How Leaders Learn

Chapter 22

The WSJ Test

Learn by doing the right thing

I’ve had one brush with criminal activity, when I was ten.

I loved to play army, and one of my favorite Christmas presents one year was a canteen. I used it all the time—until I lost the lid, which felt tragic to a ten-year-old boy.

Magically, I found a replacement a couple of weeks later at the store where my mom had bought the canteen. When she noticed the lid at home later, she asked me where I’d found it, but I couldn’t lie. I took it, I told her. You can guess what happened next: she marched me back to the store to return the lid and apologize to the manager.

I learned that day that shoplifting wouldn’t be my vocation, and more important, that it’s never too late to do the right thing. ...