Intellectual Honesty in Marketing and Life

When I spent a few weeks without updating my Face Book Groups, I was expecting to see their membership reduced probably by a few dozen people. I was pleasantly surprised to see that in all actuality, the groups did grow, if not by much, they were alive and thriving.

I have friends who have groups three and four times the size of mine; and I am happy for them. Hopefully, they are making a lot of money, and helping others at the same time. I could have grown my groups by a lot, if I had used the same principles that I used to create them. But in reality, I am more interested in giving freely to the community. My work schedule could be considered backbreaking; so I do not feel bad about not having breached the thousand members yet.

This morning however, when I visited my groups for a second, I saw that three people had signed off. I was in a hurry, since I was running late for my part time job. “Note to self, Blog about my part time job.”

A few hours later, I started my research, and an idea came to mind.

My last post was about Honesty, and credibility… If you have not read it, please do.

I knew when I wrote that post, that it would be controversial; specially, after I posted another bit of news (this time from a newspaper blogger) to my Face Book Profile. It did generated a lot of views, controversy, and comments.

I dislike conflict, that is my nature. You would say, “yeah right, this guy spent 22 years as a professional Soldier, is a martial artist, at 42, earned the 2d Infantry Division Heavy weight Tae Kwon Do Championship for his belt class, and he says that he hates conflict?” Well, believe it or not, I do.

But I ran with the post. I try to be intellectually honest, and as a blogger, I express my ideas. If you have read some of my posts, by now you know that I emphasize honesty and integrity in business and in life. Yet, when you stick by your guns, speak your mind, and make your beliefs known, people will call you controversial.

I do a lot of work in Civil Rights, and unfortunately, I see the good and the bad in mankind, more often than not, I see the bad; and have to confront it face to face. So, when on my last post I started by exposing how the media here in the United States used the comments of a blogger , a fake one at that (the author of the blog was a fictional character created as an idea for a TV show according to Associated Press), to trash a candidate for Vice President of the Nation, I knew that I would be touching some readers sensitive spot. Yet I ran with it anyway.

So, at this point I tell you today, that as a business person or an entrepreneur, there will be times when you will shake your head. And have doubts about what you are about to do. That my friends, is the time to ask yourself some questions:

1. Is it legal? If not, why are you considering it in the first place?

2. Is it morally right?

3. Who will be affected by my decision?

4. What kind of effect will my business suffer, or enjoy, as a consequence of my actions?

5. How will the image of my business or mine be affected?

6. Will I loose revenue? Will I have to lay off personnel?

7. Is there any other way to achieve my goal without harming anyone?

Intellectual honesty brings rewards as well as not so great consequences; but at the end, to me, it is important that I can look at the guy who is looking back at me when I face a mirror and be satisfied.

One of the hardest things that humans do, is becoming aware of themselves, and the reason it is hard, is because sometimes we do not like what we see. Sometimes we see weakness, or selfishness, or ignorance, or evil. Some of these characteristics, can be changed, but is not that easy.

I equate these traits to an addiction. You cannot change anything in yourself, if you are not aware of it. The alcoholic will not stop binge drinking as long as she or he does not realize that they have a problem. The addict will not quit the habit as long as he or she continues to find excuses for their behavior.

Businesses take the identity and some of the traits of their founders and managers. Why am I saying this? A business will be only as successful as their managers or owners. So, if you want to be a successful entrepreneur, I suggest that you start by analyzing yourself. What are your motivations? Making money? There is nothing wrong with that. Is how you go about making your goals a reality that matters.

Remember the list of questions that I suggested you ask yourself when you are about to make a decision and the butterflies start messing around in your gut? Use the same questions when is time to make a business decision as when is time to make a personal one.

Intellectual honesty does not come cheap or easily, it takes guts, but, as you make it a habit of doing the right thing, it will indeed become easy. That uneasy feeling is what is call a cognitive dissonance, in other words, when your values contradict what you are about to do. Understand that your values are yours alone. Some other people might believe the way you do, but some others will believe otherwise, and there is where controversy starts. There is no way to convince everybody all of the time; and the sooner you come to terms with this reality, the sooner you will achieve peace. As long as you remain honest to yourself, your conscience will be ok.

But, as always there is a but somewhere in there… as a good friend of mine suggests every time we teach, look at yourself in the mirror. Be honest with yourself, find something that you cannot quite put your finger on, and that either cause you to doubt, or straight up makes you feel uncomfortable, and you would like to improve on. Understand where that trait, or habit came from, and figure out a way to modify that behavior, habit, or way of thinking. Make it a point to improve yourself, one day at a time.

Being intellectually honest with yourself, makes it easier to be honest with others as well. And as you portray the image of the honest person, you also portray the image of the honest business person. A lot of people might not agree with what you say or do, but eventually, they will learn to respect you and your business. Personally, I don’t like crooks, and can’t care less what they think of me. As long as I am honest with myself, and in all my dealings, my business will be ok, and so will I.

What values are important for you and for your business? Why? Who taught you those values? Have they changed over the years? Let me know.

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Intellectual Honesty 101

Intellectual dis honesty

Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) and Making Money

Twenty years ago, in Germany, I approached my Troop Commander, I was supposed to communicate an important message to him. He was a very busy man, we all were on those days, and the pace has not slowed down yet. His opening statement to me was direct and to the point: “I have ADD, if you cannot tell me in less than two minutes, do not waste your time or mine”. His ADD did not slowed him down. He went to become a very successful leader, and he taught me a very important lesson. “Objectivity” + “Purpose“ + “Specificity“ = “Success“. Let’s see if we can apply that lesson to making money.


Objectivity: I have a degree of Attention Deficit Disorder myself, and like my old Troop Commander, if you describe every single detail of a conversation, you will drive me nuts, you will bore me to death, and even though I will try to be polite and listen to you, the bottom line is that I will probably be thinking of something else within the first few minutes. I have limitations. I know that. As a Martial Artist, I know that my ground fighting abilities are not as good as I would like. As a writer, I still have trouble differentiating between the word belief and believe, you see, English is my second language.


It is important to be objective and know where your weaknesses and strengths are. So, when I listen to an audio class, and the speaker is talking about wiggling his fingers, I start shaking my head and doing something else, like right now, I’m writing, and trying to listen to a class. I have learned to overcompensate for my weaknesses. I’m a ferocious fighter, and will overwhelm you in the first few seconds of the fight, that is enough for me to win. In combat, you just need to win the fight and survive, it does not need to be pretty, you just need to keep yourself and your party alive. Some people cannot see their weaknesses, and cannot see how to overcompensate in order to accomplish their mission, whether it be survival, or making money in business.


Understand that you need to know what your weaknesses are, and figure out a way to overcome them, or go around them. If you are lousy at Statistical Analysis, find a friend that is good at that, and is willing to help you. If you are a lousy teacher, find someone who can teach. If you don’t know how to make a website, learn.
Purpose: What do you want to achieve? I have talked before about William Tell and how hard, if not impossible, if for good ole Mr. Tell to hit the apple on his son’s head, if he was blindfolded. Remember my old Troop Commander? I figured out that if I could tell him what I wanted to do in three sentences or less, he would always say yes. You need to know what your goal is, and the more that you can narrow it down, the easier will be for you to achieve your purpose.


Specificity: This is a quality that you need to cultivate. How many of us do hate meetings? How many of us like meetings? My main problem with meetings is the wanna be leaders that cannot say what they need to say in three sentences or less, shut up, and sit down. I found that I can finish a meeting in 15 minutes or less, if I am objective about what we need to do, what our limitations are, what our capabilities are, and what resources we can muster; if I know what my purpose is, and if I can narrow our goals as specifically as possible.


In every organization, you can find people that have incredible capabilities, your only problem is that you need to get to know them. If you are a lone wolf, like me, I try to learn how to do everything; we call that cross training in the Army. But you can always find someone who can give you a hand. Remember the story of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. Making money is easy, you know how to do it, you just need to figure out a plan of action, put everything together, involve the right people, take action, and voila…
In short, “Objectivity” + “Purpose“ + “Specificity“ = “Success“.


Think about your previous experiences. Has this article given you new ideas? The way you do business, could you use new ideas? Can you change the way you do certain things in your day to day operations that would save you money, and improve your output? Share your ideas with us…



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For more information on ADD, follow these links:

NHS Blog Doctor: Age Activated Attention Deficit Disorder : AAADD

Treatment Options for ADHD

Virtual ADD ADHD Conference

The Looming Attention Crisis

What I Said May Not Be What I Mean