Excerpted from Business Black Belt by Burke Franklin
I grew up watching the same kind of TV shows everyone else did. The good guys always catch the bad guys in the end. But I couldn’t help thinking, “If the bad guys hadn’t done [x], then they might have gotten away with it.” For the longest time, I saw myself with some of the capabilities of the bad guys. Although I’d never done anything really bad (let alone worth a TV script), I was sure I could get away with a lot. As long as I didn’t get caught, I thought it would be OK. But then I began to wonder why things would go wrong for me. I started to trace whatever it was that went wrong back to a time when I did something similar or was somehow responsible in some way—something I did or didn’t do, something I said or should have said. Only then did I realize that I actually was responsible—was the source—for what happened to me. I realized that I’m always getting caught. No matter what, somehow Nature is always working to keep track of me and my actions.
Your integrity is really what you do when nobody is looking. “If I don’t get caught, maybe I can get away with it” is not the point. It’s up to you to monitor your own integrity because, if you don’t, people may get a bad feeling about something you’re doing even though they may not be able to put their finger on it or tell you they don’t approve (especially if you’re the boss). So it will seem (only to you) as if you’re getting away with it, but eventually your evil deeds will reach critical mass and ‘shit will happen.’ You’ve seen this happen before. Some businesses go down the tubes because the people take too much advantage of their position (sexual harassment cases are simple examples). Actually, people are looking or will eventually discover the truth. Most people are onto these guys and eventually karma comes to bite them on the butt. Your choice is future respect or shame. And, once you are shamed, can you ever really get your integrity back?
Continue... to Part 3: Sometimes karma is all you’ve got against insurmountable odds.
I grew up watching the same kind of TV shows everyone else did. The good guys always catch the bad guys in the end. But I couldn’t help thinking, “If the bad guys hadn’t done [x], then they might have gotten away with it.” For the longest time, I saw myself with some of the capabilities of the bad guys. Although I’d never done anything really bad (let alone worth a TV script), I was sure I could get away with a lot. As long as I didn’t get caught, I thought it would be OK. But then I began to wonder why things would go wrong for me. I started to trace whatever it was that went wrong back to a time when I did something similar or was somehow responsible in some way—something I did or didn’t do, something I said or should have said. Only then did I realize that I actually was responsible—was the source—for what happened to me. I realized that I’m always getting caught. No matter what, somehow Nature is always working to keep track of me and my actions.
Your integrity is really what you do when nobody is looking. “If I don’t get caught, maybe I can get away with it” is not the point. It’s up to you to monitor your own integrity because, if you don’t, people may get a bad feeling about something you’re doing even though they may not be able to put their finger on it or tell you they don’t approve (especially if you’re the boss). So it will seem (only to you) as if you’re getting away with it, but eventually your evil deeds will reach critical mass and ‘shit will happen.’ You’ve seen this happen before. Some businesses go down the tubes because the people take too much advantage of their position (sexual harassment cases are simple examples). Actually, people are looking or will eventually discover the truth. Most people are onto these guys and eventually karma comes to bite them on the butt. Your choice is future respect or shame. And, once you are shamed, can you ever really get your integrity back?
Continue... to Part 3: Sometimes karma is all you’ve got against insurmountable odds.
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