Humility 79
course, many of Ahab’s sins were visited upon his son, but at least dogs
did not lap uphisblood.
In modern times, Procter & Gamble behaved initially in an arrogant
and vindictive manner when sensitive information about the company
was leaked to theWall Street Journalin 1991. They initiated a police
search of over 800,000 telephone lines in the Cincinnati area in an
attempt to locate the informant. Soon afterward, they realized that their
attempts to solve the problem had only aggravated it instead. There
were strong protests by lawyers, the press, and even by Procter & Gam-
ble’s own employees.
A truly arrogant company would have stood by their initial misin-
formed reaction. In fact, they probably would have stiffened their stand
the more they were attacked. But Procter & Gamble realized they had
made a serious error and that it was time for some humility. The com-
pany’s CEO wrote a letter to employees apologizing for his ‘‘error of
judgment,’’ which ‘‘created a problem that was larger than the one we
were trying to solve.’’^14
This episode, rather than weakening the company, strengthened it.
By admitting its error quickly and moving on to more important mat-
ters, Procter & Gamble avoided the sin of excessive pride, which often
damages or destroys people and companies. They avoided the frequent
fate of those who are unable to be humble in the face of mistakes, which
is set down so succinctly in Jeremiah 8:12: ‘‘Are they ashamed of their
loathsome conduct? No, they have no shame at all; they do not even
know how to blush. So they will fall among the fallen; they will be
brought down when they are punished.’’
Procter & Gamble knew how to blush. This critical leadership com-
petency saved them from landing amid the fallen, perhaps permanently.
One biblical king who also knew how to blush was Rehoboam. He
had united the kingdom behind him, but had neglected God’s com-
mandments. Therefore, God abandoned him to his enemies as a logical
consequence of this disloyalty. In the face of this consequence, Reho-
boam could have become more arrogant, rejecting his religion, and
straying further into idol worship. However, ‘‘the leaders of Israel and
the king humbled themselves and said, ‘The Lord is just.’ ’’ The Lord’s