First off, everyone's a hypocrite. No matter how honest or virtuous you are, you're full of shit.
I don't mean that in a bad way. It's just how the human mind works. There are endless examples of this. People shame thieves, but jack some pens and towels from the hotel. I personally don't steal anything and view people who do as low lives. But I download music illegally to put onto my mp3 player for the gym.
We're all hypocrites.
With that contradiction out of the way, I do strongly believe in integrity.
I'm simply not comfortable lying to peoples' faces to improve my lot in life. I work in sales and know guys who lie through their teeth to make the sale. I close a lot of sales, but I do my best to never lie or deceive people. One guy I work with just starts making shit up depending on what people say. If they have kids, he has kids. If they're married, his gf is suddenly his wife in conversation. It's a weak way to live your life.
If someone has kids, I relate to them by talking about my nieces and nephew. I'm not going to make up fictional characters to build rapport. He closes a ton of sales, but a lot of them cancel and he loses money by discounting the price too much. I make fewer sales overall but they are solid deals and people don't cancel on me. In the end, the numbers are the same. But in my mind, I get to keep my integrity and sleep soundly at night knowing I'm not bullshitting people.
I don't mean that in a bad way. It's just how the human mind works. There are endless examples of this. People shame thieves, but jack some pens and towels from the hotel. I personally don't steal anything and view people who do as low lives. But I download music illegally to put onto my mp3 player for the gym.
We're all hypocrites.
With that contradiction out of the way, I do strongly believe in integrity.
I'm simply not comfortable lying to peoples' faces to improve my lot in life. I work in sales and know guys who lie through their teeth to make the sale. I close a lot of sales, but I do my best to never lie or deceive people. One guy I work with just starts making shit up depending on what people say. If they have kids, he has kids. If they're married, his gf is suddenly his wife in conversation. It's a weak way to live your life.
If someone has kids, I relate to them by talking about my nieces and nephew. I'm not going to make up fictional characters to build rapport. He closes a ton of sales, but a lot of them cancel and he loses money by discounting the price too much. I make fewer sales overall but they are solid deals and people don't cancel on me. In the end, the numbers are the same. But in my mind, I get to keep my integrity and sleep soundly at night knowing I'm not bullshitting people.