The Consequences ........Sometimes you can't prevent it!

In 1999 Jeff Skilling asked me to come to the stage to answer a question at our employee meeting about the replacement to our ESOP. After I had answered that question Jeff handed me another card with the question: "Should I invest my 401-k in Enron Stock?" Seemed like a harmless question at the time and I answered it with basically one word "absolutely" and then turned to Skilling and Lay and said "Right guys?". Everyone (5000 people) in the audience laughed and I sat down thinking that my first appearance on stage as a member of Enron's 20 person executive committee went well. A little over 2 years later I would experience the horror of being accused of offering employee's investment adivce with that one word answer, eventhough there was evidence of me encouraging employees to diversify their 401-k numerous times throughout the tenure of my time leading Human Resources. So what did I learn from that??? There are just times when you can't prevent something from happening. The only thing you can do is get back on your feet and keep going!