On the TUNNEYSIDE of SPORTS July 25, 2016 #603 Up next… “A lesson in Fair Play”
After further review…A friend who has since passed away shared with me this story: One day while golfing with colleagues in the insurance industry, he said he discovered yet another example of honesty being the best policy. He knew two of the men in his foursome and was just getting to know the fourth, he called him Ace; and by the third hole, he learned more.
Ace and his business partner had owned a property and casualty insurance agency. They had put in the years and the sweat, as their agency grew into a respectable mid-size firm. It attracted the attention of one of the big conglomerates. After some negotiations, Ace and his partner decided to sell to the “big guns,” agreeing to stay on as consultants and continue to do some selling. The paperwork was completed; everyone seemed pleased.
After a couple years, Ace and his partner felt they weren’t active enough and decided they wanted to go back to running a brisker business, like they had before. The big guns said they couldn’t, claiming they had agreed to never again work in insurance outside the big firm. Ace said, “Show me where we agreed to any such thing.” The big guns claimed it had been an oral agreement. Ace knew there had never been such a discussion, much less an agreement, so he said, “See ya in court.”
In court, the judge agreed that an oral contact is as good as a written one, if it could be established there was such. The judge’s question was: which one to believe? After two days of listening to both sides the judge said, “It’s basically a question of who do I believe, and in the absence of any real evidence, I have to go with my gut and my gut tells me to trust experience.” The judge continued, “the experience that’s relevant here is that a number of years ago Mr. Ace played in the state golf championship. On the 18th fairway, he hooked his second shot into a bunker. He was up and out in one, made the putt and everyone thought he had won the tournament, except that Ace announced that he had grounded his club in the bunker and declared a two-shot penalty on himself.”
Further the judge said, “No one had seen Ace ground his club. He could have not said anything and taken the win, but he didn’t. He told the truth, when he didn’t have to; and I believe he is telling the truth now. Case closed.”
Will you step-up to tell the truth when you could have dodged it?
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