Cheating? Why do you think you will get away with it VW, you or me?

This last week saw one of the biggest automakers get caught in an outright lie! I know that for my generation owning a VW Bug or Bus was considered cool! What became even more the rage was driving a diesel VW. The CEO of VW has been fired and it’s a matter of time before the consequences of falsifying emission tests will cost the company millions. So why did VW take such a huge risk? Why is it the case too often that all of us, myself included, are willing to fudge to such an extent that we could loose out on life?

I have a close friend who I’ve been helping with his or her work situation.  This individual did something so crazy I was ready to scream, YOU KNOW BETTER! My friend needed to be at work by a certain time and another friend had asked a favor. This favor involved selling back to retail stores stolen merchandise without receipts in exchange for gift cards. The end result was my friend almost got fired from his or her job for being late and could end up being arrested for shoplifting. WHY take the risk?

It’s one thing to commit what I call a sin of omission, forget to do something that you normally do instead of out right planning what I call a sin of commission. This is where you purposely plan to break the law with the assumption that if you don’t get caught everything will be ok.  It’s amazing to see how rampant cheating has become on college campuses. The pressure on getting high scores on college entrance exams means there is more likelihood that someone will figure out a way to hack into the system to either get the answers or ‘doctor’ your score.

Why do we have such a fascination with cheating? How could one of the major automakers and biggest businesses in the world actually believe that they wouldn’t get caught in falsifying emission tests and not have any consequences? I know as little kids we would challenge each other to steal candy from the 7-11 or Circle K. This is never ok but understandable considering the age. Yet, why do grown adults who should know better take a risk with their career and reputation?

Is it really worth taking the risk to steal or cheat? The assumption by many is that they believe they are truly above the law or have a hotline to God that prevents them from being susceptible to getting caught!  The reality for everyone is that the law doesn’t give favors to anyone whether you are a young kid with stolen candy in your pockets or a Fortune 500 company that has been doing business on the ‘sly’.

Whatever happened to the belief that hard work will pay off in the end? Why always keep looking for short cuts when you know that persistence and perseverance work?

Don’t get caught or what I should say is why even attempt to cheat?