Million Dollar Habits

Million Dollar Habits – Page 300 
and makes you a more positive and optimistic person. It characterizes you as a true 
leader. 
Tell The Truth 
Perhaps the most important quality of leadership is 
the habit of integrity
. You 
develop integrity, and become a completely honest person, by practicing telling the 
truth to yourself and others in every situation. Shakespeare wrote, 
“To thine own 
self be true, and then it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be 
false to any man.” 
The most important asset you develop through life is your reputation, and the 
quality of your reputation is determined by your level of integrity. Shakespeare 
also said, 
“He who steals my purse steals trash; but he who steals my good name, 
steals all.”
You must guard your integrity as a sacred thing, as the most important 
statement about you. 
In every part of business and society today, the first quality looked for in an 
employee, a manager, a chief executive and even a friend or spouse, is the quality 
of honesty. You must develop 
the habit of living in truth with yourself, and with 
everyone around you
. This does not mean that you will always be right, but you 
will always endeavor to tell the truth, as you see it. People will know that they can 
always rely on you and your word. They may not like what you say, but they will 
know that you always speak the truth. This is one of the very best reputations that 
you can possibly earn. 

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Million Dollar Habits – Page 301 
Decide What You Stand For 
 
Living in truth means that you live consistent with the highest values that you 
know. This requires that you develop 
the habit of thinking through who you are 
and what you believe in
. You continually clarify what you stand for, and what you 
will not stand for. Once you have decided that you are going to build your life 
around certain values, you refuse to compromise those values for anything. 
A client of mine once explained integrity with these profound words, 
“Integrity is 
not so much a value as it is the value that guarantees all the other values.” 
This is a wonderful insight. When you set integrity as your highest value, it 
becomes much easier for you to make decisions in each area of your life. You 
simply ask yourself, 
“Is this consistent with the very best that I know?” 
If it is not, you refuse to do it. General Norman Schwarzkopf, commander during 
the 1991 Gulf War, once said that the most important leadership principle he 
learned, from a senior officer, was simply, 
“Do the right thing.” 
Whenever you are in doubt about a course of action, simply ask yourself, 
“Is this 
the right thing to do?” 
And then behave accordingly.