Peter Elkind and Bethany McLean on what drove Jeff Skilling and brought down Enron

Just as he had when Enron was riding high, Skilling labeled ExxonMobil a "dinosaur" - as thought it didn't matter that the oil giant was thriving while Enron was nearly extinct.  "We were doing something special.  Magical."  The money wasn't what really mattered to him, insisted Skilling, who banked $70 million from Enron stock.  "It wasn't a job - it was a mission," he liked to say.  "We were changing the world.  We were doing God's work."

In the public eye, Enron's mission was nothing more than the cover story for a massive fraud.  But what brought Enron down was something more complex - and more tragic - than simple thievery.  The tale of Enron is a story of human weakness, of hubris and greed and rampant self-delusion; of ambition run amok; of a grand experiment in the deregulated world; of a business model that didn't work; and of smart people who believed their next gamble would cover their last disaster - and who couldn't admit they were wrong.

~ Peter Elkind and Bethany McLean, The Smartest Guys in the Room, p. xxi

Jeff Skilling on Enron: "We were making the world better"

We were making the world better.

I was emotionally tired. I put so much of my life into it. Every day was intense. I had not spent the time I should have spent with my family.

The short sellers were all over the stock, and I was having a hard time explaining why Enron was a strong company.

~ Jeff Skilling, former president of Enron, testifying in his defense in Houston, "Skilling Defends Enron, Himself," The Wall Street Journal, April 11, 2006