Inglês Intermediário

Recently, I caught up with one of our angel investors for lunch: Peter is a briliant entrepreneur fom England who has lived all over the world. He has built several businesses and now lives a dream life with a house on a harbor, a happy family and a broad smile.

As our conversation drifted from an update of my company to a deep discussion about life itself, asked him what nhe thought was the secret to success. I expected the standard "never give up" or some other T-shirt slogan, but what he said took me by surprise. "The Secret to success in business and in life is to never, ever, ever tell a lie. Complete honest is is the access to ultimate power", he said.

As we spoke, I started thiking about the little lies I tell every day - often without thiking about it, but not always, I did some research and it seems most of us lie quite a bit. A study by the University of Massachusetts found that 60 percent of adults could not have a 10 - minute conversation without lying at least once. The same study found that 40 percent of people lie on their resumés and a whopping 90 percent of those looking for a date online lie on their profiles. Teenage girls lie more than any other group, wich is attributed to peer pressure and expectation. The study did not investigate the number of lies told by entrepreneurs looking for investiment capital, but I fear we would top the chart.

Peter maintains that telloing lies is the No. 1 reason entrepreneurs fail. Not because telling lies makes you a bad person but because the act of lying plucks you from the present, prevening you from facing what is really going on in your world. Every time you overreport a metric, underreport a cost, are less than honest with a client or a member of your team, you create a false reality and you star living in it.

Like me, peter reads Buddhist philosophy and applies it to business. One of its lessons is to remain in the present, a more peaceful, creative and productiveplace from wich to operate. Every time I tell a lie, i know that I am no longer present. I feel a tightening in my chest and sweat on my palms - just a small amount because I only tell little lies. But lies they are. They place me in a false future, increase my level of stress and prevent and prevent me from being as creative as i can be when I'm fully present. Stress saps our energy and causes nasty consequences for our bodies. We know that lying creats stress; polygraph test measuring blood preasure, perspiration, pulse and skin conductivity can pinpoint a lie with tremendous accuracy.

Since my meeting with Peter a few months ago, i've thought about truth and its relationship to creativity, peace, and ultimately success. I decided to test his ideas by trying to be 100 percent honest and transparent all of the time, even when I did not have to be. It was harder and more frightening than I expected. But the results have been striking. In an investor pitch six months ago, when I ran thought our financial model and budget, I was open about where money had been spent poorly because of mmistakes I had made - even though there was no way the investor could have found this out on his own. I was nervous, but the majority of investors I pitch say no anyway. So I decided to try an experiment: the total truth. At the end of our conversation, he said, "I really appreciate how transparent you've been with me, Rebekah. Give me a day to think about it". The next day he called back and invested. I was stunned!

I've stuck with this philosophy ever since. it's transformed my sense of peace and coincided with our company's most productive period over. Coincidence?

If you are reading and thiking. "This doesn't apply to me - I never lie", you are probably lying to yourself. If you try being hosnest and transparent about everthing. I'm confident that you will find it both difficult and rewarding - and that it will make a measurable difference in your business.

Tradução!

Recentemente, eu pego com um dos nossos investidores anjo para o almoço: Peter éum brilhante empreendedor fom Inglaterra que viveu por todo o mundo. Ele construiuvários negócios e agora vive uma vida de sonho com uma casa em um porto, umafamília feliz e um largo sorriso.

Como nossa conversa derivou de uma atualização da minha empresa para umadiscussão profunda sobre a própria vida, pedida-lhe que nhe pensei que era osegredo para o sucesso. Eu esperava que o padrão "never give up" ou algum outroslogan de t-shirt, mas o que ele disse que me pegou de surpresa. "O segredo para osucesso nos negócios e na vida é nunca, nunca, jamais diga uma mentira. Completa éhonesto é o acesso ao poder supremo", disse ele.

Enquanto falávamos, comecei pensamento sobre as pequenas mentiras que digotodos os dias - muitas vezes sem pensamento sobre isso, mas não sempre, fiz algumaspesquisas e parece que a maioria de nós mentira bastante. Um estudo daUniversidade de Massachusetts concluiu que 60% dos adultos não poderiam ter umaconversa minuto 10 - sem mentir, pelo menos uma vez. O mesmo estudo encontrou. 40 por cento das pessoas mentem em seus currículos e uma gritante de 90 por cento das pessoas à procura de uma mentira de encontro on-line em seus perfis.Adolescentes mentem mais do que qualquer outro grupo, é atribuída a expectativa e.pressão dos pares. O estudo não investigou o número de mentiras ditadas pelosempresários à procura de investimento capital, mas temo que seria no topo dográfico.