It is better to sacrifice temporary profits, in order to retain permanent goodwill, than to retain such profits and to lose that goodwill. This admonition applies in business and in non-business life equally as well. Goodwill is deemed to be a revenue producing asset, a form of capital, which, if lost, dooms any enterprise of any kind. This is why "Honest" Abraham Lincoln sagely observed that: "A lawyer's time and reputation is his stock in trade."
