The public figure I chose that acted unwisely is Bernie Madoff, the former non-executive chairman of the NASDAQ stock market. He is known as the operator of the largest financial fraud in U.S. history (Creswell & Landon, 2009). He schemed thousands of investors out of billions of dollars that could have begun as early as the 1970s (Kolker, 2008). This unwise scheme that he led for so many years was a lack of emotional intelligence. He showed of lack of emotional intelligence because he did not have any emotions for the people and organizations he was ruining. Despite his wrong doing, he did not lack successful intelligence because not only was he successful with operating this for so many years, he was also intelligent in keeping it hidden. I would say that he thought analytically, creatively, and practically to pull this off. Being the twisted person he is, I feel that he was only lacking in accurate perspective in the aspects of wisdom; he knew what he was doing. Although he could reach between the lines, nothing he said was true (Bolt, 2004). Even though he was unwise of what he did, he was intelligent and wise enough to get away with it for so many years. He obviously learned from past mistakes to be so successful with the scheme. He had a logical mindset to get away with taking people’s money while dealing with people daily; he could tell them what they wanted to hear (Bolt, 2004). He thought before he spoke because he did not want to get caught, he had everything worked out. Bernie Madoff scammed many people but that would be why he will spend the rest of his life in prison. Now the only thing left is cleaning up his mess.

References
Bolt, M. (2004). Pursuing human strengths: A positive psychology guide. New York, NY: Worth Publishing.
Creswell, J., & Landon, T. (2009, January 24). The talented Mr. Madoff. The New York Times
Kolker, C. (2008). Madoff victims may have to return profits, principal. Retrieved from http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=awmAWSxKpXRM&refer=home