I’m reminded of a conversation I had with Tim. He sold a business (it was more of an asset sale) and he had to close it down. They had a lot of payables to take care of, which many could have seen as a perfect opportunity to avoid fully paying all of their vendors.
Yet after meeting with his partners, he felt that the right thing to do was to get another round of investment for this failing business, money they would never get back, in order to pay the bills and do the right thing for their vendors.
What I didn’t tell you about Tim is that a year earlier, he had purchased new wheels and new tires for his car from a company called Discount Tire. They were one of the venders of this business that he was closing down.
He tallied up what the business owed them, yet he was unaware that he left out the $1,600 for the tires and the rims he had purchased earlier in the year. He paid off what he thought was the remaining balance and considered Discount Tire taken care of. Not long after, Discount Tire sent a note saying, “You’re all set, you don’t owe us anything. You’re paid in full. Thanks for making it right.”
Six months after the business was completely closed, Tim was on a run and it came to his mind, “Did I include the $1,600 for new wheels and tires when I paid that bill?” He went back in a file and found, sure enough, the tires and rims weren’t paid for. No one ever would have known.
Discount Tire said they were already satisfied.
But Tim knew.
And call it conscious, call it what you want, he couldn’t shake the thought day after day.
So, Tim decided to write a check to Discount Tire for sixteen hundred dollars and mail it to their CEO. He explained, “We found an error on our end that we didn’t pay for one set of tires and rims. Even though you cleared our account, we still owe this to you.”
Soon, Tim received a personal note from the CEO saying, “I wish we saw more of this in the world.” He shared that he was so appreciative of Tim’s honesty.
For Tim, this wasn’t about getting the recognition and note back as much as it was about following his conscious and doing the right thing.
Now am I proposing that we go back in our lives and try to correct every wrong? No, but perhaps you can think of a situation or a time where something didn’t go quite right, and it would make sense for you to go back and clean it up.
Tim later shared with me how that one decision helped him face other moments and make things right immediately.
It really was a reset for him to do the right thing, and do it right away.
Don’t let it linger, because if you do, you’ll begin to justify it. We can so easily talk ourselves out of doing the right thing.