eh, I've been 'in business' most of my life now, and, I guess that isn't all that long (I think I was 12 when I started my first venture, selling pumpkins, and I'm 30 now.) I haven't seen great success, or really great failure. The thing is, every time I tried to be less than honest to gain an advantage? I got slapped down. Sometimes hard. (though most of my forays were probing and weak, and so were the consequences.)

My suspicion is that lying and dishonesty is a skill like any other, and one that is not trivial to learn. You can't just lie and expect to be rewarded, you need to know when and how to lie. People spend their lives studying that sort of thing, as well as how to detect liars. Personally, I think the average businessperson is better off being as honest and transparent as he or she is able while focusing on some other competitive advantage. Competing with the professional liars in this arena is difficult.