There are two sides of each story the good guy (who wears a white hat) and the bad guy (who wears the black hat); in reality there are very few people that actually only wear one hat or the other, most people wear a mixture of both. Since most of us feel we are the good guys, there are not many stories about the bad guys. One book which focuses on the topic is I Wear the Black Hat – grappling with Villains real and imagined by Chuck Klosterman published by Scribner, NY, 2013.

One approach to look at the subject is through why do we think of some people as evil and could the person not be perceived as evil? It turns out the answer tend to be yes. A person similar to Machiavelli who wrote the Prince. Many people have read it, some believe this is the way politics should be. Machiavelli is associated with this idea because he wrote it down and whether he believed it or not, the mere fact that he could conceive of these strategies and write them down makes him feel evil to us.

Another example of Joe Paterno – who was one of the greatest football coaches in US College history. He will be remember for a number of things including grades matter in his program, he also will be remembered for not doing the correct thing in regards to one of his coaches. Coach Paterno’s position with Penn State and the rest of authority in the state he could have just about anything could have been done, unfortunately little was done. In this case, the villain is the person who knows the most but cares the least.

Drug dealers are generally seen as villains, but in countries where the cops are corrupt, drug dealers are seen to be living by a code which means they seen better than the corrupt police.

Everyone should know history is written by the winners, but this cliché misses a crucial detail. Over time, the winners are always the progressives. Conservativism can win the short term. but society continues to evolve and the progressives win out.

In business, being a villain can mean an advantage over your opponents. The classic football case is the Oakland Raiders owned by Al. Davis. Mr. Davis at one time was the Coach, General Manager and Owner and he drafted a particular method which made the team successful. Among the principles were draft for speed; combine a power game with a vertical, downfield passing attack; reward excessively physical play; sign players that other teams are unwilling to accept; never police off the field behavior and just win, baby.If you willing to do anything it takes to win, things can be done but you will be a villain.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, there are the good guys, the bad guys and sometimes those with the money. If may seem the only method to get the money is be a bad guy, but it turns out there is a method to stay as the good guy. Buy profitable stocks which pay a dividend so your total return goes up on a year to year basis. The bad guys often have a better year in a 10 year cycle, but there are the other 9 where you come out ahead.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.