“When do you cease to be a CEO and become a grandfather?”

“If you don’t have a moral question in your governing process, you don’t have a process that’s gonna survive. That’s the governing law, the moral question. You must have a moral society or you won’t have any.” ~ Chief Lyons

The following is a transcript from the video Indian Elder Speaks – Point of No Return, of Seneca Nations Chief Oren Lyons telling a story about a meeting he had with a group of CEOs…

I said, “As you’re coming down the final stretch, you are racing towards the finish, and there is the stone wall. And you’re not pulling your horse, you’re not stopping. Your’e in fact accelerating.”

I said, “That’s the way I see the use of what you call resources. You’re using them faster than they’re reproducing. And you’re headed towards that disaster, and none of you are pulling your horse.”

I said, “Take the example of a car race, they have a yellow flag. When there’s an accident, a yellow flag comes out, everybody get’s into line, they slow down. They have a concept about that, at least.”

I said, “Do you have a concept of a yellow flag? Is there a yellow flag amongst your ideas or your thinking?”

And one of the gentlemen, we’re all men [in the room], maybe 50 to 60, 65, and he said, “You know, I understand what you’re saying. But to answer your question, no, we can’t pull our horse as you say.”

“Because, ” he said, “we must show a profit, as a CEO I must show a profit. If I don’t show a profit I’m fired. Simple as that, I’m out of a job. I have to show a profit.”

I said, “To who?”

He said, “To you, the stockholder.”

I said, “Well, are you married?”

He said, “Yes I am.”

I said, “Do you have children?”

He said, “Yes I do.”

I said, “Do you have any grandchildren?”

He said, “I have two, two boys.”

I said, “When do you cease to be a CEO and become a grandfather?”

There was a lot of silence there, because that was a moral question. If you don’t have a moral question in your governing process, you don’t have a process that’s gonna survive. That’s the governing law, the moral question. You must have a moral society or you won’t have any…

He couldn’t answer the question and neither could anyone else, because it was a moral question. That’s what we must get back to.

So they said, “Look, you’re an Indian, and we keep hearing about Indian prophecies. Can you give us a prophecy? Can you tell us a prophecy?”

At that particular moment I said, “Certainly I can. And I can guarantee it.”

They said, “Really, what is it?”

I said, “Next year you’ll meet and nothing will have changed.”

Again there was silence.

We’re moving in a very direct line to that stone wall. I do not believe personally that we have passed the line, or the point of no return. But we’re approaching it. And every day that you don’t do what’s right is a day when you’ve lost an option. And you’re losing your options every day.

The Circle of Courage – Native American Model of Education