Welcome to Integrity: The Best Foundation, the book and video series that is designed to help you live and lead with integrity.

Dishonesty can be costly.

Have you ever been deceived by a salesperson? My wife and I had a salesperson who intentionally deceived us. We had just moved to a new city and we needed to purchase a bed mattress for our own home. We went to a local store and we found one we liked, and the salesman told us about new pillows. He claimed that these pillows were essential for the quality of sleep as much as a mattress was. It seemed to make sense, so we added pillows to our purchase. The pillows needed to be a special order, and they would arrive some time after the mattress.

For some reason, the pillow delivery was delayed and delayed and delayed. So I phoned the store to inquire when I might expect my special pillows. The store manager said, "We're still having trouble getting them from the supplier." Then he added, "In my opinion, pillows don't make much difference to the quality of your sleep. What matters is the mattress." And I replied, "Well, I was informed by your sales person that those pillows could make a huge difference to the quality of our sleep." The sales manager almost sounded annoyed with me, and he said, "None of our people would ever say that." Well, we had been deceived. It was more than misinformation; it was intentional dishonesty for the sake of a sale.

Did we continue to do business with that store? No. Will we go back and purchase anything else from that store? Not likely. If they had been honest with us, likely, we would have purchased other things from them. In this case, dishonesty has cost them sales.

Well, what's the big deal? Every day, you and I are fed misinformation, fake information, conspiracy theories, or disinformation. The global COVID pandemic has magnified people's mistrust of what is being said by the scientific community, political, and news community.

The Oxford Dictionary made its word of the year in 2016, "Post-truth." Post-truth was defined as "Relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief." Post-truth implies that perceptions create realities. What people want to believe will form their truth. The post-truth society values instincts or aspirations more than it does truth. And as a result, it is possible to assert things with no factual basis. People may criticize an assertion, and fact finders check and expose the falsehood of it, but it makes no difference whatsoever. People just keep asserting something, and a large number of people will keep believing it, even if it's blatantly untrue.

So does calling the duck an eagle make a duck an eagle? Fake news, misinformation, and disinformation almost seem to be the way today. For years, the news was trusted, reliable, and factual; news is no longer just the facts. Fake news contains lies and propaganda, and fiction. Stories are written using language that is deliberately inflammatory, and is selective in its pertinent details. It promotes a viewpoint. Fake news may contain a nugget of truth, but it offers an intentional conclusion that often lacks an accurate contextualization. And the more false news reports are given, the more conspiracy and confusion grows.

Today, many news outlets are recognized for their bias. Listeners attempt to somehow filter the information. Some journalists are even willing to present disinformation as fact.

What is truth? The Oxford Dictionary says, "Truth is conformity with fact or reality. It is verified or indisputable fact, accurate proposition or principle." Synonyms to truth are fidelity, honesty, integrity, accuracy, or certainty.

Truth sets free, while dishonesty destroys. Without truth, significant issues cannot be addressed or resolved. Truth provides the best foundation for life and leadership So in this lesson, we have seen how dishonesty undermines confidence, and how a lack of truth is very costly.