Shrink Rap: Degrees of Deception and Disgrace

Is it all that surprising to discover that some members of the market complex will stoop to lying about their academic credentials? Or that upon initiating a lie, they're brazen enough to perpetuate it, sometimes for decades?

If corporate executives and cohorts will lie about earnings, violate insider trading laws, steal funds, commit fraud and engage in a whole host of other despicable and illegal behaviors, is it any wonder some would claim to hold degrees they never earned?

In the professional and academic worlds from which I come, you just don't lie about what degrees you've earned or where you've earned them. You've worked too hard for too long to earn those degrees and licenses and you're not about to lie to enhance your resume. If you are foolish enough to try it, you are bound to get caught by some professional association, agency or colleague.

When you do get caught, you risk losing your license to practice or your academic position, as well as your respect in the eyes of professional colleagues. Not to mention your personal dignity.

There's little chance that you can lie about your degree and not be found out because that degree and your qualifications are going to be checked and authenticated repeatedly almost every move you make. They are your career lifeblood, so you take them very seriously.

Not so in the world of business, where the prevailing mentality is that you're not really lying until you're discovered. You've just "overlooked a detail" or "made a mistake." So what if it just happens to be perpetuated for a whole career.

Degrees of Disgrace: The Big Fish

Former telecom analyst Jack Grubman, no matter how rich and influential he became, didn't consider that maybe he should finally stop lying about where he earned his undergraduate degree. Grubman was so insecure he needed to puff himself up by claiming he had graduated from a school he thought would be more prestigious in the eyes of others than the one he actually attended.