Why you can't do business with liars

"Most forms of private vice and public evil are kindled and sustained by lies. Acts of adultery and other personal betrayals, financial fraud, government corruption—even murder and genocide—generally require an additional moral defect: a willingness to lie.

In Lying, bestselling author and neuroscientist Sam Harris argues that we can radically simplify our lives and improve society by merely telling the truth in situations where others often lie. He focuses on “white” lies—those lies we tell for the purpose of sparing people discomfort—for these are the lies that most often tempt us. And they tend to be the only lies that good people tell while imagining that they are being good in the process." From Sam Harris, the author of Lying (extract from www.samharris.com).

Last week, I had someone say in front of me a lie to show how easy it was for them to do it - just for sport. It really 'got up my goat'. I didn't say anything but I thought about it long after the person said it and I really couldn't get it out of my mind.

Then today, a person who has repetitively lied to me, and it was recorded several times, just kept upping the ante. I lost it! Why do some people do this while others don't? I am fine with white lies as they hurt no-one - only the politically correct. I am more than happy to say that a dress looks great on a friend, when it doesn't, or that my friend is better off without her boyfriend when he has dumped her, when all she had to do was be a bit more accommodating and they possibly would have made it all the way to the alter and lived happily ever after.

In business you have to be careful. It is important that everything you do, is a true representation of your brand and that you choose other like-minded brands that have the same core values as you do. When people lie too much, they tend to start believing lies and all of a sudden, it becomes 'their version of the truth'. 

Good or bad, our employees are encouraged to say that they took a "sickie" because they had a big night or would be late for whatever reason it is - even if it is something that perhaps I wouldn't like to hear. 

Does people lying annoy you? Do you call people out on it? Do you just keep quiet and realize that perhaps they didn't mean to lie but just can't help themselves?