In my post The Frustration of Trying to Make Money Online, item # 3 on my list is Honesty. If the goals for your business are long term, then don’t lie, cheat, or steal. Treat people with honesty and respect.
Honesty = Truth = Integrity
You can make fast gains by holding up a liquor store, but you’ll probably get caught. If you don’t get caught you’ll always feel the need to glance over your shoulder to see who’s behind you.
The first step is to be honest with yourself. It’s not easy, because the person we lie to the most is ourselves.
Not being honest with yourself leads to all kinds of problems: relationship problems, divorce, poor job performance, failed business ventures, money issues, etc. Most very successful people will tell you that your chances of succeeding at something are exponentially greater if it’s something you’re passionate about. That makes perfect sense. Yet how many people continue to remain in relationships with someone they’re not 100% sure is the right person for them, or marry someone because they don’t think they’ll ever meet, or date someone “better”? How many stay in a job they don’t like, or even hate, or try to build a business doing something other than what they’d do if they didn’t have to worry about money?
Fred’s Law of Self-Truth: Never Settle. If you settle for less than you want, then you’ll always BE less than you want.
Back to honesty in business: it should be pretty obvious that if you sell a poor quality product or service then people won’t come back for more. Yet some companies and people continue to produce junk. It’s not limited to any one area either; it covers every product and service. I’ve often been frustrated that something I’ve just purchased does not work as expected, or it falls apart after a few uses, or fails at the absolute worst time. Sometimes I don’t even get as far as purchasing: sometimes you just can’t find a particular item made the way it should be.
Lack of honesty is rampant in this Online Business, Internet Marketing space too. There are so many “experts” and “gurus” selling junk it’s amazing. If they’re not selling junk, they’re giving bad advice. MY advice: be careful who you choose to follow. Do some research and see what others have to say about them. Spend some time reading their blogs. Follow the links of sites that they mention and read those blogs. Are they just clones of themselves, possibly their coaching clients that they’re promoting? Poke around and you’ll find some are just incestuous good old boy clubs. Others actually recommend and link to quality sites and valuable information that can help you, give you different perspectives to consider, and motivate you, not just try and sell you more of their product or their client’s products.
Don’t get me wrong, I like selling stuff. No, I love selling stuff! I love having those little emails from Paypal saying “you have money”!
See Internet Business Ethics 101 – Eric Graham Rip Off Scam for a related post.
Until Next Time,
Fred
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