When I was in high school we got to write an essay (or something like that, I don’t remember anymore) on some topic I didn’t have any opinions about, so I gave an empty sheet of paper with only my name on it. The teacher was really puzzled, an brought up this to me and my mom. She wondered why I didn’t cheat and copy something from the internet like a lot of my classmates did actually. We already had smartphones, it was around 2012-2013. I didn’t cheat because my parents taught me honesty, that was my answer to my teacher.

Guess what? I got the lowest possible grade (essentially I failed this exam). People who cheated, and she knew they cheated got higher grades. Not that I’m complaining, I got the grade I deserved in my opinion. I would like to note that I wasn’t a lazy student or anything, it was this one time that I slipped up, and preferred to be honest about it.

What school taught me is that cheating will get you further than honesty. If you can’t make it, fake it. This translated very well when I started working in a corporate environment.