Business ethics and unscrupulous metal detectorist

Roaming around in a free market requires professionalism, courage, and wits.

Choosing people to work and partner with is a never ending learning curve. Especially in the interpretation business, which can be lucrative for some and meager for others. Seduction to cheat your way to a new client may come at times as an irresistible urge. A new client – a new gain, a new fix - addiction to a quick buck. I wonder what is it: financial desperation or underprivileged childhood?

The easiest and the most obvious way is to steal a client from somebody else. There are strong and well established large translation giants, the lions of business jungle. Those are not easy prey for our hungry predator. But the weak ones of the animal kingdom, either young or old, those are a good target. How easy it is to snatch a client right from under the weak hands.

Especially if a client himself is easy pickings.

So our hungry carnivorous hero roams around, steals everything he can get his hands on and moves on leaving a foul smell and a trace of disappointment behind.

However, there is an intangible justice tool called Mrs. Reputation who works as “what goes around comes around” ancient wisdom. Mrs. Reputation precedes us. This Femidal creature marches in front of her camouflaged owner reveling true colors of somewhat generic human appearances. For some it’s a squawky clean Ice Queen, for others – it’s a dirty stinking hag from medieval bazar, and anything in between.

So all and all, everything comes down to business ethics. Does it really make sense to move around the market as a bull in a china shop? Or is it much better to fight the urge of immediate fix and do what’s right by others, so inhabitants of the translation jungle can live in harmony?

But what about competition you may ask? After all, it’s a free market not a Socialistic utopia.

This is a thought to ponder and comment about for an avid reader.

Wait a minute, but what about metal detectorist? What does he have to do with any of it?

Absolutely nothing, it’s just an article I read. Turns out, if a metal detectorist finds a treasure, he has to submit it to the government. Seems unfair.