Prefer to listen? An MP3 download and Transcription are available at the end of this post. We are all just one circumstance away from doing anything. Every time I say that a few people vigorously shake their heads in a horizontal dance; “Not me!” they say. I would never steal a car. I would never jeopardize my family. I would never become addicted to drugs. I would never gamble away my life savings. But ...

It's been almost seventeen years since I went into business for myself. At the time, one of the local banks had launched an ad campaign apparently geared to attract small business owners. Join me, for a moment, as I try to paint as accurate a picture of this ad as I possibly can. The backdrop of the ad was a magnificent mountain-- treacherous not merely because of it's height, but because one side of it was a sheer vertical drop of several hun...