Empires vs. Coalitions: A Defining Moment for Relationships draws a compelling comparison between relationships functioning as an empire and relationships that represent a gathering of equals. Empires are easy to detect. Relationships are based on accommodation, performance, and fear, with a concentration of power that includes vision, authority, voice, passion, and intelligence restricted to one or a select few. It's just the opposite with a coalition of equals, where accountability, transparency, mutuality, and personal responsibility are valued, because manufactured credibility is unreliable when compared to authentic credibility. When pathways to achieve credibility and legitimacy are primarily restricted to identifying with such tracts as nationalism, financial, race, ethnicity, social, political, religious, military or physical prominence, the true value of a person is defined in a narrow and limited scope. It's not surprising to witness repeatedly during modern times the breakdown of trust and credibility toward scandal-ridden institutions collapsing under the weight of having no conscious. Institutions such as government, military, political, economics, civil, financial, educational, religious, and marriage are tragically caught in scandal after scandal because self-importance and self-indulgence have replaced the principles of good character. Empires vs. Coalitions expresses the opinion that to educate an individual to the best that he or she inherently possesses, then credibility is no longer necessary to achieve through blind obedience, power, violence, and deviant behavior. In the words of one young aspiring entrepreneur, Luke Turpeinen, "We all do the best we can with the tools we have, but sometimes the tools are woefully inadequate." It is time to upgrade the tools to include the education, development, and practice of the merits of character that inspire a gathering of equals rather than imploding empires.