The Self-Reliant Entrepreneur

May 20No Single Exception

The great poets are to be known by the absence in them of tricks, and by the justification of perfect personal candor. All faults may be forgiven of those who have perfect candor. Henceforth let no one of us lie, for we have seen that openness wins the inner and outer world, and that there is no single exception, … and that the soul has never once been fooled and never can be fooled.

Walt Whitman—Preface to Leaves of Grass (1855)

Even The Conflicted Entrepreneur's Guide to Sort of Having Business Ethics is likely to suggest that it's a bad idea to lie in business. (Don't worry; this book doesn't actually exist.)

While this should be a pretty open-and-shut discussion, it's not.

We can all agree that openness, transparency, and honesty are brilliant values, but as an entrepreneur you'll have them tested in an unimaginable range of circumstances.

And there's one test you may not have considered: the lies you tell yourself.

What? What are you talking about? That you really didn't want that project because the people would probably be a pain to work with, even though, you didn't put in the work you knew it would take to land it. That kind of thing.

There's a level of self-preservation that this sort of self-talk brings, but there's also a giant dose of cognitive dissonance—a notion that we experience mental discomfort when we attempt to hold two different and conflicting ideas simultaneously.

Your soul can't be fooled. Work it out.

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