If you’re interested in building strong relationships of loyalty with your customers, if you’re interested in building a brand that endures, if you’re interested in building an iconic enterprise, then being incredibly honest is really a very powerful way to operate. Most entrepreneurs, most business people, most empire-makers play a very short game. It’s a cash grab. It’s try to get as much, from as many people, as quickly, as possible. The true legendary leaders, the true titans of industry, are thinking about a very long game. They’re saying, “Yes, I want to be world-class, but I want to own my domain for the next 30 years, 40 years, or 50 years.” They even think, like the Japanese companies, how their reputation will be considered 100 years after they’re no longer alive. That’s really a great example of playing the long game.
