10. Entrepreneurial Achievers Have Well-Defined Ethical Boundaries
Nothing is as important to my feeling of achievement as knowing it was accomplished ethically. Achieving at any cost is not the game I seek to win, nor one I want to play. To fight an entrepreneurial battle and emerge triumphant is only satisfying when the victory is untarnished. That requires not only outward respectability, but inward integrity.
Ethical issues surround us. Can you morally relate to being a marketing executive at a tobacco company, or its advertising agency, and spending your time finding ways to get people to smoke more cigarettes? We all arrive at intersections of life where ethical considerations must dominate. We can't let a transient need dominate a more permanent principle.
On occasion, we become involved in situations where our ethical standards are different from our peers'. What to do? Just do what you think is right. Our choice may bring temporary difficulty, but it will also bring long-term tranquility.
The word ethical has many synonyms–conscientious, decent, honest, humane, moral, noble, respectable, right, upright. Take your pick. The finest entrepreneurial achievers have these words in their vocabulary and their heart.