Most people spend their life chasing after success, only to realize that success is not forever. After setting up a successful business, they sit down thinking that finally, they can rest since they’ve achieved success. Unfortunately, they find out the hard way that their success is not permanent, and they once again have to work on getting it. What they fail to realize is there’s one success that they can enjoy for their whole lifetime – it’s when they achieve personal integrity.
What is Personal Integrity?
Simply put, it’s doing the right thing even when someone isn’t looking. Sure, it’s easy to do the right thing if you have the spotlight on you. But when you still do the right thing even when no one is looking, that’s success right there.
Let’s say that your supplier made a mistake in his calculations and you ended up with a potential savings of $500 just because he failed to include a couple of shipments a couple of months back in his calculations. It’s his mistake. This is why a lot of business owners would gladly take that $500 in savings since there’s a good chance that the supplier wouldn’t know anyway. Besides, you can just feign innocence later if he suddenly realizes his mistake. If this is something that you’ll do, you’ve experienced a failure in personal integrity.
The World Lacks Integrity
Whatever happened to “the ends does not justify the means”? Nowadays, a lot of people feel that the ends justify the means. Job applicants will lie in their interview because they really need the job. Business owners will knowingly sell a bad batch of products because they need the income to keep the business running. Salespeople will say yes to every request just so they can get sales and meet their quota, even while knowing that there’s no chance that they can accommodate all the requests.
Avoid Instant Gratification
People lose track of their integrity for instant gratification. Going back to the job applicant example, getting hired for a job is instant gratification. But nothing will change. The fact still remains that you lost your integrity there. Sure, there’s a chance that your employer won’t find out and you’ll get to keep your job. But here’s something that you’ll have to live with – you have a job because of your lack of personal integrity.
Stand Out with Integrity
Most people spend a lot of time and effort thinking of ways on how they can stand out from the competition, when in fact it’s already in them and they just need to release it. If you have personal integrity, you immediately stand out from the rest. Sure, you’ll still be with other people, but these are people that also have integrity. Surely, that’s good company right there and it beats having to be in a group of people that lack this integrity.
Now that you’re standing out, it’s very easy for people to identify you as a man with personal integrity. It’s just a matter of keeping it up. You have to commit to always having it and soon enough, it will be your nature and it will be effortless. You wouldn’t think twice when faced with the prospect of doing the wrong thing as opposed to doing the right thing. You’ll always do the right thing. This is why personal integrity is a success for the lifetime.
It Will Also Lead to More Success
Soon enough, you’ll reap the benefits of your success by achieving more successes. Even people like Warren Buffet recognizes the importance of this trait especially when mixed with energy and intelligence. As an employee, your employer will see that you can be trusted to do the right thing. As long as you keep doing the right thing, a promotion is within reach. As a business owner, your investors, suppliers, employees and customers will look up to you as a man of integrity and your business will be looked at as a business that’s run by integrity.
Ask yourself – are you going to do business with a man who has no integrity? We all know the answer to that question. Establish personal integrity today and people would want to do business with you. At the very least, people will know about this trait of yours and you’ll be respected.
Personal integrity might be a personal attribute. But when you look at the wider picture, it can be of really good help to your business. A person of personal integrity will run his business with honesty; free from any kind of cheating or manipulations. Such a business will surely stand out from the crowd and make a name for itself. Customers will tend to associate more with such businesses as compared to its counterparts in the market.