Billionaire Breakups: What should be made public vs kept private
Within the last week or so you’ve probably read or heard the news that Fortescue Metals Executive Chairman and one of Australia’s richest people, Andrew ‘Twiggy’ Forrest, has split with his wife of 31 years.
My instant reaction when I heard this was ‘Ok, what did he do wrong?’ In fact, it wasn’t just me that thought this, his own company even conducted a secret probe into an allegation that he had a relationship with an employee. To which he has now been cleared of.
Andrew Forrest and his wife of 31 years
Later, upon reflection on reading this news, I found myself thinking two things. The first was, why did I assume that “something” must have happened and the second was, why was this even in the news in the first place?
Let’s take a look at the first reflection and see why I reacted this way and what we can learn from it. Let’s be honest, most of us love a scandal. Especially if it involves someone rich. I’m not going to prescribe that it is just Aussies that enjoy a good fall-from-grace story, but we are known for our tall poppy syndrome and the mainstream media does a great job of feeding us enough of these headlines to satisfy our downfall fetish. But is it a healthy interest? No. It isn’t. It may make us feel better about ourselves but this momentary pleasure is more of a hollow high than a productive reward.
Therefore, moving forward when I see these scandalous headlines, I’m going to do my best to not be so quick to judge, or even click on the headline at all. Which leads me to my next point, what matters should be kept private and what should be made public when it comes to personal relationships entwined in business? Does a certain level of wealth qualify someone to be publicly scrutinised? Does running a public trading company make your personal life ‘fair game’? Sure the infamous Spiderman quote ‘…with great power comes great responsibility’, I deem to be true, but where do we draw the line? Or does there need to be a line at al?
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