One of the skills necessary to succeed in business or life for that matter is the ability to ask the right questions at the right time and be able to cut though the B.S.

Having the ability to read people is critical to your success in life and business. People do lie.

An easy clue that something isn’t right is when someone constantly tells you how great they are even when you didn’t ask. Key words here are “you didn’t ask.”

Have you ever met someone and within the first few minutes of the conversation they start telling you they are all this and that?

It’s one of those conversations where it’s all about them and nothing about you. Isn’t there a country song “I wanna talk all about me?

If someone is telling you about all his or her great accomplishments, then you should be really suspicious. It’s not unusual for people to inflate how wonderful they are, but there’s a point where it goes beyond a little exaggeration into the area of lying.

As I’ve gotten older, I was a far greater football and baseball player in college than I actually was. (Think on that one for a minute.)

I’ve interviewed hundreds if not thousands of people in my business career.

If a person starts telling me how honest they are I’m thinking they aren’t very honest. I don’t trust you because you say you’re honest, I trust you because you’ve earned it over a period of time. (Isn’t that what happens in relationships? Trust is earned by actions and deeds.)

When someone wants to be a name-dropper by telling you all the big-name people they have hung out with and all the great things they’ve done, I would suggest you be very leery and start checking them out. If they are truly all that great, their greatness will come through and they won’t have to tell you.

I continue to be amazed at just how gullible some people are. Even people who I respect and perceive to have their lives together are easily convinced by a smooth talker. There are a lot of people in prison today who are smooth talkers. They are called con men.

You will notice that those who can “do it” don’t tell you they can “do it,” they just go “do it.”

They don’t brag or boast about it and if anything, they are humble. They show up, roll their sleeves up and get with it. The Michael Jordans of the world don’t have to talk the talk, because they can walk the walk.

When you hear all that talking, start watching their walking.

That’s all I’m gonna say, Tommy Gibbs