As with most Sports, when the going gets really tough, you might resort to desperate acts. The difference with Golf from most competitive sports is that a typical round will cause you to confront yourself during the course of the round because you are responsible for keeping your own score just as in life.

In Golf.. Sometimes when you're out of sight of all the other players in your group and it is up to you to play the ball where you find it or give it a little nudge left or right to improve your chances of hitting a good shot. Sometimes you feel like the game is being unfair to you when your ball ends up in a bad spot for the fourth time in a round. You feel as though the only way you can counter this "Golf God" is to take the situation in your own hands out of desperation, and give that ball a little nudge or perhaps not count that stroke that nobody in your group saw you take.

In Life...When the going gets really tough, you might resort to desperate acts. You might just forget to pay for that little something that the store clerk overlooked. You might exaggerate an insured loss or fudge on a tax return. You may go out of your way to avoid someone whom you promised to pay but can't or don't want to right now. This is nudging the ball of life.

Besides the risk of being caught, there is a risk to your character. A risk to who you hold yourself out to be. The risk to your character is that desperate acts, unchecked, may become a habit. That same act that was an act of desperation now becomes an act of greed. In golf you will be known as a "cheat". In life you will become to be known as "greedy". Banks and financial institutions do not get exception from this rule.

"You are not what you say. You are what you repeatedly do."

"Beware of two first cousins, desperation and greed. They are different characters but often travel the same path".