Nice guys finish last

If you’ve lived life believing this, you’ve lived life believing a lie. You may not finish first, but you will finish in a way you can be proud of. I genuinely make efforts to be a kind, considerate, and thoughtful person. In trying to be a nice person, I admit I’ve been stepped on and burned for my efforts to be nice, but by doing so I set myself apart from those who practice more unsavory methods. If you run your business with the mindset to treat your employees, partners, and customers with the same degree of kindness and integrity, you’ll create a reputation for yourself that will not go unnoticed. Of course, there are always those few who achieve their success by playing against the rules, but they’ll get their due.

You’ve heard everyone and their mother say that birds of a feather flock together, and that’s absolutely true. If you make your friends with people who deal fairly and cleanly, you’ll maintain those practices yourself. Likewise, if the company you keep isn’t afraid to deal under the table, you’ll find yourself leaning that way, too. It’s imperative to keep your record clean and integrity secure. At the end of the day, you may lose everything from your business to your fortune but you’ll still have your character. Make sure it’s a character worth having.