You have hired an engineering design firm as an independent contractor to design and build an e-commerce site for your company. You paid a large portion of the fee, $25,000, up front to begin the work. The owner assures you that the work is on schedule to be completed on time, but as of a week before the due date, you have yet to see any designs. You schedule a meet ing at the engineer's office to check on the status of the project.

Rent apartment Bucharest
While waiting at the office, you overhear employees talking about the impending closure of the business. You also hear that the programmer assigned to your project has not been paid and there is no money to pay him.

The owner mentions nothing of this during your meeting and assures you that the project will be completed as planned. You suspect that he is not being truthful.

You know that if the business closes and you have not received the designs and software for the project, you will be out $25,000 and will have to file a lawsuit Bucharest.

Should you talk to the programmer and reveal what you've heard? Should you confront the owner? Should you approach his disgruntled employees to find a way to gather the data you need to win a lawsuit?
You are about to begin doing business in another country where it is well known that paying bribes to officials makes business transactions move more quickly.

You know that paying bribes is illegal in the United States, the home base for your business, but this contract will insure that you establish a foothold in the global market before your competitors. What should you do?
These are all difficult choices when often the veiy survival of your business is at stake.

For One more example, see the sidebar. Aristotle, the Greek philosopher, said that courage is the first of the human virtues because without it, the others are not possible. How we make these difficult and courageous choices is the subject of the next section.