A Letter to Bernie Madoff: The Angel

Mr. Madoff,

The other part of me has to write this. While I have never run anything near a hedge fund, I have found myself in moral qualms & clusterf*&^s. "What to do about this coffee situation!? Tell them it's decaf or hope that they won't notice?" * What is your explanation? Is there an explanation?

I have to wonder, did you find yourself in such a situation that you had no choice but to invest this way? Did you know you were setting this up? Is it inevitable at that level of pressure? I have heard time and again how insane the hedge fund market is, how stressful it is. 

Part of me doesn't care about how much pressure you were under, or what your reasoning was. IT WAS WRONG.  

I don't want to give you the benefit of the doubt. This is my attempt to give you a chance. I don't know much, but screwing people out of $50 billion requires a hell of an explanation. 

Yours,

The Begrudging Business Dilettante

Reader: Please contradict me and tell me this guy's a crook who knew what he was doing. 

*Note to my coworkers, that was a bad attempt at a moral qualm. You know I'd never fool you about coffee. 

A Letter to Bernie Madoff: The Devil

Mr. Madoff, 

While my relatively fresh business mind is still reeling on the details of what exactly a Ponzi Scheme is, I also am still in shock that the affects of your scheme, Sir, could reach a 23 year old receptionist. In my relatively short tenure in the job world, I have been through 3 layoffs. One at AOL that I don't really count because I was a lowly intern (& it's AOL...duh), but 2 at my current job. You touched the latest one. 

We had a lucrative project in the works, and miraculously ! the funding went away because the lead investor lost all of his money in your investments. As a result, we lost an additional 6 employees (10%), my friends and coworkers. While this affects them much more than it does me, I just can't wrap my head around this tabloid, nightly news headline affecting my world. Since when has anything Brian Williams said affected my life? 

My question to you is, did you ever think you'd reach me? Did you know what you were doing? Is it bad that I am thrilled to see your name among the A/B list celebrities and business leaders cited among victims? 

Here's hoping there isn't any room in white collar prison,

The Business Dilettante

Does anyone else find this picture hilarious? 

The Business Dilettante - A few words

- dilettante - noun. 

1. An admirer or follower of the arts

2. A person having a superficial interest in an art or branch of knowledge

I had this whole other overly poetic reasoning behind my name, I still think it's true, but I just couldn't stand the way it looked in print. I felt a bit of an ass. The truth is, those two definition of dilettante both apply to me. I do love the arts in all their forms. I am also a person who has a superficial interest in a branches of knowledge, especially business. My degree (Marketing), has trained me about how to look at the world with a business filter. Plus it makes me laugh to call myself a professional dilettante.

I tend to really like things for a short period of time before I am ready to delve into another endeavor. I feel like this name is appropriate for my blog because I tend to think about business things all the time.  "What is the reasoning behind this strategy or that advertisement, but it never lasts long because I move onto the next . (Who bets this blog will be a short experiment!?)

I guess through this exercise I hope I can develop an approach to developing my thoughts, explore them at depth, and have them written down before I forget them and it drives me crazy trying to remember, "What was that thing I was thinking about earlier?" 

What I hope to get from the readers (If I ever have any) is your take on things. I tend to focus on details and would love to hear your thoughts and opinions. Please call me on my shiz, I need it every once and a while. 

Welcome to the Business Dilettante. 

Maybe one of these days I'll post the overdone original explanation, but only if I'm desperate.