Being nice in the short-term can be the meanest thing you can do to someone in the long term.

Everyone loves the “nice person,” but few understand that being nice in the short term is NOT always in the best long-term interest of the person you’re interacting with. 

Sure, it feels good to be nice. Every parent wants to see their child smile over a bowl of ice cream… but you’d never let your kids eat ice cream all the time. It’s terrible for them and would seriously damage their health over the long term. 

And yet, many people use the “nice” label personally and professionally as an excuse to lie to you (doing the same kind of damage you’d be doing to your kid with endless ice cream). What they don’t realize is that short-term nice is long-term harmful.

Now, this is not a reason for you to be a jerk or intentionally mean. It’s just that if nice people were more willing to truly care about the interest of the person they are dealing with, they’d actually do more to help them in the long term.