Your word is your bond.
As a kid I heard this at least 500 times from my parents. I wondered where the phrase came from, and I found it was Biblical.
According to something I found in Google:
Of course, word-bond equivalence—the idea of it, if not the precise phrasing deployed by Trump and Obama—reaches back centuries. The books of Matthew and Numbers both contain passages in which one’s spoken vow becomes a sacred commitment. In Numbers, the Hebrew elder Moshe instructs the tribes of Israel: “When a man … swears an oath to bind his soul with a bond, he shall not break his word; he shall do according to all that proceeds out of his mouth.”
Huh. I thought so.
I’ve always believed that a contract is a contract. MK bought a condo right before the stock market dropped in 2008. A house that once sold, and was worth over $200,000, in a matter of months was now worth about $60,000. We didn’t think of going to the bank and giving it back to them because we simply bought it at the wrong time.
We also wouldn’t have back to the bank if the price had doubled in 24 months and given them part of the profits!
Yet, millions just gave the keys back to the bank. Granted, so many loans were given to people that didn’t qualify. Weren’t working. Had poor credit. Why? House values became overinflated. We talked to one realtor who told us that within a short period of time part of the country had homes and condos that were 60% overinflated in value, then dropped to 40% underinflated.
MK and I believe then, as we believe now, a contract is a contract.
Guess that doesn’t work in sports with prima donnas. A good example is the quarterback of the football team I’ve followed for over 60 years – the Green Bay Packers and Aaron Rogers.
After they lost Sunday night and missed the playoffs the writers asked Rogers if he was coming back next year. He said he hadn’t made up his mind yet – that he needed to get away from it all and make some decisions on what the team was going to do, what he felt like doing.
WAIT A MINUTE, Mr. MVP last year! Didn’t you sign a three-year contract? A contract that, last year, made you the highest paid quarterback in football?
I don’t think that contract included . . . .”At the end of one year you can quit if you want, or go to another team, or anything else.” He negotiated one heck of a contract that would pay him millions. I think the answer to the writers should have simply been, “Of course I’ll be here. I signed a three-year contract and I plan on honoring it”.
But that isn’t how prima donnas do it.
They did at one point. Michael Jordan had an 8-year contract which, eventually, made him the lowest paid, greatest player in a sport. Look at his comments:
"The principle is there," Jordan said. "For years everyone considered you to be underpaid, but for years you've honored your word. Now with the position I'm in, what's wrong to ask and command what my worth is? Is that a problem? Is that fair? Some people may say no when they hear (the potential salary figures) and what I'm making off the court (approximately $40 million annually), but that's not fair. It may have some implications, but there's no correlation."
Principles. Your bond is your word? Hope we get back to that someday.
