At a previous job, after saving his ass one time, I became the one that the guy at the top of our company's org chart called upon anytime he needed/wanted anything I.T. related done.

I was in his office setting up a new MBP for him a few years ago and he was talking about a guy that he had just "ok'd" on being hired. H.R. had asked him directly because the guy had been in some trouble many years ago but had apparently "stayed clean" since then.

When asked if he was worried about hiring the guy because of his record, he remarked (and I'm paraphrasing), "Are you kidding? You should have seen me in college. The only difference between me and him is that he got caught."