The old saying goes that if you harm another, by word or by action, the same will somehow eventually happen to you. Does the universe somehow keep score, reward honest behavior and settle debts? Who knows, but it is uncanny how most successful business people have great integrity and a strong moral compass. It makes sense. Besides being dishonorable, and a sign of personal weakness, lacking integrity is just plain bad business. Word gets around when you break promises, manipulate the rules, breach contracts (written or verbal) and generally take advantage of others that place their trust in you. It becomes more difficult to gain trust, garner references, less favors come your way and you have to work harder to make outcomes turn out in your favor. There is also a lot to be said for going to bed with a clear conscience every night. If you are in the top percentile of business people, you already know this.
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I totally agree. When I first opened my club I had 5000 square feet of carpet to buy. The guy that sold me the carpet said he would get the carpet cut into specific parts like a puzzle and draw me a map so the installers would know where it goes.
He then delivered the carpet and did not provide me with the map; he said he didn’t have time. Worse yet, the installers had no idea why he had cut it in a specific way. I had paid him in full and he didn’t care. I’m not one to make a big scene about this but I went down to his place to have a little chat and he shut the door in my face. After deciding that busting down the door would not be a good idea, I said “the hell with it” and let it go.
To make a long story short, I got a call yesterday from a guy in charge of fitting government buildings. He was calling to ask for a reference for this same carpet company.
You can image the smile on my face.