Integrity
You will be presented with lots of “short cuts” in life. Opportunities to “bend the rules” will present themselves. You will have times where you will definitely gain an advantage by being dishonest. Sometimes lying will be the least painful option.
There will be occasions when it is easy to do something you know is wrong.
But the standards you must measure yourself by are the highest levels of integrity. In fact, you cannot measure yourself by the behaviour of those around you. You must measure yourself against the best you can possibly be.
By integrity I mean always acting honestly, morally and ethically.
There are three reasons why you should always act with complete integrity:
1. YOU Feel Better
Most of the time, the only person who knows if you are dishonest, immoral or unethical, is you. But letting yourself down stays with you, weighs on you and creates baggage you carry around with you. You immediately have a lower opinion of yourself which stays with you. The cost of the psychological baggage is actually much higher than the gain you accrued by your lack of integrity.
2. When Others Know
Of course many times other people are involved or observe. As soon as this happens your reputation and your trustworthiness start going downhill. There is an old saying that it takes years to build a reputation and a day to lose it.
As soon as one or two people know you are not honest or trustworthy, word spreads.
3. Some People Just Know
Even if your lack of integrity is a closely guarded secret, intuitive people just know.
Have you ever met someone for the first time and thought “They seem dishonest” or “They just don’t seem right”. We all have. Sometimes you just know.
The same thing will happen to you. Other people will just know you are not quite 100% to be trusted.
Practical Tests
I have two practical tests I use when I am considering doing something:
1. Court of Law
If I had to honestly describe what I am about to do in front of a judge in a court of law, would I be perfectly happy in explaining myself and answering all of the judge’s questions?
If not, I simply cannot do it.
2. The Newspaper Test
If what I am about to do was reported in a balanced way in the newspaper and all my friends and family read about it, would I be happy and comfortable?
If not, then I cannot do it.
If everyone used these to simple tests to monitor their behavior, the world would be a vastly better place to live and our law courts would have nothing to do.
What is the Price of Your Word?
Some years ago it occurred to me that many people are actually willing to put a price on their word. Let me explain.
Let’s say you look at a car for sale for $5,000. You tell the owner “Yes I will buy your car for $5,000. I will come and pay you tomorrow.” That night a friend calls and offers you their car for $3,500. You decide to break your word and buy your friend’s car.
You know what? Your word is only worth $1,500. That is the price of your honesty and integrity.
What about agreeing to lease an apartment for a year and leaving after three months?
What about promising to reimburse someone and not doing it?
What about making a pledge to charity and not honouring it?
If someone short changes me in an agreement or goes back on their word, I think:
“It must be a sad day for you today. You found out the actual price of your word and it wasn’t much.”
This might surprise you, but I value my word at infinity. There is no price that is high enough for me to break my word.
Let’s say I decided to buy an apartment overlooking Central Park in New York for $5 million, and I had shaken hands on a deal with the owner. If an hour later I got a call from the owner of an identical next door apartment offering to sell it to me for $4 million, I would politely say no. I made a deal, my word is my bond. You cannot buy my word for $1 million, not even $1 billion, not even $1 trillion. It is not for sale at any price – ever!
In business and in your personal life you have a fantastically valuable asset – your personal integrity. No-one can decrease the value of this asset – except you.
Make sure your integrity and your word is never for sale – at any price.