The other day I listened to a journalist, of sorts, bragging that he played golf recently with the President of the United States.

Wonderful for the reporter’s ego. Terrible for journalism.

Of course, favored journalists have always enjoyed special access to US Presidents, but that doesn’t mean the problem is any less of a threat to media independence simply because it has always been a fact of political life.

But it’s not only political life that is at the heart of this issue. Powerful people, whether they hold forth in the White House or the boardroom, attract worshipers. And that is where the system, any system, breaks down.

Carl Icahn always liked to tell me that major corporate CEOs like to have lieutenants who are several levels down the IQ charts from themselves. And that after awhile, this leads to having a moron at the top.

An exaggeration? Of course, but

• Why did GM allow the Japanese to “outcar” them for decades?
• How did Citi’s board permit management to wreck the business with thousands of reckless investment decisions?
• For what reason did Nixon’s palace guard accede to their boss’s call to create an Enemies List in the greatest democracy in the world?
• How come congressional leaders of both parties proclaim bold-faced lies only to have their press secretaries stand in front of the cameras and swear it’s the truth?

It’s all due to the Cancer Of Power. Take someone, nearly anyone, and put them on a throne, and those who pass by will tell you they are a genius. How many men and women worship every word Prince Charles utters even though this man, this entire family, its centuries of power notwithstanding, has never accomplished a single thing.

Charles is famously mediocre. Or worse. But his entourage will tell you that this is a man of the ages.

Something happens when people rise to fame. An aura surrounds them, one that is so bright, so neon, so celestial, that it blinds otherwise intelligent people to the pablum of who they are and what they have to say.

Which is, not much of anything.

How many people within Jamie Diamond’s inner circle actually tell the CEO when he makes a dumb move? How many even believe he can or does EVER make a dumb move? There is no doubt that Diamond is a truly gifted businessman, one I met when my firm worked for Smith Barney.

But gifted people need gifted critics more than anyone else. It keeps them from floating away into a place that is so far removed from the reality that they need to keep them grounded.

The problem is, kings don’t want to be grounded. And sycophants are too dazzled to remove them, even for a moment, from the Sudan chair in which they are lifted above the crowds.

And in every single case, this worship is why once great companies fail and once extraordinary nations collapse into Banana Republics.

Mark Stevens

CEO

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On Wednesday, the US Capitol will be the the venue for the first time in history for a Broadway show. A Super Bowl. And an Oscar extravaganza all rolled into one Busby Berkeley dazzler.

This very special Chamber, this joint session of Congress, is generally reserved for States of the Union and declarations of war.

On this occasion, it will be reserved for an Act Of Marketing.

The American public is demanding a single page of paper, listing in plain English, the top five or so components of health care “reform” the President is campaigning for. This is the least the citizens of our noble democracy, the oldest enduring republic in the world, can ask for from our elected public servants.

Instead, producer-in-chief, resident marketing maestro David Axelrod, is planning a Grammy Awards show.

The President will enter the solemn chamber. Hail to the chief will play. The Supreme Court will be there as big name extras. The media will train its cameras on the leader of the free world. The Vice President and The Speaker will demand a dozen curtain calls.

The great orator will speak for an hour and say nothing. A joint session of Congress will never again reclaim its special and profound stature.

All we want is a single sheet of paper.

The United States of America:
2009. Leadership as marketing. Marketing as leadership.

God bless us.

Mark Stevens
CEO

Okay, so the nation is stuck in the quicksand of a subprime crisis, millions are driving away from their split levels, banks are hemorrhaging red ink, the battered stock market is teetering on a free fall, and President Obama’s first day as Commander-in-Chief will be focused on declaring war on a full-blown recession.

As wise and creative as he may prove to be, he will likely tackle it the wrong way: the economists’ way, with all kinds of technical maneuvers five people in the Monetary Brain Trust pretend to understand. They will jiggle the discount rate and manipulate the money supply and create guaranteed mortgages and dole out health insurance and play 101 Washington games that completely avoid why we got into this morass in the first place and why we will do it again and again and again and again.

We formalize it all and make it sound inevitable by calling it economic cycles, but it’s really just a total personal failure on the part of Americans to treat money with the respect it deserves. Does this mean to worship money? Of course not. But it does mean to respect what money can and cannot do for you.

We all work for money. We all earn it. We all want it. The difference between the members of the religion of the rich and the atheists of the rich is that the former truly achieve financial independence from it while the latter watch it slip through their hands. And no matter how much they earn, they never feel rich. And they never are.

The idea is not to make as much money as you can, but instead to live life as fully and completely as possible. Of course, the two intersect. You need money to own a nice home (one you can actually afford), to vacation, to send your children to school, to weather the inevitable storms and curve balls, to indulge in luxuries now and then, to retire if and when you want, and to walk away from your boss or your client when they don’t deserve your time and your talent.

The only way to have this kind of wealth, this wealthy life, this independence, is to:

* Recognize that the most important money you have is the money no one can see. It is the money you don’t spend, it is the money that builds your financial bedrock, it is the money you worked for, yes, but that then turns around and works for you because it is invested in appreciable assets.

* Learn the importance of making money while you are sleeping. No one of real wealth earns it, grows it, and keeps it by simply working harder. They work smarter. They find a way to create a portfolio and\or to build a business that generates profits while they are fast asleep in their beds or dozing on a beach.

* Stop spending a dime to impress other people. This is incredibly shallow, hollow, and self-defeating. It prompts millions to buy homes and cars and Christmas gifts they cannot afford. It makes them slaves to jobs they hate, to bosses and careers they detest. It assures they will never have financial independence. It is the real reason for the mortgage crisis. It is the real reason people don’t have the money to retire after a life of labor. It is the real reason why people with no money for health insurance spend hundreds on lottery tickets. It is the real reason why men, women, and entire families with very significant incomes have no money in the bank and need sleeping pills to escape the night.

Working hard is noble. Working smart is even better. Making money this hard, along with smart work, produces a wonderful reward.

But unless you treat that money with respect, unless you live below your means, unless you treat the creation and protection of wealth as a near religious experience, you will always wonder why it’s you who comes up short.

When it’s no mystery at all.
Mark Stevens
CEO