I Traded my Integrity for the Cost of a Tape Recorder
Rich Russakoff
Internationally Renowned Speaker, Serial Entrepreneur, #1 Amazon Best Selling Author & Coach of 7 EY Entrepreneur of the Year Award Winners, and over 100 INC. 500 Award Winners.Sc
In 1972, I was working in Washington DC for The Youth Citizens Fund and was given a portable tape recorder to use for the duration of a project.
When asked to return the tape recorder after the project ended, I couldn't find it. I was embarrassed and made a stupid and regrettable decision. I told the head of the project I had already dropped it off.
I didn't work with them again after that. All of my previous contributions were of no relevance. They had lost trust in me. Later I found the tape recorder, but I was too ashamed to tell them. I had traded my integrity for a $90 tape recorder that I could have replaced.
Before Moe and I left for a business trip in February, I asked our administrative assistant to mail an album of photos I promised to send to a friend. While we were on the trip, she said that she had sent them.
When we returned, I asked my friend if she received them, and she said she had not. I was concerned that we might have mailed them to the wrong address, and our associate said she might have the receipt from the post office in her car, and that she would check and let me know.
We never heard from her again. I was devastated, thinking the photos were lost. Later I found the album of photos. It appears I put them back in a drawer, thinking it was another album.
How sad that our associate fell into the same moral trap I did four decades earlier.
领英推荐
There is a lesson here we can teach our children when inevitably we catch them in a white lie. Teach them that they will face tough decisions throughout their life, and the importance of taking responsibility for their actions. Explain to them why it's better to tell the truth and deal with the immediate consequences than to be caught in a lie and have people lose trust in them.
Make today the day you teach a child that honesty is a badge of courage. Encourage them to face up rather than try to cover up a lie and have to lie again.?
Or you can make this the day you reach out to someone whose trust you lost in a similar situation. You'll feel better for it, and most people will respect your courage.
If you want to receive Rich’s invaluable lessons daily sign up for his newsletter HERE.
?Get a copy of Rich’s Amazon Best Seller book People Time & Money Vol 2 HERE.