Friends Come and Go but Family Is Forever
Success Will Come and Go, Only Integrity Is Forever
This article is more than ix years old.
If I could teach only one value to live by, it would be this: Success will come and go, just integrity is forever. Integrity means doing the correct thing at all times and in all circumstances, whether or non anyone is watching. It takes having the courage to do the right matter, no matter what the consequences volition exist. Building a reputation of integrity takes years, but it takes only a second to lose, so never allow yourself to ever practise anything that would damage your integrity.
We alive in a earth where integrity isn't talked about near enough. We live in a globe where "the stop justifies the ways" has become an adequate school of thought for far too many. Sales people overpromise and under deliver, all in the name of making their quota for the month. Applicants exaggerate in job interviews because they desperately need a job. CEOs overstate their projected earnings considering they don't desire the board of directors to replace them. Entrepreneurs enlarge their pro formas because they desire the highest valuation possible from an investor. Investors understate a company'due south value in guild to negotiate a lower valuation in a deal. Client service representatives embrace upward a mistake they made because they are agape the customer will leave them. Employees phone call in "sick" because they don't have any more paid time off when they really but need to get their Christmas shopping done. The list could become on and on, and in each case the person committing the act of dishonesty told themselves they had a perfectly valid reason why the end result justified their lack of integrity.
It may seem like people can gain ability quickly and easily if they are willing to cut corners and act without the constraints of morality. Dishonesty may provide instant gratification in the moment merely it volition never last. I tin retrieve of several examples of people without integrity who are successful and who win without e'er getting caught, which creates a false perception of the path to success that 1 should follow. Later all, each person in the examples above could have gained the effect they wanted in the moment, only unfortunately, that momentary upshot comes at an incredibly high toll with far reaching consequences. That person has lost their power to be trusted every bit a person of integrity, which is the most valuable quality anyone can take in their life. Profit in dollars or power is temporary, merely profit in a network of people who trust you as a person of integrity is forever.
Every one person who trusts you will spread the word of that trust to at to the lowest degree a few of their associates, and word of your graphic symbol will spread similar wildfire. The value of the trust others take in y'all is far beyond anything that can be measured. For entrepreneurs it means investors that are willing to trust them with their money. For employees it means a manager or a boss that is willing to trust them with additional responsibleness and growth opportunities. For companies it means customers that trust giving them more and more business. For you it means having an army of people that are willing to get the extra mile to help you because they know that recommending yous to others will never bring damage to their own reputation of integrity. Yes, the value of the trust others take in you goes beyond anything that tin exist measured because information technology brings forth with information technology limitless opportunities and countless possibilities.
Contrast that with the person who cannot be trusted as a person of integrity. Warren Buffet, Chairman and CEO of
A word of advice to those who are striving for a reputation of integrity: Avert those who are non trustworthy. Do non exercise business with them. Do not associate with them. Do not make excuses for them. Do not allow yourself to get enticed into believing that "while they may be dishonest with others, they would never exist quack with me." If someone is dishonest in any aspect of his life you can be guaranteed that he volition be dishonest in many aspects of his life. You cannot dismiss even those lilliputian acts of dishonesty, such as the person who takes two newspapers from the stand when they paid for merely i. Subsequently all, if a person cannot be trusted in the simplest matters of honesty so how can they mayhap be trusted to uphold lengthy and complex business contracts?
It is important to realize that others pay attention to those you have chosen to associate with, and they will inevitably estimate your graphic symbol past the graphic symbol of your friends. Why is that? It is all-time explained by a quote my father oftentimes says when he is reminding me to be careful of the company I am keeping: "When yous lie down with dogs you get fleas." Inevitably we go more and more like the people we surround ourselves with twenty-four hour period to twenty-four hour period. If we surround ourselves with people who are quack and willing to cutting corners to get ahead, and so we'll surely find ourselves following a pattern of commencement indelible their behavior, so accepting their behavior, and finally adopting their beliefs. If yous desire to build a reputation as a person of integrity and then surround yourself with people of integrity.
There is a plaque on the wall of my office which reads: "Practice what is right, allow the consequence follow." It serves as a daily reminder that success will indeed come and go, merely integrity is forever.
~Amy (for my daily blogs go to www.amyreesanderson.com/blog)
Related on Forbes:
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Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/amyanderson/2012/11/28/success-will-come-and-go-but-integrity-is-forever/
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