Just the Right Balance
October 28,2026
Yesterday's Wise Leader, Today's Tyrant
A celebrated CEO who built a company into a household name from scratch was revealed to have orchestrated accounting and quality-related fraud, while repeatedly bullying his employees. I was genuinely shocked because I had long admired his remarkable ability to transform acquired companies into highly profitable businesses by instilling his own beliefs and philosophy into them.  Newspapers and magazines had once practically worshipped him like a god, only to turn against him without missing a beat. I couldn't help thinking, "Come on, seriously?" It reminded me of Fujiko Mine from Lupin III , effortlessly switching sides with her shamelessly casual, "No hard feelings, Lupin."
 
The Trouble with Being Put on a Pedestal
I can't help wondering whether things might have turned out differently if everyone hadn't showered him with so much praise. Perhaps he wouldn't have felt compelled to go to such extraordinary lengths to maintain the illusion of the flawless leader everyone had made him out to be.  As the Rolling Stones sang in Good Times, Bad Times , life has its ups and downs. The same goes for our personalities. We all have strengths and weaknesses. A company that delivers ever-increasing profits year after year, led by someone whose character is always beyond reproach? Come on, that's just not realistic.  Maybe he needed to let people see his flaws once in a while. A little pressure release might have done him some good.
 
Self-Deprecation as a Tranquilizer
Whenever people praise me too much, I start feeling uneasy, like a musician under pressure to follow up a million-selling hit.  So I've developed this peculiar habit of knocking myself down a peg or two, just enough to settle myself back into my familiar, comfortable, worn-out, slightly grubby old chair, where I feel most at ease.  For example, when someone says, "It's amazing how you've managed to stay successful and independent all these years," I instinctively reply, "Well, I'm just not much of a team player. I was never really cut out for working in an organization."  Unfortunately, that's not exactly a lie.
 
Somewhere Between Too Cozy and Too Distant
I read a newspaper article arguing that the auditing firm which failed to uncover the celebrated CEO's misconduct needed to go beyond simply checking financial statements. It should have engaged more deeply with the company's governance and underlying problems, maintaining what the article called "close engagement without collusion."  Get too close, and the relationship becomes so cozy that you lose the ability to hold the other party accountable. But stay too far apart, and you won't understand them well enough to offer meaningful advice.  In other words, finding the right distance is essential.
 
The Trouble with Being Too Close or Too Far Apart
Reading all this reminded me of something similar in the relationship between clients and vendors in software development.  When the two sides become too friendly, vendors may find it difficult to speak their minds. Instead, they simply accept whatever half-baked ideas the client comes up with and build exactly what they're told.  Sometimes, though, vendors need to challenge the client's complacency or self-serving decisions and say things that might actually spark improvements. Even if it means risking a backlash. Like a fantasista on the soccer field, threading a perfectly timed through ball through a gap in the opposing defense to create a scoring opportunity.
 
On the other hand, when the relationship is too distant, vendors struggle to understand what their clients really need. The result can be a system that satisfies the developers more than the people who are supposed to use it.  Just two months after launch, the shiny new system might already be gathering cobwebs. Meanwhile, the old hands have reluctantly returned to keeping their books on paper, resigned to the familiar click-clack of calculators filling their everyday working lives.
 
Neither Too Chummy Nor Too Cold
Sometimes I say exactly what I think and end up hurting someone's feelings. When I realize what I've done, I regret it.  But then I wonder, should I have just played it safe and softened my words?  Maybe not.  Sure, I may have damaged the relationship for now. But perhaps someday the other person will understand what I was trying to say. Maybe that understanding will become the spark that turns things around, and eventually something good will come back my way.  Then I can tell myself that I wasn't wrong after all. I simply chose the long term over the short term.  If that turns out to be true even once in every three attempts, I'd be happy. Batting one for three isn't so bad.
 
Of course, going that far with someone I barely know would probably just make me a nuisance. But when I'm working with someone toward a shared goal, trying to accomplish something together, I'm always conscious of maintaining just the right distance.  So what if they end up disliking me? I genuinely believe that.  Not that I deliberately set out to make enemies. But if I can subtly give someone the feeling that something new might be about to begin, perhaps that's worth the risk.  I'm always searching for that delicate balance.  Just like Lupin and Inspector Zenigata, two eternal rivals who, deep down, need each other more than either would care to admit.