The Dead Company Club

“My reputation grows with every failure.”

– George Bernard Shaw

A NEWSWEEK story begins:

“Lehman Brothers disappeared with Hank Paulson’s reputation. He wants it back.”

“Hank Paulson, former master of the universe, sits in a nondescript office in northwest Washington, D.C. He is trying to work on his memoirs, but he is struggling. He doesn’t seem like the onetime All-Ivy tackle at Dartmouth, the Harvard M.B.A. who ran Goldman Sachs, the prince of Wall Street who went on to be come secretary of the Treasury. He comes across more like an athlete who has lost a game and can’t stop talking about the dropped pass, the missed shot. He is trying to explain the weekend last September when Lehman Brothers went down—and the financial world collapsed.”

The story goes on:

“The conventional wisdom, he admits, congealed quickly: it was a mistake for the government to let Lehman die, and the blame rested squarely with Hank Paulson.” (NEWSWEEK May 25, 2009)

—————–

I have some thoughts to share with Hank.

—————–

Henry Paulson, Former Secretary of the Treasury
Nondescript office
Northwest Washington
Washington, DC
USA

Dear Mr. Paulson:

So Lehman torched your reputation, huh? I’m sorry to hear that. I’m very familiar with reputation damage, as are many others here. After my company crashed people walked away from me after they heard where I had worked. So many people were hurt, losing their life savings, their homes and their jobs that I became their enemy simply by association, as if it were all my fault.  Sound familiar?

There’s good news though.  I found a simple fix to reputation damage that has helped everyone who has tried it. It works like this:

If you want your reputation back, earn it.

Best wishes.

P.S. If you’re still struggling with your memoirs, please call me. I’m a ghostwriter, and not just during Halloween.

Thank you h.koppdelaney, for your flickr.com photo.

Laurie Phillips is a ghostwriter, but she wrote this all by herself.

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