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What is the cost of a lie? What is the value of truth? This is a true story about our hero-athletes, and how their misjudgments and lies provide lessons that apply to your business, your sales, your career, your success and your legacy.

Ever hear the old joke: “How do you know if a salesman is lying?” Unfortunately, the punch line is, “His lips are moving.”

Unfortunately, the dark joke is currently being used to describe professional athletes talking about steroid use. Under oath. In front of Congress.

Hey, wait a minute, my heroes are lying!?

Yes, and they are just the tip of the iceberg.

At first this whole steroids thing was just a nuisance. Players with money got supersteroids – undetectable. Undetectable means “takes a bit longer to expose.” Ask Marion Jones. A woman who went from grace to disgrace to jail.

Same with Michael Vick, but for a different kind of lie. And most likely the same for steroid charges against Barry Bonds. Bonds may escape jail, but only because steroid use is so rampant in baseball, they would have to arrest half of the players.

Look at what happens when you lie:

• Everyone knows you’re lying.

• You look like a fool.

• Your reputation is shot.

• Your career, if you haven’t already retired, will come to a premature end.

• No induction into the Hall of Fame – or, the distinction of an asterisk next to your name.

• Guilty in the court of public opinion.

• Guilty in a court of law.

• Jail.

Not just costing these gifted players untold millions in salary and sponsorship endorsements, but a reputation so tarnished that their fans are no longer their fans.

My son-in-law Matt was the most rabid (pardon the pun) Michael Vick fan on the planet. As a gesture of pure disgust for Vick’s actions, Matt threw his Michael Vick jerseys outside, and let his two (huge) dogs rip them to shreds. Poetic fan justice.

Michael Vick wasn’t just a villain and a liar; he was an idiot. He gave up $120 million to watch dogs fight. He may have been a great football player, but he has a mean spirit and won’t be forgiven.

Many sports heroes over the past decade are questionable heroes. Are Mark McGwire, Lance Armstrong and Gary Sheffield guilty? Did they or didn’t they break the rules? And if they did, what should be done?

Liars and cheaters in athletics eventually get caught.

Same in sales.

Same in business.

HERE’S THE LESSON: Small errors in judgment, repeated over time, can cost you your career, even if you were one of the best who ever played the game.

Several athletes, after accusation or indictment, came forward and told the truth. Telling the truth takes guts. Most people only come clean after they are caught – Jose Canseco, Jason Giambi, Andy Pettitte and a few others. But most are lying through their teeth and through a host of overpriced lawyers.

You can debate Congress’ self-appointed role as protector of society from people using steroids. Congress is not exactly the bastion of truth itself. If they omitted liars from Congress, there might not be anyone left to run the country.

In sales and in business, there are fewer indictments and less jail time, but word-of-mouth from lies and misdeeds can be fatal. They can damage both businesses and individuals. They create or destroy reputations.

Lesson? Tell the truth; it’s the easiest story to remember. The biggest lesson: If you seek to be the best, get there in a way that leaves a positive legacy.

I challenge you to take the high road, even though the low road might seem to be the easy road.

Jeffrey Gitomer can be reached by phone at (704) 333-1112 or by e-mail at salesman@gitomer.com. © 2007 Jeffrey H. Gitomer