My sister works at a major Las Vegas hotel located on the strip. She’s also a union steward. She told me about a recent situation where, for a couple of employees, personal honesty took a back seat.

Las Vegas hotels and casinos have a zero tolerance policy for stealing money.

So my sister was suprised to learn that within a two day period, two employees admitted to stealing money. I’m talking about five dollars or less. One, an employee of almost ten years, the other was actually a former “employee of the month”.

No excuse, no tolerance: Instant dismissal

How can someone possibly justify, under any circumstance, taking company property …and in the case where there is a zero tolerance policy, why would they risk their job and future employment, over a few bucks? I mean a very few bucks?

My sister’s reaction was astonishment over how “stupid” these decisions were in light of the consequences. We both agreed It really comes down to a matter of personal integrity. That somewhere along the way both of these people justified stealing as being okay.

My take on it is that you would probably see a pattern of dishonesty in the lives of these two people. What else would explain risking everything over a few dollars? There must have been a long series of little compromises on personal honesty with these two. “Nickel and dime” stuff like watching a cashier give you back more change than he or she is supposed to and saying nothing about it.

There’s always a bigger price to pay.

My gut feeling is that those two employees were pocketing a few dollars here and there over a long period of time. It was so easily justified by their personal attitudes, opinions and beliefs that they didn’t think twice about it …until they got caught.

The more you begin to realize about the power of your intent, the less tolerance you’ll have for the compromise of “grey areas”. As you evolve spiritually, honesty actually becomes more black and white. You begin to see that the “grey areas” are just so much rationale that justifies dishonesty.

The good that comes from this is you begin to see how you’ve been “spinning” the truth to yourself, regarding certain things in your life. You begin to realize that you’ve been using your power to rationalize in a manner that has been working against your best long term interest.

In the case of the two employees they created bad habits which finally caught up to them.

In your case, being able to recognize a self administered excuse, which spins the truth …and taking steps to avoid or stop the “spin”, can be a powerful building block necessary to the foundation, you must build, in order to sustain a lifestyle of joy, fulfillment and prosperity.

-Bob Baran