About two months ago, our CEO came to me and asked me if I could write my columns further in advance. I had no problem with this --- I actually appreciated it, as it gave me some breathing room.

I tell you this because I’m referring in this particular column to a column that you only read a couple weeks ago but was based on events that took place closer to seven or eight weeks ago.

I’m referring to my article entitled, “Stayin’ Alive.”

If you’ll recall, this column was me pretty much venting about an investment I had made over roughly a twelve-month period. It was in a high-tech start-up run by two guys who had yet to see their 25th birthdays.

When I originally wrote “Stayin’ Alive,” the young founder of this company had, and through a third party, already notified me of the fact that he was getting completely out of the business and that my six-figure investment was unfortunately now lost.

I didn’t at all like the way that this young CEO communicated this “exit” to me. Nor did I like the fact that he had not “hung in” as long as I felt he should have or could have --- investigating all possible alternatives before finally shutting things down.

But I did like the fact that he had the courage to fly more than 3,000 miles just to look me in the eye to tell me what exactly had happened.

And at his own expense.

Have you ever heard the phrase, “premature elaboration?” Well, by writing “Stayin’ Alive” I am guilty of doing just this. For it turns out that this young gentleman, an individual whom I originally believed had “ripped me off,” has since committed himself to not only providing me with a game plan for getting every single penny of my money back, but whom has already come up with the first twenty-five percent of that money!

Moreover, I had indicated in my column that he had, “signed a book deal,” that would enable him to profit from the knowledge gained at my (and my fellow investors’) expense.

It turns out that I was wrong here as well.

Oh, he has negotiated the book deal, alright. But instead of putting that dough back into his pocket, he has instead agreed to direct every penny in both front payments and royalties from the sale of the book to me and my fellow investors.

In every one of the four or five meetings I have had with him since I wrote that original column, he has said to me, and in no uncertain terms, “I will not rest until you and the other investors have received back every single penny that you put in.” And his actions have so far confirmed that this is precisely the case.

And I don’t think more than two days have gone by (since his visit) that he has not called me --- just to keep me apprised of his progress.

Years ago, I was forced to file personal and corporate bankruptcy. It was the most humiliating thing I have ever done in my life. I guess it probably still is.

But as I discharged businesses and individuals in my Chapter 7 filing, I made a mental note to go back and clean up (that is, pay back) every single dime that I had so discharged.

It took me about seven years, but I did just that. I worked nights loading and unloading fruit trucks (they paid cash) and I worked days selling for a number of software organizations.

Almost everyone I paid back was stunned. They certainly weren’t expecting this to happen.

I just returned from a short trip to Washington, D.C. There, I and my family (I have two young children) toured both the Pentagon (or as we call it here in Pittsburgh, “Pennygone”) and the White House (thank you again, Congressman Altmire).

I tell you this because perhaps the one thing that sticks out most in my mind from both of those tours was an inscription on the mantel of the room where most presidential state dinners are served.

This inscription reads, "I pray to heaven to bestow the best of blessings on this house and all that hereafter inhabit it...May none but the honest and wise men ever rule under this roof."

This prayer was first conceived by our second president, John Adams. Adams wrote it the second night he slept in the White House. The prayer itself is carved in the State Dining Room wall, just above the hearth.

Adams was apparently watching the laborers build the fireplace and thought that this would be the perfect spot for such an adage. He envisaged this room forever into the future being used as a state dining room.

Washington, D.C. is a place that makes even the most jaded of men reflective. And for all of the pomposity and braggadocio of its occupants and visitors, these kinds of reminders of just how humble and contrite a true leader must be tend to reaffirm one’s belief in our unique self-government experiment.

I left Washington feeling quite fulfilled. Even more so, I saw my children --- the same kids who watch the crap that the Walt Disney Corporation now puts on television and the same kids who play the mind-numbing video games manufactured by those who make killing other human beings as commonplace as rush hour traffic --- gain new respect for this country’s make-up and heritage.

I also remember thinking to myself, “If this country can continue to produce special young men like the young man whom I originally thought had cheated me, we probably have very little to worry about.”

Oh, and there is one other lesson to be learned from all this. In perusing some of the responses I received from my original publication of the “Stayin’ Alive” column, one or two stood out starkly from the others. These responses also severely chastised this young entrepreneur before all the facts were in.

Fortunately, “holding back” my knee-jerk reaction to anything is another of the lessons I have learned in my 61 years. Probably learned in just the last ten or fifteen years. Whomever it was that said, “The older I get, the wiser I become,” was certainly on the mark.

I gave this young man the benefit of the doubt before tearing him limb from limb. I’m proud of myself for displaying such restraint and class. I waited until I could hear what he had to say and until I could listen to his suggested remedies.

Hell, were he to start another company tomorrow, I’d be lined up to invest.