It takes courage to ask this question.

Most people never do. They move through their careers negotiating, dealing, pushing and pulling — and never once stop to ask the hardest question in business: Am I trustworthy?

Sit with that.

In your work, in your negotiations — Have you been fair?

Have you been too demanding, too hard to work with?

Have you exploited people to get what you want without sufficient respect for their services, their products, their time and their dignity?

These are not comfortable questions. They are necessary ones. Questions of integrity.

Here’s the truth about the cutthroat reputation — it is a slow leak. You may not notice it immediately. You keep winning deals, squeezing negotiations, creating cunning strategies, demanding the maximum while paying the minimum.

Short term it looks like victory. But the long game tells a completely different story.

The room gets smaller. The calls stop coming. People find reasons to work with someone else. And quietly, at street-level, the verdict is already in.

“He will not make it. His dream is damaged. Who will work with someone they can’t trust and don’t like?”

Your good name is your most appreciating asset. Or your most depreciating one. You choose which — deal by deal, negotiation by negotiation, transaction by transaction.

How much does your good name matter to you?

How much will fair compensation and fair purchase prices make a difference in how people talk about you when you are not in the room?

Because they are always talking. The supplier you shortchanged. The partner you outmaneuvered without fairness. The person who walked away feeling used rather than valued.

Fair compensation is not weakness. It is not naivety. It is investment — in your reputation, in your relationships, in the longevity of your vision.

At the end of the day — will you be proud of what you asked for and what you got?

Pride is not just about winning. It is about how you won. The tactics you used. Who got hurt? Who got shortchanged? Whether the people across the table from you felt respected or merely manipulated, played, defeated.

The short game and the long game are not the same game.

Champions of the long game know that their reputation arrives in the room before they do. They protect it fiercely — not with charm, not with bluster, but with consistent fairness and integrity in every single deal.

So ask yourself the question. Honestly. Courageously.

Am I someone others warn about?

Because the street is always talking. And your good name — your real currency in this world — is being made or unmade right now, one negotiation at a time.

Thanks – Michael (he, him)

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This also matters – Street-Level Intelligence and Due Diligence.

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