I remember talking to a woman, Mr Godson, a few years ago. She lives in Canada and still manages to coordinate her businesses successfully in Lagos, Nigeria. When I asked her the secret behind her success, she only said “integrity.” Woww, for some seconds, I found myself lost for words. I asked no further, and she said no further. Her language was confident and filled with clarity. I began to process the word integrity as it relates to the question I asked. Obviously, there’s nothing more to ask when I begin to come to terms with the truth behind her word, as it relates to my own business experience.
In my private time, I wondered if I could be in the same situation with her, and I asked myself so many questions. Would I respond same if circumstance takes me to live outside of my business location? Would I have the courage to deal with the fear, the anxiety, and the intricacies of running a visual business successfully? Have I built enough trust and control with my staff and clients to sustain my business even in my absence? Would the word integrity be attributed to my name and my business? I’d like to think so, but a little part of me was unsure.
The aspect of integrity that the woman portrayed was in business. Integrity has a wider scope. It is seen in every of our inter personal relationship, at homes, schools, offices, and other formal and informal settings. In all, we can be defined by the trust, values, beliefs, and moral principles we have built for ourselves before others.
Integrity is the totality of respect, responsibility, honesty, courage, and authenticity we have acquired in our dealings with others. It is a wholesome or complete manner of acting ethically and consistently in a trustworthy way.
Integrity comes in different forms. But whichever way it comes, it has to do with identifying with the truth, acting in a sincere way, taking responsibility, and treating people equally. Lack of integrity can be so deadly that it may lead to a point where we are paralysed from living life and relating to people. It may prevent us from functioning properly, kill our motivation to achieve goals and may make us feel lonely and abandoned.
Children are not born with integrity. Integrity is nurtured as part of character development. Thankfully, nature is on our side, and children have an innate ability to live upright. The effort is towards building a worthy character. Integrity as a character development is a complex mix of nurture and nature with a significant parental role tailored to a desirable outcome. Just as parents know that academic achievement, athletics prowess, musical ability and so on are important in a child’s future, they shouldn’t ignore the place of respect, honesty, authenticity, unity, social responsibility and courage which Integrity is associated with.
A child that does the right thing is simply a child with integrity. Doing the right thing means living appropriately, whether someone is watching or not. Integrity in a child means that the whole foundation of a child’s interconnected relationship, off and online, is secured. We live in an age where parents don’t know their children. The life that these children live at home is entirely different from their life in public. Some teenagers cheat with cell phones in class, cyberbully anonymously, smoke in hidden corners, engage in school sex, do betting games, substance abuse, and cyber robbery. All these could be done without witnesses, and these children grow to master in the acts and fail in the expectations of integrity.
As a parent, it is difficult to train a child in the ways of integrity if your words do not match your deeds. That child is watching as well as listening to you. While teaching a child the building blocks of integrity, remember the utter esteem in which the child holds you and make sure your words reflect your actions. In the myriad nuances of the optimal human worthy living of knowing the difference between right and wrong, good and evil, thoughtful and thoughtless, parents and teachers must recognize the responsibility that foist upon them to model the right living.
As a parent, live well so that when your children think of fairness, honesty, and integrity, they think of you. As a teacher, teach children that they can never go wrong in life if they maintain integrity in whatever they do. As an adult, honour your commitments with integrity, which is the foundation stone for a balanced success. If the conducts and standards of every adult conform to the principles of integrity, most children will live right.
In the words of Douglas Adams, “To give real service you must add something which cannot be bought or measured with money, and that is sincerity and integrity.” Mrs Godson’s confidence in the use of the word integrity is worthy of emulation for every child and adult who desire a successful and fulfilling life.
*BIBLE VERSE*
*Proverbs 11:3*
*The integrity of the upright guides them, but the unfaithful are destroyed by their duplicity*
*PROVERB*
*Àṣesílẹ̀ làbọ̀wábá; ẹni tó da omi síwájú á tẹlẹ̀ tútù*
*What one puts aside is what one returns to find; whoever dumps water ahead of him/her will step on wet earth*
*RIDDLE*
*I’m so weak that a little wind can move me*
*I’m so strong that when you cut me with a knife, it leaves no track*
*What am I?*
*Amara Ann Unachukwu*
