A Moral Debt

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In politics we all notice the precarious balance between "church and state." We may not have understood it as children, but watching the world events unfold, we sure understand it now. Well as Road Warriors, we are subjected to another precarious balance between "church and the state of our businesses." As I write this blog on my flight to Tampa this week, I can feel this balancing act 30,000 feet off the ground.

Tomorrow is arguably one of the holiest days of the year for those who share my faith, and certainly one we do not work on. It's in the preverbal lockbox – untouchable, and that's that. Unless…

* Unless the market is getting beaten up and with that market slide, your business begins to slide. Certainly a small amount of revenue generating business won't hurt anyone will it?

* Unless your client, who doesn't share your particular faith, asks you politely, but firmly to support their program that requires your work.

* Unless your family, who you have shared the lockbox theory of travel with fails to understand why these are days that are untouchable for them, but only almost untouchable for you.

I flew out a day early this week so I could sit in a hotel room rather than travel on such a holy day. It's a compromise of sorts, and one that should make me, my client, my family, and my faith happy. Of course, it won't, and that's because no matter how you dress this issue up, (I'd sure like to use the term "Perfume a pig" here, but we'll have to wait a few months), I placed my profession ahead of my family and faith.

There are some issues for Road Warriors that you can intellectualize and others that are much deeper. This is the real world – not a fairytale world, and some times there are no options that are perfect. I have incurred a moral debt on this trip, and this is a debt I hope to repay with my actions, not my words or my bank account. I'm quite sure that my Road Warrior brothers and sisters who read this blog have a few moral debts of their own to grapple with as well. The question is not can this dept be repaid, but rather, will this debt be repaid?

Lesson: If you are a Road Warrior, you have struggled with this. Anyone who tells you that this is a black and white issue has never been a Road Warrior. I can only recommend that you pick your sacrifices carefully, and make the actions you replace these lost moments with measureable and meaningful.