Tom’s Tidbits- No, you don’t have to be a fraud to be in business

Greetings,

The case of the People of New York v Donald J. Trump is in the books, and the result is our 45th president was tagged with over $400 million in disgorgement, penalties, and interest. Pundits might choose to talk about the motivations behind the trial, the role of the lawyers, who the injured parties might be, whether the penalties were fair, or, as Engoron did, the “complete lack of contrition and remorse [that] borders on pathological”. But I’d like to say just a little about one of Trump’s assumptions that’s shared by too many other people in today’s business world.

Trump’s trial exposed a real estate empire based on blatant, intentional, repeated fraud covering years. A lifetime of those shady practices put him in business-bed with other people just as shady, people motivated by malice and greed and enabled by dishonesty. Like him, they believe If you get ripped off it’s your fault for not being smarter… you deserve to be abused, and the stupider you are the more you deserve it. That may indeed be the way the world works in their minds, but out here in reality NOT EVERYONE RELIES ON FRAUD TO RUN THEIR BUSINESS!

That struck home for me not just as an American but specifically as a businessman. He portrayed the business world as a factory farm harvesting suckers and HIS entire business model relied on that assumption. I don’t think that. I think business is a fair exchange of value that MUST benefit ALL INVOLVED or the business can and should die. OUR business model relies on THAT assumption.

We start being non-fraudulent by creating a trusting, supportive work environment behind the scenes. If we cheat our employees by nickel-and-diming them on the time they spend with us, they won’t perform well day-to-day much less step up when we need them to excel for you. If they cheat us by trying to get by with minimum effort, then we can’t provide the service you need so we can’t give them a stable place to work. We pay our Technicians hourly instead of the industry-standard Flat Rate, so they don’t have to worry about their compensation and can focus on quality service for your vehicle.

Our Service Advisors are the face of our company you see most often and here again, we avoid fraud instead of relying on it. It would be more profitable for our business to have them all on commission and only pay them for what they sell, but a commission can affect the judgement of even the most honest people. That would directly conflict with our goal of providing service in YOUR best interest instead of ours. A commission shop can still be an honest shop, but to us, hourly pay is the only way to ensure we give you service with integrity.

Trump’s slur on business hit me personally but the bigger picture hits us all. We all DESERVE to be treated respectfully and fairly not just in business, but it politics, legally, socially, and in EVERY SPHERE of life. No person or business is perfect and we all make mistakes, but an error is different than a pre-meditated, conscious, willful, consistent effort to disrespect and defraud. Fraud is a choice. Trump was tried and convicted for choosing it. The sad fact is that he’s not alone, and the sadder fact is that more people are joining him. But “more” is not “everyone”, and the greatest fight is to not be part of an “everyone” that encourages or even tolerates fraud as “just the way things are”.

Make a great day,