We’ve all had occasions where we felt that speaking the truth might be damaging – either for ourselves or the person on the receiving end.
But does speaking the truth pay off?
- Why truth generates trust.
- How to receive multiple payoffs for speaking your truth.
- The question to ask yourself so you can make a conscious choice.
Check out Name That Mouse! Our Kickstarter Campaign launched on June 15th 2021, and we’d love your support! Visit NameThatMouse.com
Speaking truth creates trust.
– David Wood
To find out more about Michael J Maher and view the full episode, go to https://referralspodcast.libsyn.com/
Liked this episode? Comment below.
– TRANSCRIPT –
David Wood: [00:00:00] The other thing you do is you generate trust. You say, Hey, I want to be up front with you and tell you how bad it could go. Like, let’s talk about the worst case scenario first. I’m going to trust you if you do that, particularly since no one else is doing it. An example from my life this week is my landlord has just sent me the itemized deductions.
They want to take from my deposit cause I just moved out and there was some damage. Well, whoa, the damages are like double my deposit. And so we might end up going to small claims court for it. But as I was writing my dispute and here’s what I think the charges should really be, I realized there’s one thing they didn’t charge me for.
They may not have seen it yet. It might be covered up. And I’m so tempted. I can’t tell you how strong the temptation is to let it go because I thought, why do I want to give them more ammunition when this might go to them? This is a negotiation. Why do I want to make that case for them? Right. And I decided in the end to put it in, and here’s the main reason it’s the right thing to do.
It’s just the right thing to do. Hey, check out the top of this, that I think there’s some damage. I think my dog did it, my puppy. And if you think my dog did it, let me know how much you think you should charge all these other things I dispute now. What’s the benefit. Firstly, I feel better about myself, so my confidence goes up.
Cause I don’t have to look over my shoulder all the time that something’s going to bite me on the ass. Yup. But the second thing is maybe they’ll read that and go, oh, well this guy is actually being real with us. He’s not just trying to take us to the cleaners. Maybe we’ll be reasonable with him.
Maybe that’s a bonus. If I get it played out yet, I haven’t had any response from them yet. So I don’t know what’s going to happen. Now I’m not saying you should do this all the time and I want to make this caveat because the question that comes up is should I do this all the time? Like, like, dude should I take risks?
No. I used to be a consulting actuary. My whole life was about assessing risk. Yeah. I’ve found nine times out of 10 it’s been worth it to tell the truth, even if I lose the relationship or if I lose the client or whatever, I find it’s worth it. But one in 10 times, Hey, I’m not perfect. When I was in Bali and they showed up at my doorstep and said, we think you’ve been subletting your Villa to other people and that’s not okay,
and we need you to appear for an interview. I’d love to tell the truth and say, yeah, you’re right. I did it. Let me pay the fine. But then I found out that there could be jail time, subletting my Villa in Bali while I’m trying to negotiate a bribe from within jail to get out. So I decided that’s not a conversation I want to have.
And a lawyer said you should really just leave the country and then come back in a few months. It’ll blow over. So. I’m not saying you should always take that risk. What I would say is write down what could happen, what could go wrong? Okay. If I talk, you know, if I tell the truth, this could go wrong.
This could go wrong. This is the worst case scenario. Then ask yourself what could go wrong. If I come clean, or if I take this risk in my business, if I go and ask this celebrity to endorse my product, if I go on pitch Ted to be a speaker, if I blah, blah, blah, what could go right? And that can be very exciting.
It’s like, oh, wait a minute. I didn’t see like, all these things could come out of it. And then you make a choice. Am I willing to accept the possible consequences? If you are, go and take that risk all day every day, and if you’re not okay, make that conscious choice.
