What Happened to Ethics and Integrity?

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I ask myself this question more and more. It seems many have lost their morals, integrity and ethics along the way. Don't get me wrong, I am not perfect. Actually. VERY far from it. I have done some pretty crappy things in my day; however I don't care to repeat them. Aren't we supposed to learn from our mistakes? Why do many keep repeating them?

Kerry Stokes, an Australian business man once said, "Ethics or simple honesty is the building blocks upon which our whole society is based, and business is a part of our society, and it's integral to the practice of being able to conduct business, that you have a set of honest standards."

Today I was doing some research for my website and upcoming blogs. I found someone had an awesome word document that was very well written about a subject I love. So, of course I wanted to share it. I saved it. I had other stuff to do, as I was milling around something in my gut told me I had seen that same article before. No wonder I liked it so much! I took a paragraph of it and searched the internet to see if I could find where I had previously seen it. Well, it was from a published blog on a website I follow. I must have received the information via email.

Someone other than the original author of that blog article took the verbiage, copied and shared it in a word document as if they wrote it. Not only is that unethical and lacks integrity, but it is ILLEGAL! You cannot steal someone else's intellectual property and pass it off as your own. You can however "borrow" it and give credit where credit is due. That wasn't the case here.

As of late, I have seen so many "professionals" calling themselves titles they have not earned. You can read more about this in my What's in a Title article. Not only that but using those titles to join organizations they are not eligible for. I am not sure about you, but for me, these things are deal breakers. I don't want to work with someone like that, I can never trust you. If you don't have the knowledge, why say you are something you are not? I cannot stand the phrase, "fake it until you make it". NO! Be who you are meant to be and do the right thing. If you are not truly educated in the things you say you are when someone trusts you to be, you are doing a huge disservice not only to them, but yourself and the entire industry for which you are "faking" it in.

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I am going to go out on a limb here and say that if you are stealing someone else's information and not giving credit, or misrepresenting yourself to the public you could be sued. Why risk it? Why not just be proud of who you are and what you know? There is NO SHAME in being truthful. Integrity is about doing the right thing when no one else is looking.

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Don't forget about Karma. You can never cheat Karma. It will always come back to even things out. Act as if you are talking to your own child or someone you respect highly. If you would be embarrassed doing what you are doing in front of those people, stop doing it. Be the best you! That is all you can be.

Thank you for taking the time to read this. More and more we are having issues with the lack of ethics and integrity. Please don't be this person. Stand with your head held high as you are truthful for the entire world to see. Want to discuss this further? Send me an email at melissa@sweetwillowspirit.com. Have a wonderful day!

Love and light,

Melissa