This topic has been on my mind the last couple of weeks. Its really simple. But yet, it is sometimes hard. Let your word be truth. 

In my several businesses and in the groups I interact with, the vast majority of people are honorable and do what they say they will. There are, however, always a handful of folks that don’t. They make promises, commitments, gestures that they don’t follow through on. It’s hard to say if they ever intended to or not. Maybe they just made those gestures to seal a deal or whatever. But either way, it immediately erodes any trust I have in anything they say. It compounds the issue when I make promises or statements that involve their promises or statements. They make me a liar because they were liars. 

I seem to be encountering this more and more lately. I wonder if it is a habit of overcommitting, an erosion of integrity or just haphazard dealings mixed with inexperience. I hope it is the later of these options and the people I encounter it in will “grow out of it” but I fear that is not the case. I have also noticed a tremendous rise in “contracts” for very simple relationships. These contracts usually do not spell out every eventuality and when someone doesn’t make good on the finer details, they hide behind it and say, “well, that wasn’t explicitly in the contract.” I suppose legally they are right but ethically, that’s a crappy way to do business. 

I encourage you to look at your own practices. Do you make good on the things you say? Not just in “contracts” but in your verbal and implied promises? If not, why not? Do you expect others to? Am I too old fashioned and should just let people off the hook? I wonder if some people feel the pressure of making good and just fold. So, in that case, am I too strict in my interpretation and causing them distress? Are we just soft nowadays?