Words of wisdom from a whistleblower. In 2011, Sherry Hunt was a vice president and chief underwriter at CitiMortgage in O’Fallon, Missouri. For years Hunt had been witnessing fraud as the company bought billions of dollars in mortgage loans that did not meet Citi credit policy and then sold them to government-sponsored enterprises. After alerting senior management and being told to keep quiet, Hunt felt she had to take a stand.

A whistleblower: someone who goes public to expose potential fraud or wrongdoing.

If you want to change something, you have to start and you can’t be afraid.

When things get rough, you wipe your brow and you stand up and do the right thing.

My moral fiber could not allow me to play that game.