Internal Ethics Values Essential for Business (Bob Arthur Commentary)

It is no secret that on Jan. 31, Tom Coughlin, a former executive with Wal-Mart, pled guilty to wire fraud and tax evasion in the midst of an investigation into whether he had misappropriated funds at Wal-Mart.

Ironically, in 2003, Coughlin was quoted in the Bentonville newspaper as saying, “A lack of trust will cause great companies to go to their knees. We have high standards we set for people on integrity, and we expect that they will live up to them. When they don’t, they don’t stay with the company.”

What happened? This is pure speculation on my part, but Mr. Coughlin may have gotten in this position because internally he was lacking. He made some poor choices, most likely, because he made the initial choice to allow his internal life to slip away from the values he proclaimed just three years before. Why do I think this? It is pretty common and can happen to any of us.

It is like the 400-year-old redwood tree that came crashing down. No one could figure out why it fell because it had survived storms, lightning and earthquakes. Upon closer inspection, it was discovered that small beetles got inside the trunk and ate away at the life-giving fibers of the tree, and it crashed. Don’t think something similar can’t happen to you. When we compromise and deviate from our values, it will show up in our lives and actions and cause our influence to crash.

Without integrity, it will be impossible for others to say, “[your name] had incredible influence in my life.” In order to have integrity, you must first be trustworthy, which comes from continuously building your character. It is an internal matter.

Sure, it is fairly easy to make an initial good impression and have some influence with others with an external emphasis. That is called “charisma.” Charisma may get you the job, the girl, the man or the sale; but it won’t last without character. And eventually you will be found out for who you really are: “smooth” on the outside but shallow on the inside.

Character that builds trustworthiness, that leads to integrity is what will sustain you in relationships and place you in a position to have incredible influence.

Think about this excerpt from the poem The Man in the Glass (author unknown):

For it isn’t your father or mother or wife, whose judgment you must pass;

The one whose verdict counts most in life is the one staring back from the glass.

When you look in the mirror, what do you see? Character or charisma?

You are not born with good character, in fact, quite the opposite. Good, reputable, trustworthy character must be built and developed.

President Ronald Reagan said, “When life does get tough and the crisis is undeniably at hand, when we must, in an instant, look inward for strength of character to see us through, we will find nothing inside ourselves that we have not already put there.”

When you look inside, what have you put there? How have you built and developed your character?

Always remember: Your character will be built by you. Your reputation will be built by others.

There was a Cajun named Boudreaux who moved to Texas and bought a donkey from an old farmer for $100. The farmer agreed to deliver the donkey the next day. The next day, the farmer drove up and said, “Sorry, but I have some bad news. The donkey died.”

“Well then, just give me my money back,” said Boudreaux.

“Can’t do that. I already spent the money.”

“OK, then, just unload the donkey” replied Boudreaux

“What ya’ gonna do with him?”

“I’m going to raffle him off.”

“You can’t raffle off a dead donkey.”

“Sure I can, watch me. I just won’t tell anybody he’s dead.”

A month later the farmer saw Boudreaux and asked, “What happened with that dead donkey?”

“I raffled him off. I sold 500 tickets at $2 a piece and made a profit of $898.”

“Did anyone complain?”

“Just the guy who won, so I gave him his two dollars back.”

Can it be said that you are person of trustworthy character? A person of integrity?

Integrity is just doing the right thing regardless of the situation or circumstance, plain and simple. It is choosing to be honest and honorable.

We must also recognize that none of us is perfect. We will fail and make mistakes even in the midst of a diligent pursuit of character building and a reputation of integrity. The person of integrity will admit his or her failures and mistakes and face them with the resolve to overcome those shortcomings in the life-long process of character building.

I believe you would agree with these statements:

• If we are going to have incredible influence with others, we must have integrity.

• Decisions of integrity are determined in advance. We choose our values, and how we build our character based on those values will determine our decisions, which will reveal our integrity.

Gov. Huckabee makes a great point in his book Character Is The Issue. “Character does count. Integrity does count. But, if character and integrity are divorced from God, they don’t make sense …”

If we choose Biblical values to build our character we have a consistent standard. Let’s be honest, building trustworthy character that leads to integrity is not easy. We have the propensity to drift to things that diminish our character that will eventually cause our positive influence to crash. Building our character on the word of our Creator will keep us steady and steadfast because character building is a continuous, life-long process.

Here is a suggestion: Read a chapter in Proverbs each day. There are 31 chapters in the book of Proverbs, so it is an easy guide to follow. You will be amazed what will happen in your life with this one simple step.

Ted Engstrom in his book Integrity shares this story:

Coach Cleveland Stroud of the Rockdale County High School Bulldogs has an empty basketball trophy case. They had a championship season: 21 wins and 5 losses and a come from behind victory in the state finals, but no trophy. Why? One of the players in the first post season game played for 45 seconds but was academically ineligible so they forfeited the trophy.

Coach Stroud’s reaction? “We didn’t know he was ineligible at the time; we didn’t know it until a few weeks ago. Some people said we should’ve just kept quiet about it, that it was only 45 seconds and it wasn’t an impact player. But, you’ve got to do what is honest and what is right and what the rules say. I told my team that people forget the scores of basketball games; they don’t ever forget what you’re made of.”

What you are made of is internal. Those with incredible influence have integrity, which is the result of building trustworthy character.

(Bob Arthur of Springdale is the author of “Incredible Influence,” a book he plans to self-publish later this spring through Xulon Press of Longwood, Fla. Arthur has been a businessman, church staff minister and pastor. He has a company, also called Incredible Influence, through which he does speaking engagements and seminars.)