“Once upon a time, there was a man who had an innovative idea.
He had a vision, and followed up with an answer could solve a set
of real world problems. Fortunately, he also found a way to
communicate the solution to other people. Others got involved,
either because they bought into the idealistic plans (“With this
idea, we can change the world, and make it a better place!”) or
because they saw pragmatic opportunities (“I can make a living by
selling this stuff”). People worked together; not always smoothly,
but with a shared common goal. A small team grew into a larger one,
and then an even larger one, and eventually into a huge
organization impacting millions, maybe billions of dollars.“But as the organization grew, the spark of creativity
sputtered. What was once fun became business-as-usual. What was
business-as-usual became cut-throat. The original visionary began
to believe the press releases of his marketing department and
forgot others’s contributions; at a minimum, he became distant from
the needs of the “real people” whom he’d once sincerely wanted to
serve. Many years later, insiders (if not outsiders) saw the rot at
the core: an organization driven by political power, run by people
whose ethics were questionable-at-best, generating shoddy
“solutions” that were far more polished than the initial offerings
but also far less satsifying. Today, many people are comfortable in
describing the organization as evil; yet the individuals I’ve
encountered who work for the organization are just as convinced
that their answer is Right as they ever were, and some of them are
brilliant people who never lost the idealistic belief that they’re
making the world a better place.”