Stuck Entrepreneurs

Selective Empathy, Deliberate Deflection, and Elastic Imperatives

Danger, Will Robinson, Danger

—Robby the Robot in Lost in Space

We are entering a territory fraught with controversy and danger. Watch your step.

Businesspeople tend to tiptoe around moral issues and behavior that they have carried from their personal beliefs to business. Be nice. Play fair. Sympathize when someone is down, even a competitor. Wallow in forgiveness when you make a mistake. We have all become so oversensitized that capitalizing on opportunities, usually at someone else’s expense, makes us feel like usurpers, undeserving despots, and, well, just really bad people. It ain’t so.

• Empathy is for sissies.

• Deflection is a coping strategy to protect your pedestal of ...