Doing business with Integrity

Here is the transcript of the mail from Kent Beck to Ron Jeffries about doing business with Integrity. Being an integrity craze, I thought it might be a worthwhile to remember...

"Ron,
From the contents of your message I don't think we share the same view. When you say that integrity is 'cold comfort', I am certain we don't agree. Yes, I need money (very badly right now in fact), but giving up my integrity for money is 'cold comfort'. No one is going to win all their bids, not even sleazeball liars who quote unreasonably low prices and more than make it up on exhorbitant charges for change requests and bug fixing. When you abandon your standards to get business, you always lose. There is nothing magical or special about me that lets me sell with integrity. Anyone can choose to. I have made contracts in just the way I described and others have reported similar experiences to me. Selling is unpredictable, for example whether you will win this particular contract. When you are selling business relationships you want some level of compatability with the client. Not all clients would be good matches. Better to find that out at the onset. Selling from a position of integrity takes less bravado and provides its own confidence. The consequence you can count on is being able to sleep nights with your integrity intact. If that costs me a little fear sometimes, I'll pay. I'm told it gets easier with practice. There is plenty of fear for the client in the old style of bidding jobs as well. The customer's fear that they will not get what they need from you (based on their past experiences with contractors) is one of the biggest barriers to selling your services. This seems like a good opportunity to embrace change.
Sincerely yours,
Kent Beck Three Rivers Institute"