Integrity - The Real Bottom Line

by Denis Waitley

A simple motto hung on the living room wall of my grandparents' small frame house,
where many seeds for my development were planted. My grandmother and grandfather
didn't talk about the lines; they lived them.

“Life is like a field of newly fallen snow;
where I choose to walk, every step will show.”

They believed you were either honest or you weren't. There was nothing in between, no
such thing as partial honesty. Integrity, a standard of personal morality and ethics, is not relative to the situation you happen to find yourself in and doesn't sell out to expediency. Its short supply is getting even shorter -- but without it, leadership is a facade.

Learning to see through exteriors is a critical development in the transition from
adolescence to adulthood. Sadly, most people continue to be taken in by big talk and
media popularity, flashy or bizarre looks, and expensive possessions. They move
through most of their years convinced that the externals are what count, and are thus
doomed to live shallow lives. Men and women who rely on their looks or status to feel
good about themselves inevitably do everything they can to enhance the impression
they make -- and do correspondingly little to develop their inner value and personal
growth. The paradox is that the people who try hardest to impress are often the least
impressive. Devotion to image is often for the money it can reap. Puffing to appear
powerful is an attempt to hide insecurity. If only we could see many of our celebrities when their guard and pretenses were down!

The myth that all that counts is bottom-line success often leads to fleeting stardom and ultimate defeat. Ask a thousand has-beens. There are no degrees of integrity. Just as you're pregnant or you're not, you have it or you don't.