Protect them at all costs!
What I would rather focus on is the positive aspects of following an accepted benevolent social protocol, which, among other things, finds bedrock in the importance of one's reputation and good name.
Never was this lesson made more clear to me than a few years ago at a
Christmas gala in Montreal where some 2000+ bigwigs in the oil business had gathered. My father, a vice president of shipping at the time, had spent all his working life in the oil business - a business that at the best of times had it's fair share of shall we say, 'liberal ethics-interpreters'. Suffice to say it was a bit of a cutthroat industry.
Throughout the night I was introduced to some of the biggest and most influential names in the oil business who had dealings with my father and his company.
One by one and without exception each executive said pretty much the same thing to me: "Your old man, here, is the most honest man I know! He's the only guy in the whole damn industry who if he gives you his word or shakes your hand, you can take it to the bank cause it's as good as an ironclad contract!"
I was somewhat surprised but very proud, especially because I knew the smallest deals my dad did were in the seven-figure category.
Sometimes we learn from our parents not by what they say but rather by watching what they do.
