When does it become acceptable to be forgiven for your past misdeeds?
Two days before the Tokyo Olympics begin, the Opening Ceremony Creative Director was fired unceremoniously.
“We have discovered that Kentaro Kobayashi in the past made fun of a painful part of history, so he has today been removed from his post,” Olympics chief Seiko Hashimoto told reporters Thursday. “We apologize deeply for the trouble and worry caused.”
A video shared on social media showed Kobayashi, when he was working as a comedian years ago, joking about the Holocaust as part of a skit.
It wasn’t even the main joke, it was a passing comment.
But I won’t dive too much into the details.
It is what it is.
I do want to raise another issue: When does it become acceptable to be forgiven for your past misdeeds?
That skit was aired in the 1990s and almost exclusively in Japan.
20 years later, it came back and haunted Kobayashi, costing him what may be the biggest milestone in his career.
It is no mean feat to be the creative director of the Olympic opening ceremony.
It is literally the big bang of the entire month long Olympic games, celebrated globally and participated by every country in the world.
Sure, he made a mistake. Arguably an insensitive and painful one.
It was disrespectful and unnecessary.
But 2 decades later, should it still come back to “cancel” him so abruptly?
There’s no easy answer to this.
Some would say that there is no statute of limitation on a wrongdoing, however small.
But what if he has been reprimanded for it?
What if he has atoned his mistakes and genuinely turned over a new leaf?
Where do we draw the line?
Should we also blame the TV station, directors and accompanying actor for being part of it or allowing it to happen too?
No wonder they say the past will always come back to haunt you.
So founders, startups and leaders, do the right thing and do no evil.
Don’t let your past haunt you.
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