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A little off topic, but Dave Ramsey related.

Something interesting happened on September 20th. It wasn’t earth shattering. It won’t change the world, cure cancer or impact the average person. You would have to be part of a Nashville based tribe or an observer of that tribe to even have a minimal interest.

The happening? Jon Acuff, the popular blogger, author, speaker and motivator suddenly and without warning resigned, immediately, from his dream job. You read right. The man who hitched his wagon to the Dave Ramsey dynasty and found his dream job apparently without warning quit.

Now Jon wrote a book called “Quitter”. So quitting isn't something new to him. If I recall, he notes in the Quitter book that he had quit 8 jobs within a time span of 8 years.

But you'll also find in the book he stressed that those who wish to become a Quitter and to do so successfully it’s so important to have a plan. A road map. A guide to what's next in regard to steps that need to be taken to assure growth instead of implosion.

Yet in Jon’s public explanation of leaving, he writes “This was not about another opportunity. I don't have a literary agent or a speaking agent or a publishing deal on the table. I don't have anything else that drew me away from the company or created a wedge.”

Apparently, he broke his own rule. The rule that says have a plan. Don't leave the world of being cubicle-bound to outward bound without having a plan to avoid committing financial and marital hara-kiri along the way.

Yet Jon, in his own words, seems to have left Ramsey's company without a plan. Without speaking gigs lined up outside of those arranged that had been arranged and in all likelihood now cancelled by Ramsey’s company. Without apparent books in the pipeline. Without a source of income unless he has residuals from the books he's already written.

Jon also noted in explaining what didn't happen that this was not an integrity or moral issue. "I have not broken any moral clause or anything like that. Furthermore, Dave Ramsey and the entire team there are the most integrity-driven group I have ever worked for.”

While Jon writes in a hard manner about his side of the integrity or morals issue, the Ramsey side of the equation is softer in emphasis.

One can be driven by integrity and still miss the mark. I know personally of people who despite lot’s of talk and even deep desire to exude integrity from their pores sometimes fail to measure up and deliver. But even with the sometimes critical eye I have they would be what I call “integrity driven”. There is desire. Results may vary.

So why would Jon leave his dream job? Remember the key words. Dream job.

There is apparently no other opportunity in the wings. There seems to be no integrity issue. And according to Jon it wasn't a financial issue. Yet he walked, apparently without warning, from his dream job.

So while Jon has explained the reasons that weren't the catalyst of his sudden and quick departure, he’s said nothing as to what the key driver or drivers to depart were.

For now, most people who are in the Ramsey/Acuff tribe(s) I mentioned at the opening of this writing are happy with the non-explanation. But is that more circling the wagons which tribes tend to do? Or are they afraid of tearing away a facade of one or both of the parties that reveals something not so pretty?

But is an explanation owed? Truthfully, neither Jon nor Ramsey and his company owe the public anything in the way of an explanation.

Well maybe.

For it was both Dave and Jon who made very public how they joined together and continued in a, at least from perception, tight relationship from the beginning with mutual admiration flowing back and forth between each party as well as leveraging the dollars along the way. Or maybe that was all it was. The dollar potential that drove the public mutual admiration society?

And it was Jon who was being groomed along with Chris Hogan and Rachael Ramsey Cruze as the heirs of the English speaking side of the Ramsey motivational circuit as Dave began the transition of the business as he moves to an age where life is here today and gone tomorrow.

Acuff was featured in the latest release of Financial Peace University as well as was a large part of the Legacy Journey live events presentation. Plus Acuff was running Quitter and Start conferences all under the umbrella and with the marketing clout of Ramsey.

All appeared to be going smoothly and seamlessly. But maybe it wasn't? What I've learned in life is that every company that’s very much in the public eye tends to have what I refer to as a Wizard of Oz effect. While building on a platform of hope, there is lot’s of flash, pomp and illusion. The old smoke and mirrors. Some are worse than others. But all are driven by a man or woman performing out front but in reality behind a curtain with the hopes we won't see how human they really are. Pay attention to the bigger theme and not the details.

Yet if you pull aside the curtain there’s often something often not expected. Need an example? Read the reviews on the web site Glass Door on Dave Ramsey and Lampo. While certainly not terrible, there still is a lot of what you wouldn't expect being expressed by current and former employees based on what you hear coming from the company. Things that attending an Entreleadership conference or reading the Entreleaderhship book indicate that don't happen, yet they do.

So is something like any of the above was what Acuff ran into and he decided he could no longer tolerate it? He pulled the curtain aside and didn't like what he really saw? Or is he just one of those types that seems to be going on just fine only to be holding back a flame out even while working in his dream job?<8> Or was the dream job really facade to cover a nightmare that finally had to end? Remember, dreams can be both joyous or nightmares. Jon never disclosed which end of the dream spectrum the dream job was.

Bottom line? We may never know. Although former fellow employee Chris LoCurto who left at the beginning of the year to strike out on his own just wrote a blog explaining in great detail why he chose to leave which included that Dave Ramsey strongly encouraged Christ to stay over a period of a few weeks. Will we get the same from Acuff?

Jon needs Dave's good name to continue in the business he's in. Dave doesn't need for the facade, if it is indeed a Wizard of Oz effect, to be exposed. Each needs to take as well as for the other party to take the high road going forward.

It's going to be an interesting dance for these two in the immediate future.