#17 - And The Envelope Says!

To Brian Cullinan, PWC partner

Dear Brian,

How many times have you told your teenage son.  "Son, please, don't text and drive"?

And how many times did your teenage son tell you, "Dad, please, don't tweet, when handing out the Oscar envelopes"?

OK, we don’t know for a fact, if your teenage son actually said this to you Brian, but if he did, it’s too bad you didn’t follow his advice.  Because you tweeted, and oh, how you did tweet.  And the distraction caused by that tweet was almost on par with your son texting while driving, and driving into a gully, that right now probably feels like it’s a thousand feet deep.    

It would not have been so bad, it might not have even made the network news, if you did it during the award for Best Cosmetics and Hair Styling or maybe Best Documentary Short Subject, but no, you had to wait to the climax of Oscar night, when they are giving out the most important award of the evening, the award for Best Picture!

I understand, it was cool to be backstage, yes, it sweet to scoop a pic of Emma Stone accepting the Best Actress Award, and tweet to your friends.  Yes, you are hanging with all the beautiful people.   But sir, you needed to put all that aside, you had a job to do, the most important job of all, handing out the winning envelopes.  And you handed out the wrong one!   Was it that hard?

Were you thinking that if something went wrong, Warren Beatty was going to bail you out?  Warren Beatty? If you saw his performance is Ishtar, that alone should have given you pause.

So now let's cue the videotape, and see exactly where your tweet landed:

1. The cast and crew of “La La Land” started their acceptance speeches, but then had to be whisked away to drown their disappointment in multiple bottles of Tequila.
2. And the folks from “Moonlight” were truly cheated of their magic moment in the spotlight.  The movie about a poor, minority, gay youth could now add "disrespected" to their list of challenges in life.
3. You personally have been banned from the Oscars for life, which considering you'll never want to show your face there ever again, should be just fine by you.
4. PWC's reputation as one of the oldest, finest accounting firms in the world has taken a huge hit. Every year, the firm looks forward to this world-wide exposure, to be associated with this prestigious event.  This year, not so much.
5. It's not clear at this time, but your actions may have lost the account for your firm, possibly ending an 83 year old relationship. It would be a shame if a marriage which has lasted this long, ended in divorce because of your…infidelity. 
6. And for you personally, despite all the good work you have done during your career (and we know it must have been very good work, otherwise you would never have been in this position to begin with), this will be hard to overcome, extremely hard.

CPAs around the country feel your pain.  We feel it deeply.  More than anyone else, we know how you got here and we know what you are going through.  In part because we all know, that "0h, but for the grace of God, go I".  It is not lost on any of us, that we too, could be in a position at any point in our careers, where we inadvertently make a small decision, which ultimately leads to disastrous consequences. We have seen this movie before and we know it does not end well.  This movie has never made it to the Oscar awards.

While some outside the profession may consider yours a simple mistake, those inside it understand, it is more complex than that.  This was not an honest error of judgement, this was not bending over backwards to help a client and in the process crossing a line.  You were not corrupted by money or the prestige of winning an important client.  It occurred because you lost your way and allowed yourself to be personally compromised and to be seduced by the glamour of the moment.   You lost your independence, something you had diligently worked to build and retain over the course of a life time, and in a moment’s time, you blinked, and it was gone.

We have a role to play on the stage of the world, Brian, but it's not out in front of the footlights or to accept the applause at the final curtain.  We are referees brought in to call balls and strikes and to enforce the rules, so everyone might know with honesty and accuracy, who won the game, who received the Oscar or who succeeded in business.  When we voice our opinions, our efforts serve to either affirm or refute the actions of those who seek legitimacy.  There is little glamour here, but it remains an excruciatingly crucial role in our society.

We all hope you bounce back from this Brian, all of us.  We are pulling for you.  But your actions will serve as a reminder to us all, that the line between success and failure can often times be very thin, and none of us can afford to lose sight of it.  None of us can take our eye off the ball, not for an instant.  Not just for own individual well-being, but more importantly, for everyone who is depending on us.  We owe this to anyone who wants or needs our opinions.  We owe it to our friends.

Your friends and colleagues,