Character Counts
Young people generally value the opinions of their elders, and will often ask questions like, What advice do you give to someone who really wants to succeed financially? I used to ask the same kind of questions to my elders during my younger years. Out of all the advise I received, the most valued was from my college roommate’s father.
My roommate during early college years invited me to his parent’s house in Milwaukee, WI for the weekend. After dinner, on that first night at his home, my roommate’s father asked if he could speak with me privately. He pulled me aside and said, “I have some advice for you. Don’t lose your way. If you allow something to get in your way you will fail.”
I asked him to elaborate further. He replied,“Whatever you do, keep your focus. If something or someone gets in your way, then go around , or go under, or go over. If you have to, go straight through. But, whatever you do, never lose your way.”
Watch this video of an interview I gave during the book tour, in which I talk about that night:
For a kid who had grown up in a family that lived in constant crisis, and where the odds were stacked against us, I made a mental note to never forget this advice. He was a gentleman who lived a successful life and he saw something in me that caused him to make the effort to reach out and help.
Today when young people ask me the one thing that I could share with them, I am tempted to quote my former roommate’s father.
But I believe that his advise was uniquely personal to me—based upon the perception of my poverty background. I was a kid who had lost his way in life on so many occasions.
Instead, I tell young people the most important attribute that will help them acheive success is to never betray their character.
Dressing for success, and learning how to be an effective sales person, and using your personality to expand your existing network of contacts are all critical to success. But without character you’ve got nothing.
Take the old mission pictured below as an analogy. This image was taken in 1909. This mission is very old. It looks run-down in the picture, but it has long since been renovated and looks as good, if not better, than it has ever looked. The original building was irreplaceable because people can’t build them like that anymore.
By the same logic, you can’t go back in time and rebuild your character. It is what it is.
Back to the advice of my roommate’s father. I took it to mean, if you aspire to escape poverty, then never take your focus off your goal. When I started my own law firm, his advice meant that I should set challenging but attainable goals, and keep a watchful eye on my cash flow. In other words, don’t do anything stupid that will cause your goal to become unattainable.
Good character means never compromising your values. It takes less than a second to say “no” to a business deal that doesn’t smell right. But it will cost you years of legal battles and a huge chunk of money to get out of an illegal or dishonest deal.
Good character is more valuable than a college degree when it comes to acheiving success. I have seen so many college educated adults, from both the middle and upper classes, fail in life because they lacked good character. The lack of character can not only cause failure in life, it can cause you to be incarcerated.
