said, arrogantly, 20 minutes into our relationship.

We explained that a few years ago there was a similar program in these parts and that, one day, the insurance carrier pronounced the association a sham and dropped all policy holders RETROACTIVELY, leaving "members" of that shadow group high and dry.

"So, because another firm got caught, you want to penalize me?" she asked, highly offended that anyone should challenge her judgment.

"It's about insurance we can count on" I said. "Show that this association is real and doesn't put us at risk and we'll buy."

"Never mind," she said. "Transfer your current policy from your current agent to me and I'll be your agent." Give her credit for hubris. Or maybe old fashioned chutzpah. We summoned the courage to say no to a risky insurance proposition and protected ourselves from an agent who saw no ethical problems in her actions.

It's as easy to feel infallible, as it is to get bruised in a fall. To keep our feet on the ground, let's remember to climb down off our high horses, or SUVs, and be a bit more humble, both when buying and selling.