Sean Everett explains how to handle bullies in business, from workplace harassment to fraud. He emphasizes knowing your core values, doing thorough due diligence, and being ready to defend yourself and others. He draws on his own whistleblowing experience with the SEC, DOJ, and FBI.
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All right, more serious topic today, how to deal with bullies. First off, let's define what a bully is. Most people know in grade school, lower middle school, maybe high school, you deal with other kids who like to pick on you, trip you, punch you, scare you, do whatever, because maybe they think you're weak, maybe they are actually weak, and afraid, and they want to put themselves above other people, and so they bully people. Um, this day and age, bullying is looked down on, but it still occurs. As you get into the adult world, bullying continues. Bullying in business is a real thing that is not talked about very often. And boy, do we have some stories. Uh, we have some stories of sexual harassment, of yelling, of fraudulent situations, of national security situations. And, um, oftentimes there's no one to call. So you become the enforcement mechanism. And this is why it is so important to get super clear about your core values. Because if your core values are true and strong, then you are firmly rooted in who you are and what you stand for. And when those bullies inevitably come— and come they will, given you find any bit of success or you stand for something that they do not, you will either fold or stand firm. And too many people in this world will just fold because they're afraid, scared, social pressure, in the boardroom, in a business meeting, in a court of law. What you realize when you have strong core values is these human constructs Matter not. They are flimsy, vaporous things that do not matter to you on any level. What matters is a deeper, stronger value system that you can fight me, you can kill me, you can sue me, you can try to beat me up, you can try to kill me in the media, you can try to attack me, you can disparage me. Bing! Doesn't matter. Doesn't affect me. And the reason it doesn't affect me is because you're a piece of shit, essentially. Let's just call a spade a spade. You're a piece of shit. So I've met these people. I've dealt with these people. I've had very close people in my life who've had to deal with these people. I'll give you a couple stories. How about one in a major sports organization called the NFL? Where there's people even in a boardroom who see a woman and go, yeah, I'd like to bend you over. I'm sorry. I'm sorry, what? And even professional athletes who will yell at a woman, hey, bitch! I am sorry. I'm sorry, what? And then brands hire them to promote their products because they don't know. I'd be very, very careful if you were a brand and you were a CMO. And you're hiring people who act and behave like this, and you're partnering with organizations who act and behave like this, because now all of a sudden your brand is garbage, absolute garbage. And there is a blacklist, let me tell you. There are people in this world and organizations who communicate not in public, behind the scenes they communicate And they tell the truth about what actually goes on in these settings and what actually goes on and who the good ones are and who the bad ones are, who to work with, who to stay away from. And when we see things in the media, in press, in other places, and we go, um, they don't have great due diligence. Like, they have no idea what they've just done. And, uh, and it's a sign that, yep, we're not gonna work with them anymore. So there's a select group of high-quality talent in this world who communicate behind the scenes, and there is a real-life blacklist where you're screwed. Like, you're done. You're done as a person. You're done as a business if you— cross a certain line. I'll give you another example. National security. We've had to get the SEC, the Justice Department, and the FBI involved because, yes, we were a whistleblower when we saw technology that was being used by foreign governments to put our country at risk. The United States, and we had to fight that battle all on our own. We were the enforcement mechanism, and because confidentiality is a core value of ours as well, we don't talk about it. Isn't that interesting, right? Isn't that interesting? So you can go into a court of law. And you can actually see other people and organizations present falsified evidence. And the person, the judge, with decades of experience in the law, but zero experience in technology, be completely out of their depth. And because they're out of their depth, they do not have the capability. To think rationally and understand what's happening. And so they think it's just a movie script. How could this be real? Well, guess where movie scripts start? Reality. So I'm here to tell you, if you're committing fraud against the United States IRS, State of New York, And their tax department, the United States safety. It's not gonna end well. It's just not. If you're a founder and you're fraudulently exclaiming the capabilities of what your technology can do, it will catch up to you. You will go to jail. And not only that, You've set our industry back by decades because you now have tarnished the brand that a lot of really good people with really strong core values who want to build things that help people— you screwed up and you messed up us and what we're trying to do for the world. So you need to get really clear about the people that you work with and the organizations that you work with, and you need to do real due diligence On these people, on these companies, on these technologies. That's what we do. We protect the citizens of this planet. We protect investors, and we've been damaged because of it, because of these bullies. And they keep coming. And I'm not talking about haters online. Like, get out of here with that. Haters, like, come and go, like, whatever, dude. But there's people who, um, Yeah, they just don't have the same moral fibers. They're after money, they're after power, and they will get it in any way that they can. And so you need to get real clear about your core values and why you're doing the thing you're doing, because when that baseball bat comes for your head, are you gonna duck and hide and cover and run for safety, or are you gonna sit there and take it? And take it. Can't move me. I stand firm. This root system is deep. So that's the intention today. It's a little more intense, but it's real, it's honest, and it's the truth. And you better have some people in your corner who are willing to go to battle. And this reminds me of something. Where did this come from? When I was a kid, In the '80s, Karate Kid was a big deal, if you remember. I ended up with my folks, um, studying taekwondo. Grew up in the Midwest, in Iowa, in the United States, uh, and we had a gentleman who came from South Korea, Master Kim, and he taught us taekwondo. And I went through the ranks. I broke boards with my hands, my feet. Went through the belt system, learned forms, etc., etc. And the one thing that stuck with me through the years as a principle from taekwondo, which was you never attack first— and I may be getting the details off wrong here, but you don't attack people first. You don't. You just don't attack. You learn the art of combat in order to defend oneself. But given someone attacks you, and you defend yourself, you also need the capability to take them to the ground and keep them there so they do not hurt you or others anymore. So you need people in your corner that have strength, that have capability, that have speed, that have power, that have experience, that have a force, that have strong core values, and have an ability to think clearly and a tuning fork tuned So finely that they can see the tiniest vibration in a direction that's gonna really mess things up. And you gotta tune that over time for yourself. You gotta do that because especially in this world of AI now and robotics and self-driving and digital currencies and digital assets, you need to— you need a tuning fork so precise. That you're not going to get defrauded, rug pulled, destroyed. And it all comes down to the person you place your trust in, because at some point— or the brand— at some point it all comes down to trust anyways, because you can't get into every little nook and cranny and nuance of every organization and every person. So the backstop is you, and the backstop is your core values. So get clear on them so you can stand firm. And then there's no question, there's no debate. It's an immediate no. When someone in that boardroom starts doing something that you don't agree with because of strong core values, when they start yelling at other people, when they start sexually harassing someone, putting them down, absolutely not. Absolutely not. What are you doing? No. I don't care if you're— it's the first day and you're just out of school and you're in a room with people 40 years your senior. Absolutely not. Line drawn. Get out of here with that. That's the vibe. All right, anyways, we'll get back to the sainthood stuff later, but you also got to be a warrior. Okay, that's it. Love y'all. Peace. Keep fighting the good fight. We're out here doing it. Let's go.
