For many business owners (contrary to popular belief) CHARACTER is one of the pillars of successful businesses today! The Merchant Services industry has long been known for its lack of character- which is precisely why Dean and I began our venture over 23 years ago. Today, we still feel that Character counts in the business world and we are passionate about making sure that Character is always an intricate part of who we are as a company. It is interesting to note that many businesses tout Character and Service externally but internally, it is a different story. Business owners need to ask themselves a couple of questions to make sure their organizations are still on track:
- How do we make sure that what we promise is what is being delivered by our staff?
- Do we hire with Integrity in mind?
- How do we make sure that we are not compromising the beliefs and character traits that
urged us on to business ownership in the first place?
When I have these types of questions, I often refer back to the mentors and reading material that helped us build the business in the first place. It is with great joy and respect that I share one such article with you today!
Forging Your Character (by Jim Rohn), talks about how to remain a person of Character: a great place to start when working to keep Character within your organization as a top priority. Enjoy!
Personal success is built on the foundation of character, and character is the result of hundreds and hundreds of choices you may make that gradually turn who you are at any given moment into who you want to be. If that decision-making process is not present, you’ll still be somebody—you’ll still be alive—but you may have a personality rather than a character, and to me that’s something very different.
Character isn’t something you were born with and can’t change, like your fingerprints. It’s something you must take responsibility for forming. You build character by how you respond to what happens in your life, whether it’s winning every game, losing every game, getting rich or dealing with hard times.
You build character from certain qualities that you must create and diligently nurture within yourself, just like you would plant and water a seed or gather wood to build a campfire. You’ve got to look for those things in your heart and in your gut. You’ve got to chisel away in order to find them, just like chiseling away rock to create the sculpture that previously existed only in the imagination.
But the really amazing thing about character is that, if you’re sincerely committed to making yourself into the person you want to be, you’ll not only create those qualities, you’ll strengthen them and re-create them in abundance, even as you’re drawing on them every day of your life. That’s why building your character is vital to becoming all you can be.
