Just a Suggestion…

I don’t intend to get into the habit of issuing warnings in this space; I’m trying to stick to business topics rather than public safety. Still, when I saw this story online I thought there was a basic principle here that needs repeating. So, for your own safety and quality of life, let me suggest to my readers that intentionally annoying a large group of men who have been trained to kill people silently and undetectably is probably not a good idea, no matter how strong your fantasies about being one of them happen to be…

A story being reported this week in the Daily Mail UK indicates that police have recovered the body of a man who posed as a member of the UK’s famous Special Operations regiment, the SAS, in order to write a best-selling book about the war in Afghanistan. If the identification of the body is correct (if it is actually the same man) then it would appear he was killed several months ago, and the body hidden in his garage in Antwerp (Belgium), without anyone seeing, hearing, or noticing anything…

The story goes on to note that the man in question has attempted to fake his own death (in order to escape both official and unofficial retribution for his crimes) before, and we should all probably wait until the identity of the body is confirmed. They also tell the rather more sad than annoying story of the “author,” a former British soldier who was unable to pass the entrance exams for SAS, and was eventually banned from their base in England, presumably for being too creepy. We see this type of behavior all of the time in America, where there seem to be imposters (and “wannabees”) of every possible kind, but I can’t remember another case that smacks this strongly of pure death wish…

Now, I don’t mean to imply that any of you would be criminal enough to perpetuate this type of fraud, let alone risk incurring the wrath of an entire regiment of Special Forces troops, who (in fairness) are not exactly known for their tolerant, forgiving natures in the first place. I bring it up merely as a graphic illustration of just how unfortunate the Law of Unexpected Consequences can be when it wants to. Clearly, all this poor fellow wanted was to scam up a few bucks while posing as one of his fantasy heroes – which may be stupid, juvenile, or even fraudulent, but is still not something for which he deserves to be killed and then hidden in an abandoned garage…

I am suggesting that the next time you ask yourself “What’s the worst that could happen?” before launching some risky venture you take a moment and actually consider the answer. Some perfectly reasonable ideas have implications far beyond what you had in mind when you launched them, and it is your first duty as an emerging entrepreneur to at least try to plan for the future. And if you can come up with a plausible scenario in which the answer includes “being brutally murdered and then stuffed into an abandoned building and allowed to decay until someone complains to the authorities about the smell” (or something equally gruesome), let me suggest that you seriously consider a less risky enterprise…