Living A Lifestyle Of Integrity

A few months back, I gave a printer some work to print and even when I paid for a superior ink because I wanted it to come out neat, he used a substandard one, probably to cut cost. After printing, the work came out blurred. I felt so bad about result. Well, I had to look for another person to reprint it for me and I paid again for it. The next one did an excellent job and I was so satisfied about it. Now tell me, if I have future work to give out, who do you think will be my choice? Of course the second guy. This is because he maintained integrity and did not want to cut through corners. Integrity should be a lifestyle and not what you do once in a while.

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One may ask what integrity entails. Very simple, it involves being truthful, accurate, authentic and morally upright at all times. This is just putting your conscience to work irrespective of what is happening. The truth is that everyone can be honest and it is a property that is given to everyone because everyone has a conscience by default. However, whether you use it or not is a function of the choice you have made. A lot of people have made good choices of integrity and are receiving the benefits, while a lot of people have made terrible choices of dishonesty and are facing the consequences.

If you start with integrity, it is in your best interest to continue with it. If you slide back to dishonesty, your past acts of integrity will be forgotten and they will fizzle into the thin air. Story was told of a young man that grew up in a background that values integrity and he maintained a high level of integrity from his childhood and up to his schooling days. After graduating, he was privileged to get a job in one of the federal parastatals that deals with procurement. When he started with the job, he still maintained his integrity but he discovered that a lot of the staff are so corrupt.

Whenever an order comes for procurement, they will add their own percentage and inflate the budget, then cut from the overall money. This thing kept happening but at first, he did not want anything to do with it. His colleague would always encourage him to do it that everyone else is doing it, and they will show him what they gain from it. But him and one other person did not allow that to becloud their reasoning. One day came and he was in need of some funds for a particular thing and he decided to join them to cut the cost and even quoted his own budget. It was approved and that was how he started. He would write a different thing in the budget and buys a different, and most times, inferior thing, just to cut cost.

A day came when the boss directed them to do the usual procurement, but the product was not so common and they could only get it in one place. All of them were involved in the procurement, including the guy, except one person. Unknowingly to them, the place is owned privately by their boss in the office, but he does not always go there, he only checks from the sales record. So when the boss went through the the sales book of what they bought from his company and what they wrote in the office, he was shocked at the discrepancies - they had added over 100% to the amount they wrote down. That was how they got bursted and faced the heavy consequences that followed.

Acts of dishonesty may be going, but one day, it will be found out. And when it does, the person would lose trust, respect, and other things.

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In order to live and maintain a life of integrity, you have to make the right choices. This will definitely begin with being cautious of the kind of people you keep around. If you company with honest people, you will naturally be motivated to display integrity. But if you stay with dishonesty people, you will pick up their lifestyle. So make a choice.

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