Navigating the Murky Waters of Ethics in Mentorship: A Humorous Tale from the Business Classroom

In the realm of mentorship, particularly in projects aimed at youth development, there are plenty of opportunities for both growth and comedy. One such experience involves a group of associates who, while volunteering with a high school Junior Achievement team, found themselves amidst an unexpected conundrum that raised some ethical eyebrows.

The scenario was simple: guide high school students in creating and operating a miniature business over a span of two to three months. Our dedicated team chose to sell fruit baskets. The plan included everything from purchasing fruit in bulk to assembling the baskets and delivering them within the community. However, as with many well-intentioned projects, there were some caveats – particularly the stipulation that the business venture could not incur any debt.

At first glance, this seems like a reasonable safeguard to protect the students and the organization. Yet, in practice, the rule presented a significant hurdle. The essence of the challenge? How to procure fruit for the baskets without access to funds, while also adhering to the “no liabilities” directive. The reality quickly set in: we couldn’t buy fruit without money, and we couldn’t generate money without incurring liabilities.

In an attempt to work around this limitation, we devised a rather amusing yet questionable solution: we required customers to prepay for their fruit baskets. Accepting orders and collecting payment upfront allowed us to secure the funds needed to operate, with the actual delivery of the baskets scheduled for a couple of weeks later. Brilliant from a business perspective, right?

Here comes the twist that added some comedic relief to our ethical quandary. As part of the initiative, the students had to prepare weekly financial reports to submit to the Junior Achievement office. We quickly realized that if we included all cash collections and the deferral of revenue in our reporting, the organization would not take kindly to our practices. Given this predicament, we faced a dilemma: how to keep clear and accurate records for our operations while maintaining compliance with Junior Achievement’s oversight.

In a rather organic yet unintentional manner, we found ourselves maintaining two sets of books. One was our “real” Bookkeeping for internal use, and the other was a sanitized version intended for submission to the regional office. What made this even more absurd was that the students we were coaching were fully aware of our duplicity and participated in the entire process.

After a few weeks of this charade, it became a running joke among