In short, the value of moral courage. It was a good lesson, as it doesn’t come naturally and had to be learned the hard way. Since then, physicians have been gathered from their independent practices into “systems of care” run by MBA ethics rather than Hippocratic ethics, and in recent years, the lessons then learned have stood me in good stead. In facing threats of professional/business retaliation for standing up to hypocricy and lies, I have called often on the conversation that I had with another intern about whether to go along to get along, or stand up to the sociopath. She reminded me that, despite all the threats “You know that you won’t starve, no matter what happens.”