THE COST OF MISPLACED TRUST

"It is astonishing what force, purity, and wisdom it requires for a human being to keep clear of falsehoods."

Margaret Fuller, 19th century American journalist.

Always true but never more so than in political season, this one in particular.

Something isn't necessarily true simply because someone says it is, including that said by people you trust.

Gullibility comes at a high price, much more than $1.

TO TELL THE TRUTH . . .

"Honesty prospers in every condition of life."

Friedrich Schiller (1759-1805) German dramatist/poet/historian.

I don't know about every condition, always, but I do know it's simply easier to be honest than dishonest.

THE (NOT SO) GRAND DECEPTION

"To know how to disguise is the knowledge of kings."

Cardinal Richelieu (1585-1642) French clergyman, noble and statesman.

When it comes to truth, sure; however just believing you have doesn't make it so. 

Often the only one deceived will be you.

YOU ARE THE COMPANY YOU KEEP

"Most men are individuals no longer so far as their business, its activities, or its moralities are concerned. They are not units but fractions.

Woodrow T. Wilson (1856-1924) Twenty-eighth President of the USA.

When wrongdoing is discovered very few employees can truthfully say they didn't know what their company was doing.

Indications of dishonesty will be plentiful and obvious.

Being quiet about it is being a part of it.

HE SAID TACTFULLY

"Tact is the ability to describe others as they see themselves."

Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) President of the United States

Tact walks the line between truth and fiction, in the extreme, honesty and deceit.

Do your best not to cross the line.

NO HALF TRUTH

"The most dangerous untruths are truths slightly distorted."

Georg C. Lichtenberg (1742-1799) German scientist/satirist/anglophile

Only the biggest liars can feel comfortable attempting to justify a half-truth.

COMPANY CODE OF CONDUCT STATEMENTS NOTWITHSTANDING . . .

"The pit of a theatre is the one place where the tears of virtuous and wicked men alike are mingled."

Denis Diderot (1713-1784) French philosopher

But not the only place.

This is potentially just as true in business.

Probably more so.

THE YIN AND YANG OF RIGHT AND WRONG

"Nowadays those are rewarded who make right appear wrong."

Terence (195/185 BC-159 BC) Playwright of the Roman Republic

Is today any different?

Maybe only in that those who make wrong appear right are rewarded even more.

WHAT WOULD YOUR MOTHER SAY?

"We moralize among ruins."

Benjamin Disraeli

19th century British politician/author

Not always but often enough.

Consider what for you is immoral before, not after, it becoming obvious.

THE HONORABLE (EASY) THING TO DO

"Ease and honor are seldom bedfellows."

Proverb

Which seems to suggest being honorable is difficult.

I find just the opposite.

(Click to enlarge Calvin)

I MEAN THIS SINCERELY

"Hypocrisy is the homage that vice pays to virtue."

François de La Rochefoucauld

17th century French writer

And you have to look closely to know when you're dealing with hypocrisy, including when it's you being the hypocrite.

UNSETTLING SCORES

"It is better to suffer wrong than to do it, and happier to be sometimes cheated than not to trust."

Samuel Johnson

18th century British author

Be diligent guarding your rights.

Don't knowingly let others take advantage of you.

But don't always feel compelled to get "even".

"Righted" wrongs are often not.

You Will Get Yours

"God bears with the wicked, but not forever."

Miguel de Cervantes

16th century Spanish novelist

Nor with anyone or thing for that matter, not forever.

If you are a wicked manager, or you work for a wicked company, there will be a day of reckoning.

And while it could come from God, it doesn't have to.

The market has a way of sorting that out.

Don't be wicked.

Non Negotiable Ethics

"Opinions alter, manners change, creeds rise and fall, but the moral laws are written on the table of eternity."

Lord Acton

19th century English historian

There is a tendency in some to see ethics and morals in the context of time and circumstance; however what is and isn't ethical and moral is not negotiable.

If you manage things and/or people, before you act, first ask yourself, "Is this right?"

If you cannot answer "yes", and you consider yourself a just person, don't do it.

I Didn't Because _______

"An excuse is worse than a lie, for an excuse is a lie, guarded."

Alexander Pope

18th century English poet

Not always; some excuses are honest explanations for failure.

But I'm being kind.

All too often they are a lie.

Wicked Osmosis

"To see and listen to the wicked is already the beginning of wickedness."

Confucius

5th century BC Chinese philosopher

If at the beginning of your career you willingly work with people who compromise their ethics, chances are good you will as well in the future.

Be careful not to become what you didn't set out to be.

As I See Things

"If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear to man as it is.  For man has closed himself up till he sees things thru chinks in his cavern."

William Blake

18th century British poet/painter

How much of what you see would you guess is as it is as opposed to how you choose or would like to see it?

The Real Deal?

"It is a great advantage for a system of philosophy to be substantially true."

George Santayana

Late 19th/early 20th century American philosopher

And no less so in business.

If what you are selling does not warrant being sold, you won't be selling it for long.

I Stand Firm, But Then Again . . .

"This lady is not for turning."

Margaret Thatcher

20th century British stateswoman

Do you think that people are more, the same, or less likely to compromise their business ethics than they are their personal ethics?

Caught In Your Own Web

"Fiction is like a spider's web, attached ever so slightly perhaps, but still attached to life at all four corners."

Virginia Woolf

Late 19th/early 20th century British novelist

You create the fiction and it will forever be associated with you.

Are you OK with that?