This will probably sound nuts, but please bear with me
Have you ever known anyone in a situation similar to the TV shows Ozark or Breaking Bad? They get involved with some very shady characters, who don’t seem bad at first, and then they’re in too deep to get out?
I don’t want to go into a lot of detail, but a friend of mine was telling me about an exciting new job prospect with an unusual businessman and a unique business. And it sounded like an episode of Ozark! The guy even took my friend and his wife on an expensive and lavish weekend trip to see a job site.
I jokingly advised my friend to watch Ozark before accepting the job! But I wasn’t really joking. What do y’all think?
Oh, I’m sure it can happen. Tell your friend to be very very careful.
As for “Breaking Bad” - my husband and I are organic chemists. I have known a few people/coworkers/fellow grad students over the years who have attempted to pull a Walter White and make their own designer drugs. (Not necessarily meth, but still…) It never ended well.
@scout59 - chemists here, too. Many of our friends are scientists. My good friend’s husband was a college classmate of some grad students who ran an infamous Breaking Bad-like operation out of the attic of the building housing their department. They were able to keep it under wraps for quite a while, so when it was finally busted, it was a shock to many.
Yeah, I had several friends in college who found themselves ensnared by the banking industry rimshot
More seriously, a girl I used to date wound up working for Enron–she started fewer than 10 days before the whole company was exposed as a criminal enterprise.
We have so many corporate scandals that it’s easy to label anyone as a fraud. I was a blogger who went on to present my business ideas after it was requested. I didn’t even get to actually make the presentation, I ended up with a butchered reputation. It wasn’t hard to find faults or to critique on performance given I didn’t have much.
From here on, I don’t know what’s going to happen to me. I faced hidden powerful enemies who knows how to manipulate my desires.
Before Ozark even aired, someone opened up a fancy schmancy gourmet business that sold in store and took mail orders in DH’s teeny tiny Missouri hometown. They put it in a building with a history of housing failed restaurants. Let’s just say Ozark hit a little too close to home, as we were already fairly convinced that the business was a money laundering organization. Didn’t hear any stories of locals getting caught up in it, but the business has since disappeared.
I grew up in a town with some legacy Mafia around. Umm, not really going to discuss it on a public forum. Let’s just say there are different lessons you learn, not always good.
To the NSA: I was not directly involved in any of it so please don’t call.
