In more situations than you would think, you should NOT be honest or else you are doing yourself (and others for that matter) a disservice.
Hm. Let me preface this by saying that I do not consider corporations or sales entities necessarily trustable.
Take for example, car buying. Do you take the 'sticker price' as that is the 'honest' price for the car?
Do you really give the car sales person your absolute bottom price right away? Do you threaten to leave even though you have them at a good price point to get them down even more?
In answer to your questions, in order: the sticker price is a relatively honest price for the car, yes. You can consider it a "reference" price. Just like any item sold has an MSRP.
Do I really give the car sales person my absolute bottom price right away? In the last three transactions, the first two I did exactly that, yes. I gathered the data, worked up a fair price based on the dealer's cost plus a fair profit, laid out my terms and contacted the dealer.
The last transaction, I basically told the dealer "We know that all the numbers are available online. I'm not looking for an out-the-door price to beat my neighbor—I just want a fair deal. I know exactly what I want, I know exactly how much it costs. I don't want to haggle, I don't want to spend any time sitting across a table from you talking price."
I ended up with a pretty darn reasonable deal that I'm completely satisfied with, and exactly the car I wanted. I've had dealers try to screw with me after I said stuff like that in the past, and I've just walked away.
So ...in order of your questions, yes, yes, no.
Do you trust the car person when they say, hey I know you wanted a used car but trust me, this new car will be better for you because....?
No, because I make it clear that I know exactly what I want out of the transaction up front.
What about when you call your credit card company and they ask you if you want to 'trust' in their loss of wages insurance (or whatever they call it) and paying your min balance? Do you buy that?
I am unfamiliar with what you're describing, but if it's an insurance product I generally stay away from them. Especially warranties. I tell the sales people that I'm not interested in paying money to them to insure their own products. If they get aggressive, I question whether they actually have faith in the products they're selling if they're so worried about warrantying them.
The airplane is low on oil, the mechanic comes out and fills it after you completed your walk around...do you trust them? Or do you verify?
I do both. I trust the mechanic's intent, but I verify the oil level of an airplane as a matter of course. Being a trusting person doesn't imply that I don't check things.
As can I. I don't really see your point, if you've made it above, unless it's "don't trust sales people" ... which is a fairly good rule, as they're not acting on their own faith but instead representing a company, which is not a person and cannot be trusted.
Yes, trust and honesty are important, I consider myself to be both a trust worthy and honest person, BUT, I will lie and I will not trust people in the future, like I have done in the past.
There's a rather unsubtle difference between "I am a trusting person, to a point." and "I trust everything I'm told."
But no, I don't generally lie. When I do, it's often inadvertent in the course of presenting information that I later realize was false... and when I do that, I try to own it as soon as I realize it.
One final question. How would you answer during an interview, 'Have you ever lied?'.
What I would think:
"What, is that a real question? Am I a pimply-faced adolescent interviewing for a retail position?"
What I would say:
"I would have great difficulty believing someone who told me that they'd
never lied, but lying is foreign to my character and with the exception of the occasional lie of politeness, I hold myself to scrupulous honesty."
And that's my honest answer.
-Fox
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