Why Would I Ever Want to Do Business with You?

“We have a problem. The hotel wants to charge us for 28 more room nights.”

It was the first day of our three-day conference in Chicago, and the meeting’s organizer dropped this bombshell on the group.

Many state hospital associations around the country have subsidiary corporations that offer products and services to their member hospitals in their respective states. Every year, those of us who ran those companies met to share our successes and challenges. And sometimes, one of the states would introduce a program they developed for possible adoption in our own states.

Attendance at these meetings typically ran about 15 – 20 people, but we had invited a top-notch, nationally known speaker for this Chicago meeting, something the group’s leaders thought would double attendance. They were so sure at least 30 people would attend that they guaranteed 60 rooms for our hotel block.

As it turned out, only 16 showed up, so we were 28 rooms short of our room count commitment. Consequently, the hotel asked us to write a check for more than $4,000.

The group had the means to make good on its obligation but obviously would rather not. “How do we handle this?” the organizer asked. As we sat around the table, people began throwing out ideas.  Here are a couple of the more “creative” ones.

• “We could tell them the person who signed the contract wasn’t authorized to do that, so we shouldn’t have to pay.” – This wasn’t true. The organizer herself had personally approved the agreement.

• Or, “Why don’t we tell them that if they write off our obligation, we’ll come back to their hotel for next year’s meeting?” – Also not true. We never repeated cities and there was zero chance we would return.

Several other deceptive ideas were floated.

In the end, we threw ourselves on the mercy of the hotel and got them to cut in half the amount we owed. But I learned an important lesson that day. I saw that some of my colleagues were willing to lie if it was to their advantage.

My lightning-quick mind put two and two together, and I recognized I would have to be on my guard the next time one of them approached me about adopting one of their services. If they have no scruples about lying about the hotel rooms, how would I know they’re not lying to me about some aspect of their programs?

This whole episode was very disappointing, but it remined me about the importance of reputation and integrity. The Old Testament is filled with admonitions about doing the right thing.

• In Psalm 15, among the 12 characteristics of people who “will never be shaken” are those "who keep their oath even when it hurts” (v. 4).

• Proverb 11:1 states, “Dishonest scales are an abomination to the Lord.”

And in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus teaches that we should be so squeaky-clean honest that we would never feel the need to swear an oath. Our word should be sufficient. “’All you need to say is simply “Yes” or “No”; anything beyond this comes from the evil one” (Matthew 5:37).

Unfortunately, my professional acquaintances failed to follow these guidelines, and I saw it.

So how are you doing? Have you done anything before your family, friends or co-workers that demonstrates that you might not be 100% trustworthy?  If so, you might want to recalibrate your integrity meter, especially if you consider yourself a Christ-follower.

NOTE:  As many authors do, I sometimes change a few details in my writings for privacy purposes.