The great English writer William Shakespeare tells us, "It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves."
In other words, we determine our own success, it has nothing to do with luck.
People from all walks of life succeed and people from all walks of life fail. One of the greatest determining factors in the success of a person is his or her personal sense of integrity. Integrity is far more than honesty, it means doing what we know is the right thing, even when no one is watching.
I learned an important lesson about integrity when I was a university student working summers in Toronto.
My company would send us to wealthy homes around the city to service swimming pools. We were not paid by the hour, we were paid by the pool, along with a percentage for the products that we sold.
I watched coworkers make more money than me, working faster by cutting corners, and selling products that customers did not need. After speaking with them, I tried to cut a few corners as well.
What I found was that the time I saved was not worth the personal price that I was paying.
I did not feel good about what I was doing, and I was worried that I would be found out. I soon decided to go back to doing the best possible job that I could do.
As it turned out, my decision to do my best work whether or not anyone noticed, did get noticed. While many of my coworkers did not return to the company the following summers, I was always welcomed back.
I also found that my mistakes were easily forgiven, both by customers and my employer. I recall one lady who was understandably quite upset with me for leaving her pool draining after one of my earlier service calls. At the end of the season, she expressed real disappointment when I told her that I would not be coming back because I was moving away to take my first teaching position.
This very challenging customer, who did not give compliments easily, actually told me that I was the best pool cleaner she'd ever had.
The lesson that I learned as a simple "pool boy" has been extremely valuable to me, and as I read more on the topic, I found that it was reiterated by many other great people. Zig Ziglar said, "With integrity you have nothing to fear, since you have nothing to hide. With integrity, you will do the right thing, so you have no guilt."
Dwight Eisenhower said, "The supreme quality for leadership is unquestionable integrity."
I equate much of my success as a teacher to the simple fact that I live with integrity.
All whom I work with, from students to parents to administrators, know that I do my best every day, that I seek constant improvement, and that I really try to model what I teach.
Success in any field, from cleaning pools to running a country, comes because we choose to live with integrity. Our destiny truly does lie within ourselves.
