Idea 99: Don’t make promises unless you keep them

Well done is better than well said.

Benjamin Franklin, one of the Founding Fathers of America

All human relationships, professional and personal, depend on trust. And it is truth that creates trust. Conversely, untruth in all its guises – dishonesty, lying, insincerity, deviousness, lack of integrity – erodes and eventually destroys trust between people.

A promise is a verbal or written engagement to do (or not to do) some specific act. If you don’t do as you promise, then in the eyes of the other person you have placed yourself firmly and squarely in the untruth camp. How does that feel?

There is then a domino effect. Trust levels fall, and that in turn reduces the existing goodwill. As the ...

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