Ten years ago, someone attempted to drive a wedge between myself and a female friend. He confronted her and told her that I had said some negative things about her. She looked at him and while smiling said, ‘I know you are lying.’ He was shocked and inquired as to why she would say that. She said, ‘I have never heard Ronnie speak negatively about anyone and because of that I know that he wouldn’t do it about me either.’

Do you know what? She was right, I had said nothing negative about her.

Five years ago, I was in business with my cousin. An associate of ours wanted to get me out of the picture so he buddied up to my cousin and said, ‘Your cousin has been saying some bad stuff about you.’ My cousin didn’t even look up from his work, but the first words out of his mouth were, ‘You obviously don’t know Ronnie or you would have never said that. He doesn’t talk like that.’

Two scenarios, separated by five years, yet two people who knew me better than most confidently told my accusers that they had never heard me speak negatively about anyone and because of that knew they were lying.

Here is the life lesson:

In your office, organization or circle of friends if you want to see a cancer spread faster than almost anything…begin to speak negatively about others when they are not around. Not only will a cancer spread in your group that will fragment it into factions, but you will no longer be trustworthy. It made me feel good that my friends didn’t say, ‘I know you are lying because he is my friend or loyal to me.’ I am glad they didn’t say that because friendships change. Instead, they spoke to my character in my defense.

Do I always get it right in this area? Certainly not. Last year, a man had irritated me so bad that I often fantasized about planting my knuckles in the back of his skull via his nostrils. I was so irritated I began spewing my venom to a few who would listen. Finally, I realized the damage I was doing to my reputation and I confronted him.

Do you want to be a top notch sales professional? Attempt that without being trusted and try to be trusted while being known as a gossip.

Do you desire to be an effective leader? Again, attempt that without being trusted. A simple way to lose trust is gossip.

Develop a reputation as someone who can be trusted not because of your

loyalty to your friends, but because of your character and watch as your business skyrockets!

Ron White has traveled the country and world sharing with business professionals and students the value of a trained memory, and success principles. Ron has delivered tailored workshops for: General Motors • Microsoft • Boy Scouts of America • Lexus • Coldwell Banker • Norwest Mortgage • Century 21 • the US Army and thousands more across the country. In early July, Ron broke a Guinness World Record by memorizing a 28-digit number in 1 minute and 15 seconds on live television. With every event, Ron’s goal is to pass on valuable ideas, skills and strategies to help you in your career, to be a better student, teacher, parent and leader.  To learn more about Ron White, including his audio biography, please visit Memory in a Month.com