Feedback

Defining Courage

Your recent courage issue failed to profile the courage to fight sex and racial discrimination. With the recent hallmark case against Morgan Stanley and the EEOC, what Allison Schieffelin faced and how she challenged discrimination at a Wall Street firm that she was dedicated to and remained loyal to, demonstrates courage under fire.

Your profiles of courage talk about CEOs who come in and fix their predecessors' screw-ups. I question these mop-and-broom examples. I'm not trying to belittle their achievements, but let's face it: They're getting a handsome salary, and it's a bullet point on their resume. What Gap is drawing attention to only now regarding sweatshop conditions has been a widely known problem for years. The Google guys have done something that no one has done before, but they fed a hungry dog a bone, and as long as that dog is wagging its tail, Google can do whatever it wants. Many women and minorities have to face adversity on a day-to-day basis and handle circumstances that are unfair, belittling, and unnecessary. It takes courage to face it and leadership to have a successful outcome of it.

Name and location withheld

While I greatly enjoyed the recent issue on courage, I was struck by one concern. Senator McCain rightly asserts that facing and overcoming fear is a critical ingredient in defining acts of courage. Therefore, I find it difficult to see how the impressive, but not particularly fear-laden (a $3.5 million signing bonus?) turnaround efforts of Ed Breen at Tyco ("One Tough Assignment") rise to the same standards as the others you profiled. In the same issue, I think Garry Kasparov made an important distinction ("The Unthinkable . . . and the Mundane") between courage and boldness; let's not mistake one for the other simply because a business leader produces strong financial results out of dire circumstances. McCain's challenge to Americans to close the "courage deficit" in this country demands much more from us.

Steve Struthers
The Public Strategies Group Inc.
Saint Paul, Minnesota

As I read through the September issue of Fast Company, I was shocked by the fact that part of the picture of courage was missing. The likes of Google, Tyco, and ImClone were all there. The boardroom, the Army, the 9/11 Commission -- all there. What of the wiping of the counter, the sweeping of the sidewalk, the stocking of the shelves? What about the juggling of operating capital, the calling of creditors, the checking of lost shipments on the way to the supermarket? This is the courage shown by an army of mom-and-pop businesses every day, and I would propose that the bulk of business courage is of this kind. To adapt a Dr. Seuss quotation, "Courage is courage, no matter how small."

Andrew M. Whaley
CEO
Coffeeboy
Ventura, California

Your special edition on courage reminded me of a story I heard many years ago, which may be apocryphal but one wants to believe is true. A student sitting for the entrance exam to Oxford University in the United Kingdom was asked to write an essay on the theme "What is courage?" Forty minutes were allowed, but the student wrote only one word: "This." Of course, he got a place.

Jeremy Diamond
Partner
The Distillery Inc.
New York, New York

The Politics of Courage

Why don't you just use vote left as the cover line on your next issue? I expect the usual liberal leaners in the media to be doing their best to cast bias across the country so close to the election. However, I have never expected that from Fast Company.

There are a number of questionable political nuances in your September issue. Among them: You attack CBS ("Cowards of the Year") for not running the Reagan miniseries, which showed respect for a conservative leader. For an industry that is constantly attacking everything conservative, I think one move in a million doesn't threaten the liberal way of life. In the same piece, you call Michael Moore debatably courageous. In Hollywood, there is nothing courageous about speaking out against Republicans. And of course, the only Republican you find worth defending ("Words Worth Fighting For") is Barry Goldwater, who had the guts to attack fellow Republicans with some of his more liberal viewpoints. I can see how supporting gays in the military and bashing the religious Right could make him enlightened in the admittedly liberal Pete Hamill's estimation.