Here’s an important business lesson I learned from my father about business integrity. It happened on a hot summer afternoon in the mid-1970’s. I was with my dad as he was negotiating a deal with a contractor. Let’s call the contractor John. The negotiations were bumpy but still civil and respectful.
Suddenly my father let out a deep sigh, leaned back in his chair, and said, “Well, John, it doesn’t look like we can make a deal today.” Without another word, my father stood up, shook John’s hand, and turned toward the door. It was sudden, almost abrupt, and a complete shock to both me and John. Despite John’s protestations that maybe they could still work something out, my dad walked out of the office with me following.
Once we got in the car, I asked Dad what had just happened. I was confused because the conversations with John seemed basic. Nothing in them surprised me, much less made me think we’d cut them off completely.
When I asked, my father said something that has stuck with me the rest of my life. “Roy,” he said, “you can’t trust a person who lies. If they lie to you, they will steal from you.”
Dad didn’t want to talk too much about it, but what I was able to pull out of him is John said something that was clearly a lie. Dad knew it wasn’t true – I was clueless because I had never met John before this conversation, and had never talked to anybody who worked for him. But something John said was a lie, and Dad knew it.
So he walked out. Plain and simple. He wasn’t going to hire a contractor who lied.
What struck me about this was my dad connecting the liar with a thief. “You can’t trust a person who lies. If they lie to you, they will steal from you.”
Stealing was a constant problem in the wrecking yard, and it was equally a problem on a construction site where building materials were easily “transferred” into the back of a pickup truck. Plus, Dad grew up by the code of the old west – your word was your bond, and horse thieves were the lowest of the low.
Dad had seen liars steal again and again. And he knew not to get into a business contract with a liar because they would eventually steal from you.
Lying and stealing all boil down to one fault: a lack of integrity. Integrity must be the foundation of relationships, partnerships, and all business transactions. We all make mistakes of course, and we are all tempted by what I’ll generously call shortcuts. But when a consistent pattern of lying is seen, you can probably expect that person to steal from you as well.
It’s a good lesson to remember. Better still, you can flip the lesson and value people who tell you the truth even when it is difficult for them. These are the kinds of people you want around you because they have integrity. You want people who consider their character a more important value than short-term success.