Ethics is a matter of black and white – not grey. It’s either right or wrong, good or bad, hello or goodbye, you are either in the way or on the way. Easy to say but hard to figure out? Not really. How do you know whether something is the right thing to do or the wrong thing to do? If you have to ask, it’s the wrong thing. You always know the right thing, you only have to ask the question when it is the wrong thing. So do the right thing even when it is unpopular or might cost you money or be embarrassing. In the long run, consistently doing the right thing will pay off every time, without exception. Do the right thing with your kids, your spouse, your family, your boss, your employees, your customers and the stranger in the car next to you or the one you pass on the street and do the right thing with your taxes too! Never compromise your future success by short-changing your present by doing less than the right thing in every circumstance.
Larry,
How do you reconcile the ethics of an individual who is a good employee but whose upbringing involved abuse, lying, stealing, cheating, homelessness and incarceration? This real person has an entirely different set of ethics where he truly believes that lying and cheating are acceptable behaviors! His black and white is not my black and white.
What I want to know is why when you write books and give lectures do people pay you for what you say while I get called a jerk for saying the same thing for the last 10 years?
I’m bald.
I have a funny beard.
I’m angry.
Glad I found you father.