Truth 41. There are no quiet corners safe from scrutiny

Umberto Nobile was a brilliant engineer and aviator, but his career was ruined in part by a split-second decision he made on the Arctic ice. In 1928, his airship Italia crashed on the ice during a North Pole flight. He lost part of his crew, and the rest were stranded in a little, red tent as the world mobilized a massive rescue effort. After many days on the ice, a small French plane managed to land. The pilot insisted that Nobile himself should be the first to leave with him. Nobile finally gave in. Then he could help to guide the rescue parties back to the others. Nobile left with his lapdog, leaving his men behind. This violated every principle of the captain going down with the ship, and this was how it looked to the world when he returned. Whatever actually happened on the ice, the world remembers only that the captain and his pooch took off before his men.

It's hard to think of a more remote location for making a decision than on a barren piece of polar ice. But the decision was broadcast to the world. And no one remembered anything else—just that Nobile had saved himself and his dog before his men. Nobile returned to Italy in disgrace. Despite his spectacular successes in engineering, aviation, and exploration, a split-second decision, literally in the middle of nowhere, ultimately defined how Nobile's career was viewed. And that was back when news traveled by telegraph.

Face it. We live in an increasingly interconnected world, even more so than Nobile. What you do today in the confines of your own home could end up known to the world tomorrow. If you're a policeman who thinks you can make a decision to beat up an obstreperous arrestee on a back street (as in the case of Rodney King), you could find yourself on national television. If your sneakers or toys are made by children in a sweatshop in rural Asia, remember that no matter how remote this might seem, all will eventually be revealed.

The decision of major global drug companies to sue African companies over patent infringements might have seemed like a good idea in a mahogany tabled conference room in the U.S. After all, the foundation of innovation is patent protection, and without it there will be little incentive for pioneers to innovate. But once the decision hit the newsstands, the picture was quite different. In a global context, this was a group of greedy multinationals putting the screws on poor, Third World countries with serious health problems. The drug companies were quickly forced to rethink their decisions. But if they had given more attention to how their decisions would be viewed, they might have avoided a lot of bad ink.

For decisions that are made in backrooms, over dinner, or on a remote stretch of ice, take a moment to shine the light on them. What would happen if these decisions were broadcast to the world? Would you be comfortable opening the kimono, or do you have something to hide? Of course, you can do your best to make sure that your decisions are not broadcast to the world (check for cameras), but in a world where information is fluid, if the decision is at all important, it is more likely than ever to see the light of day. So when you're making any decision, particularly a private one, always consider how it might play on the public stage.