You may have noticed I haven’t posted in awhile. My schedule has been insanely busy, and I have been doing a lot of traveling. Deal with it.
The other day, I had an interesting experience. When you read it, you may think it is trivial. But for me, it was profound. It almost felt like one of those scenes in a cartoon where there is a little devil on your shoulder, and a tiny angel on the other, with each trying to influence you.
I went through the drive-thru of a fast food place, and the guy at the window gave me 80 cents in change, when I was only supposed to get 20 cents.
My first thought was “Sweet. Bonus money. Your mistake, dude.”
My second thought was “Umm . . . this is kind of like stealing.”
Third thought, “Hey, it was their mistake. They pay. Besides, it’s only 60 cents.”
Ultimately, I realized that if I kept the money, I would be basically selling out my morals for 60 cents.
Some of you may be thinking “Psh. I wouldn’t sell out for 60 cents.”
What if it was 60 dollars?
Or 600 dollars?
The bottom line is this. To be a great business person, you need to decide RIGHT NOW that you will not compromise your morals for any amount. By deciding now, before you are in a situation like I was in, then you don’t have to make a decision. You just need to act upon a decision you already made.
I had made that decision before. So those thought processes I told you about went by in about .012 seconds. I just had to remember that I had already decided to always behave according to my ethical beliefs.
Yes, I gave the 60 cents back.
