Tom Peters on Integrity
“There is no such thing as a minor lapse of integrity.” – Tom Peters
A mentor of mine once said that how you do one thing is how you do everything. While I don’t buy into that notion completely (only 99.999%), I do use the idea as a guiding principle — and it informs my thinking, especially when I am reflecting on a success or a failure.
What’s salient here is that when you don’t think a minor slip or compromise matters, it (almost always) does.
Use this idea as a check on those times when you hear that voice in the back-of-your-mind asking you if you should put forth little bit more effort, or be a bit more honest with yourself about something.
If you think you should do something, do it. If you think you shouldn’t, don’t. If you think something probably doesn’t matter, really — it does.