Except some times they do.
The cashier hands you fifteen dollars in change on a five dollar purchase. You gave her a ten, but she thought it was a twenty. You could keep it. Odds are nobody finds out. Or they will find out they are a little short later, but won’t know it was you who benefitted.
Same with the number you rounded in your favor. The little fib about why you’re late. The expense you didn’t mention up front because it was small, and you figured it was less likely to kill the sale later than if you pointed it out now. The kind of thing that makes everybody love buying a car.
Usually, nobody notices. And on the rare occasion somebody does, it’s almost never the person who will later be deciding whether to hire you or do business with you.
But sometimes it is, and you never get told in advance which time that’s going to be.
So look at what’s actually on the table. Ten bucks on one side. A client, a partner, or a deal on the other. It isn’t close, and nobody would take that bet if it were laid out in front of them.
It’s important to practice complete honesty on the stuff that doesn’t matter. Especially there, where it costs you little and nobody’s watching. That’s where the habit gets built.
Because one day you’ll be in a pinch. The deal’s wobbling, or you’re behind on something and someone wants to know why. Lying might look like the easy way out, at least short term.
If honesty is already just what you do, you don’t have to decide anything in that moment. If it isn’t, that’s a bad time to start figuring out where the line is.
And the lie doesn’t pay off. Not when the price is a relationship instead of ten dollars.
It’s the kind of thing Jeff Olson talks about in The Slight Edge. Small choices that are easy to make and just as easy to skip, with nothing to show for them today. Being honest when it’s free is one of those choices. So is the other kind.
The people who matter won’t say anything, either. No confrontation, no warning. They’ll just quietly move on, and you’ll spend a while wondering why the calls stopped.
P.S. That link goes through Amazon, and I’m an affiliate. Doesn’t cost you a dime more, but if you click through and buy the book, or anything else while you’re there, I get a small commission.