“Do You Need To Cheat To Become Successful In Business?” That was the title of one online article which detailed about the cheating pandemic that is rocking this world. Simply put cheating happens all over the place and it’s one of the reasons which make this world such a messy place.
In fact all kinds of cheating are so rampant these days mutual trust is the last thing our world enjoys these days. Answering the question the above title suggests it might be unfair and unethical to make conclusions in the absence of credible facts and figures acquired through researches small or big. So any answer which isn’t based on any credible material would be the best emotional response driven maybe by personal experiences or social narratives.
Ethiopian New year is drawing closer and it would be that time of the year when the public would be bombarded with ‘big discount’ and ‘sale’ adverts and it is one of those times when cheaters would roll out their tricks and ‘Good-Samaritan’ playacting.
Years back there was this guy who tried to launch his own amateur solo investigation about these ‘big discount’ things. A couple of months before the New Year he went around boutiques asking the price of clothes and shoes posing as a real customer.
Then he lay low and a few weeks later the ‘Big Discount’ adverts began appearing in shop windows and in the media. What most did was write the ‘normal price’ and below it the new ‘discounted’ figure. Well here is where reality comes surging in. The ‘normal’ price wasn’t the normal price but far higher than that. And the discounted price! Well the ‘discounted price’ was actually the real ‘normal price.’
We are deep in the tax season. Eligible tax payers are crowding the revenue offices. For some the process might be easier since they don’t have to produce books of their financial activities in the past dozen months. But most businesses up the ladder are required to show their books. And here is where suspicion gets the best of you.
Sometime back I knew a couple of guys who worked in revenue offices. And the stories they used to tell me about the cheating on the part of business people you can’t help asking “How the hell do they think they can get away wot hot?” Well, they do get away with it. Many ‘big businesses’ claim they’ve suffered heavy losses not even being able to break even.
The losses they claim to have incurred are so high it might come as a wonder as how they managed to go the whole twelve months. And nothing in their behaviors or the way they carry themselves around suggests they have been through rough times.
In fact for all you know they have been living it up changing cars, you know those eight figure cars, renovating their luxurious villas and replacing the one-year-old furniture most imported from, where else, Dubai! They have been traveling all over Europe, the Middle East and America; Did I forget Thailand and that wonderful city Bangkok which seems to draw many whose testosterone levels have surpassed all expectations?
That’s the one place I shouldn’t have forgotten because it features so prominently in the lifestyles and of the well-heeled. And knowing such facts how can we convince ourselves cheating is not any transgression of any rule but an acceptable strategy? And yet these very guys who are so rich they have run out of ideas what to do with the ‘surplus’ wealth except, of course, Bangkok!
Say, there is the very witty shopkeeper. Now if you think witty shopkeepers are easy and interesting to deal with you’ve the foulest surprise coming your way. Forget their approach which makes you a VIP of sorts. It’s like any minute they’d fall down to your shoes to make you believe what they’re telling you. “Look, I bought it for three thousand birr from the wholesalers. You can take it for three thousand five hundred. After all, I have to pay the salaries workers, rent and…” He can even tell you expenses for things you’ve never heard existed. And the sad story here is many time than not you might fall for their use. You tell yourself, “No one can act what one isn’t so perfectly. The guy is real and he’s telling me the truth.” And you go home with your three thousand five hundred jacket. It is only after a couple of days you learn the real story.
“Hey, so you’re wearing a new jacket.”
“Yes, I bought it the other day. Do you like it?”
“Well… it’s not bad.”
What! You’ve bled three grand and half and all he has to say is that it’s not bad! ‘I hope his eyes are not reddening at seeing me so smartly dressed.’
“How much did it cost you?”
“Three thousand five hundred birr.”
“What!” The guy explodes. “What do you mean three thousand five hundred birr?”
What’s wrong with people these days! Three thousand five hundred birr is what it is unless the numerical classifications have been changed like they’re trying to change everything these days.
“Why are you so surprised?”
“You’ve been cheated! They have cheated you off at least two thousand birr!”
“What are you saying?”
“You could have bought this jacket for one thousand birr two hundred. Even one thousand five hundred would be too expensive let alone three grand and a half!”
It’s too much to take. But you’re not going to throw in the towel that easily. “How can you know?”
“My younger brother bought one a week or so back.” That does for you.
Cheaters are everywhere. Cheaters whom you’d have thought were decent people from the way they carry themselves around. You know those smartly dressed and groomed persons who wear those innocent childish faces might actually be the exact opposite of what you see when it comes to real identity. Remember the childhood experience of being locked in the whole day because some monster has ‘invaded’ your village.
How about this Italian proverb; “The cheat always lies at the feet of the cheated.” Don’t say you haven’t been warned. Ha!
EPHREM ENDALE
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD SUNDAY EDITION 6 AUGUST 2023