I hope you have read Greg Smith’s letter by now. It takes a great deal of courage to do something like this. I wrote about the very same issue in one of my earlier posts:

“Hiring wrong Financial Advisor: The Big Financial advisory firms such as Goldman, Merrill, Credit Suisse and other prestigious ones are the Worst. Even the firms like Fidelity and Schwab that are portrayed as Customer Friendly are bad. Your best bet is to work with a Fee based Independent Financial Advisor.”

Now you get to hear it straight from the horse’s mouth.

But if you have been in the corporate world long enough, this shouldn’t come to you as a surprise. I have found such ethical issues with all the Fortune 100 companies that I worked for and it is not limited to financial or brokerage industry either.

Look around in your workplace, you know what I’m talking about. There are constant power battles going on or we are busy pointing fingers at each other. Everybody wants to be in good books of their seniors. How often is it that your boss stands up for you? Or you felt like telling the Truth but you couldn’t. Or you got yelled at or blamed for nothing. You were managing a high visibility multi million dollar project and next moment you were given something that nobody wants. You were forced to swallow the bitter pill, you didn’t have a choice but to accept it. The list goes on.

We talk of Minority, Women Empowerment and Philanthropy. Do we really mean it?

We speak of equal opportunity and fair practices but we are ruthless when it comes to thwarting competition. We fund the politicians or get friends in Congress to mend laws in our favor.

It is unhealthy environment out there, definitely not a place for a gentleman or lady. But most of us become accustomed to it. We don’t find anything wrong. It took Greg Smith a long time to come out with the Truth. Perhaps he waited to become financially free :-). You have to, you wouldn’t say something like this if you were dependent on your job.

But we have to stand up for the Truth sooner or later. After all, how long can we continue to suffer? Wouldn’t it be nice to live and work the way that we want to? The Financial Independence enables you to do just that.

There is a better world waiting for you. There is a Higher Purpose in life.  We can’t wait forever to come to this realization. I’m glad Greg broke the shackles and took this brave decision, hopefully it will serve as a wake up call for others!!