BROKEN PROMISES

When you give your word, you make a promise. Perhaps you are promising to meet with someone at a certain time for a certain purpose. Or you promise to fulfill the business agreement that you have decided with someone. You say you will love and cherish someone, you promise to be true and faithful to that commitment. And when you do, if you are as good as your word, you fulfill your promises.

Now, being as good as your word lies at the heart of ethics. When you break your word, when you go back on your promises, when you fail to do what you said you would do—in that act you thereby violate the relationship. That’s pretty serious. You have proven yourself un-trustworthy. Now the person cannot trust you. If they do, they are a fool. Trust requires trust-worthiness. Stephen Covey Jr. says, “Business operates at the speed of trust.” So do relationships. And even your own self-trust depends on you being trustworthy to your self.