"What the caterpillar calls the end of life, wise men call a butterfly."

Sharp business: it sounds so clean and good. To look sharp is to look neat and and nicely dressed. To be sharp is to be alert and in full command of the situation. But sharp business is something different, it is playing the game of business so close to the boundary of good faith and legality that it is hard to tell where that boundary is or if there even is such a boundary.

Sharp business is cheating and not getting caught.

Alas, there is a lot of sharp business being conducted recently. Enron, Tyco, Adelphia, Worldcom, bad brokers, bad bankers, and now bad lawyers are everywhere among us. Every week some big company is paying a $100 million fine for knowingly and blatantly doing something against the law. And though they pay the money, they never admit guilt. They never come truly clean. And the result is that we all become cynics.