Legacy Pursuits

In his first stint as the Washington Redskins head coach, Joe Gibbs never settled for anything less than excellence--or, in other words, a Super Bowl title. Anything less, was unsatisfactory.

The goal of winning a Super Bowl is a noble one--for a city, for its people and for a future Hall of Fame coach. Hence, a legacy for a Hall of Fame head football coach.

His next goal was to form a championship NASCAR racing team and, again, he succeeded. Again, a legacy in the racing world.

When Gibbs returned to the Washington Redskins as a Hall of Fame coach, however, his goal was to help his son become an NFL coach and to improve the Washington Redskins and bring them back to the glory years. Meanwhile, he was earning $5 million per year above his NASCAR royalties.

Actually, I'm not exactly sure why Joe Gibbs returned to the NFL but, after hiring Al Saunders as offensive coordinator in 2006, I'm not sure his goal was about winning a Super Bowl anymore.

That said, Washington Redskins fans will always remember the great Super Bowl teams during the first Gibbs era--his true legacy to Washington, D.C. and its fanbase.

These types of individuals, men and women who cannot be satisfied with themselves unless they achieve their ultimate goal to better others as well as themselves--to me--are a dying breed. Unless, of course, the goal is simply money, power and fame.

Take, for example, Angelo Mozilo, former CEO of Countrywide. This man is the "poster child" for a subprime crisis that sent the United States spiraling into another Great Depression (yes, I said Great Depression) and cost millions of people their jobs. Countrywide's origination practices were far from ethical and, we are learning each day about securitzation practices that also involved the investment banking side of the business.

Mozilo, just recently, settled with the Securities and Exchange Commission for $67.5 million. That's million, not billion--as in $800 billion in TARP. And, it's not trillion either. As in, this country is $3 trillion in debt for the past two years.

For Mozilo, who took a small mortgage company and built it into an empire, $67.5 million is equivalent to you and me buying a computer...maybe a nice MAC computer. Sure, it makes a dent but it's not like we're going bankrupt over it. But, this man should be going to jail--or at least to trial--and he is simply going to pay a fine.

Mozilo's very large company is allowed to destroy economic prosperity in this country and he pays out a very small ratio of money compared to the billions of dollars he has in the bank. Meanwhile, if a "middle-class" individual passes a school bus while rushing to work--and it just stopped and started blinking its lights--and a policeman believes the car passed it while the lights were on, it would cost that driver more than $500. For Mozilo, $500 is nothing but for a person of modest wealth, it could be everything.

Of course, Mozilo wouldn't even be driving a car. It would be his limousine driver passing the bus on Mozilo's orders to do so. And, would a policeman risk his or her job to stop Angelo Mozilo's car? Mozilo, who knows Congressmen and lobbyists and high-ranking officials at the SEC. This is a very important man and one might lose his or her job for giving this man a simple traffic ticket.

Now, I've spoken with Mozilo in the past and, to his defense, he has given quite a bit of money to charities--which we can all write off on our taxes--and sat on the board for a number of non-profit foundations. He comes from an immigrant family that pulled itself up from the bootstraps and with a "fire in his belly," he created a small company into a conglomerate. Some would call that the "American Dream." Some would call buying a house an "American Dream."

At one point, before the subprime crisis, Mozilo wanted to retire and, in hindsight, probably should have. But, he stayed on as Countrywide's CEO. The company peaked and then plummeted to an eventual acquisition by Bank of America. Those undervalued assets continue to sit on Bank of America's balance sheet--just one of the reasons that the bank is insolvent.

Had Mozilo retired, his legacy might have been clean. With this $67.5 million settlement, his name will simply ride off into the sunset, along with his billions of dollars, and only history will be able to determine his legacy--just as history will determine Bernie Madoff's legacy.

But at least he reached his goals. At least, he made the money and had the power he always wanted to achieve. At least those charities will now have more money to help others--and that's a good thing.

But, at what cost?

Are money and power noble goals? Should they give us that unsatisfactory feeling Coach Joe Gibbs had in the 1980s and early 1990s if he didn't win a Super Bowl? Should they give us a "fire in the belly" to go out and achieve? There is a cost for those goals and, if we cannot morally and ethically administer that cost as a society, then are they really noble goals?

I once asked Angelo Mozilo about financial literacy being taught in the high schools rather than in colleges, as he once suggested. His answer to me was that "they would all probably skip the classes." He said it jokingly and yet, he wasn't joking. His power and money made the case.

Similarly, I asked Franklin Raines, then CEO of Fannie Mae, the same question nearly 10 years ago. He replied, "We're working on it." Yes, that and his huge bonuses and helping to cause another economic collapse.

Mozilo, with the SEC, made his case with power and money. He paid a price for his crime--$67.5 million--and we all now must sit back and watch as only history will create his legacy. And what of Frank Raines' legacy, for that matter? Have we heard much from him lately? Does he currently have a six or seven-figure job lobbying on Capitol Hill?

Which brings me to my next question: What will America's legacy be for our justice system? That we can buy and sell justice? That it is not blind justice but greedy justice? And, if that's the case, where's the justice for the men and women without money? What will their legacy be?

What will America's legacy be?

The financial truth in this society today--high unemployment, higher savings rates, higher prices on food and energy--is that goals cannot be about money and power because we have seen the ultimate results of those goals. We've seen these goals perverted in the 20th and 21st century into economic collapses; wars and genocides.

We have also seen noble goals turn into positive truths, like a team perfecting an individual craft to better itself and the people who cheer for it (just think of how it helped the city of New Orleans in February); like building and manufacturing to create more jobs and enhance a culture; and like education to exchange ideas so that people can live in a society conducive to the common good.

What will your legacy be? What are your goals? Are they to earn more money, more power? Are they to achieve fame for fame itself? Most important, are these goals to better yourself and others. Because, if only for yourself, your goals need not factor into America's legacy.

Robert Michaels