Telling the truth can be a complicated business. This was one of the first lessons I learned at a very tender age. Still unable to grasp the importance of the school timetable in my first week, I rolled up for class 20 minutes late having been diverted by a group of my friends. By the time I walked in, the teacher was so fraught that lying seemed to be the best option. Five minutes later I was before the principle because my colorful story was not believed.
At the end of the day when my mother came to collect me she was hauled in to the administration office where I was forced to recount my rather elaborate story before being made to apologise to the grown-ups and promise to always to tell the truth. Just as we were about to leave she reminded my mother that the school day actually finished at 3:30pm and noted that she had arrived five minutes after the bell. My mother was really annoyed; angry with me for telling lies and irritated by the principle’s observation on the importance of time-keeping on her part.
At the end of the day when my mother came to collect me she was hauled in to the administration office where I was forced to recount my rather elaborate story before being made to apologise to the grown-ups and promise to always to tell the truth. Just as we were about to leave she reminded my mother that the school day actually finished at 3:30pm and noted that she had arrived five minutes after the bell. My mother was really annoyed; angry with me for telling lies and irritated by the principle’s observation on the importance of time-keeping on her part.
On seeing me the next day the principle asked me what my mother had to say about the previous day’s events.
"Oh," I responded brimming with determination to only tell the truth, "she thinks you are an interfering, old busybody."
I realized there and then that telling the truth can sometimes be painful.
Why am I recounting this childhood story for you? Telling the truth in business, as I have now discovered, can be a rather precarious thing to do and certainly does not endear you to people in power or seeming authority. Tact and sensitivity are necessary accompaniments for telling the truth. When facts need to surface, ethical standards work in positions to influence what is really happening in the landscape of real estate. If you are too afraid to tell the truth, or even cover the most basic facts and market trends in an open way, then you are in the wrong profession and doing a great disservice to real estate and your clients.
Ours is a noble profession. Those who have become an extension of an agency which uses fear and intimidation with their clients, are not worthy and at the end of the day the truth will be out there. Telling the truth might be an act of courage but it is also a powerful entity, which can open doors, and mobilize people to fight for what is right and what is just.
Why am I recounting this childhood story for you? Telling the truth in business, as I have now discovered, can be a rather precarious thing to do and certainly does not endear you to people in power or seeming authority. Tact and sensitivity are necessary accompaniments for telling the truth. When facts need to surface, ethical standards work in positions to influence what is really happening in the landscape of real estate. If you are too afraid to tell the truth, or even cover the most basic facts and market trends in an open way, then you are in the wrong profession and doing a great disservice to real estate and your clients.
Ours is a noble profession. Those who have become an extension of an agency which uses fear and intimidation with their clients, are not worthy and at the end of the day the truth will be out there. Telling the truth might be an act of courage but it is also a powerful entity, which can open doors, and mobilize people to fight for what is right and what is just.
Everyone is entitled to their opinions but the truth is empowering to those who speak it and listen to it.
