What is integrity? (house, best, buy, to live)

[Mr. Humble]

What is it? Do you have it? Is it subjective? Have there been times when you've failed to live up to your own standards of integrity? Do you demand it of friends, of lovers? Have you walked away from financial opportunities that may have compromised your sense of integrity?

Very interested in how integrity may be seen differently by different people, and how difficult you have found it to maintain yours.

[Gudra]

I have always strived for it. Integrity to me means being a person with high standards of morality, caring, behaviour, upright, non-bitchy, etc. It does depend on circumstances to an extent- if I had had a chance to kill Stalin, Hitler, for eg, I would- together with their parents for not bringing them up properly !

[Mr. Humble]

Originally Posted by Gudra

I have always strived for it. Integrity to me means being a person with high standards of morality, caring, behaviour, upright, non-bitchy, etc. It does depend on circumstances to an extent- if I had had a chance to kill Stalin, Hitler, for eg, I would- together with their parents for not bringing them up properly !

Can you get a little more specific, as to the bolded?

[pci2k]

I demand integrity when it comes to money/anything financial, as well as in the workplace.

For me, growing up, my parents were royally screwed over several times due to greed. They were sales reps at the time, and they had other salespeople take commissions that they didn't know about. They lost quite a few friendships because of that. Because of that, I always promised myself I would never screw anybody over money. It's just not worth it.

For example, I put in formal referral paperwork at my company, to refer my friend for a job. I found out he had a friend in the department where he was interviewing. His friend helped me get his resume to the hiring manager, who hired him. I offered to split my referral fee with him, for helping me get our mutual friend hired. It was my idea, not his. I felt a lot better doing that, rather than keeping the referral money to myself.

My parents always have integrity when it comes to money and business, so I like to follow in their example. I believe it's made me a better person.

[JordanJP]

Even though I can be a tad morally ambiguous at times (certain things would be okay to do depending on circumstance), I generally have very high standards for personal morality and behavior. It isn't something that I *actively* do, it just sorta happens. So many people my age have absolutely no moral and display bad behavior, and sometimes it sorta disturbs me. I'm no morally crusading knight in shining armor myself, but still... there are just certain levels that I refuse to stoop to.

I don't shortchange people who trust me with money, I do whatever I can to help anyone that asks me for it, I don't have anything more than a passing (oh, look at that!) interest in drugs or alcohol (I actually drink less since my 21st birthday in June), and I don't want to become an irresponsible low-life with a dead-end job. I rather like that people consider me a good friend who is reliable.

[Mr. Humble]

Originally Posted by pci2000

I demand integrity when it comes to money/anything financial, as well as in the workplace.

For me, growing up, my parents were royally screwed over several times due to greed. They were sales reps at the time, and they had other salespeople take commissions that they didn't know about. They lost quite a few friendships because of that. Because of that, I always promised myself I would never screw anybody over money. It's just not worth it.

For example, I put in formal referral paperwork at my company, to refer my friend for a job. I found out he had a friend in the department where he was interviewing. His friend helped me get his resume to the hiring manager, who hired him. I offered to split my referral fee with him, for helping me get our mutual friend hired. It was my idea, not his. I felt a lot better doing that, rather than keeping the referral money to myself.

My parents always have integrity when it comes to money and business, so I like to follow in their example. I believe it's made me a better person.

Very cool. So easy to cross that line when you can clearly see what you could buy with that extra bread. Not easy to do, but I agree; it feels better to rise above..

[Mr. Humble]

Originally Posted by JordanJP

Even though I can be a tad morally ambiguous at times (certain things would be okay to do depending on circumstance), I generally have very high standards for personal morality and behavior. It isn't something that I *actively* do, it just sorta happens. So many people my age have absolutely no moral and display bad behavior, and sometimes it sorta disturbs me. I'm no morally crusading knight in shining armor myself, but still... there are just certain levels that I refuse to stoop to.

I don't shortchange people who trust me with money, I do whatever I can to help anyone that asks me for it, I don't have anything more than a passing (oh, look at that!) interest in drugs or alcohol (I actually drink less since my 21st birthday in June), and I don't want to become an irresponsible low-life with a dead-end job. I rather like that people consider me a good friend who is reliable.

Curious about this.. care to?

[JordanJP]

Originally Posted by Mr. Humble

Curious about this.. care to?

Certainly. I'm trying to think of a good example here.


Say someone breaks into my house, with the intention of robbing me-but they have a weapon. Ordinarily, I view killing someone as wrong, but if someone comes into my home unauthorized with a weapon or with sinister intentions I fully believe I am within my rights to release them from this mortal coil if need be.

Or, if my wife was dying from cancer and I couldn't afford to pay for some lifesaving bottle of tablets, but had the opportunity to somehow "come into posession of them", I might be inclined to take posession of them..

Of course, that is all purely hypothetical and I do truly hope that I never have to perform those actions.

[Aganusn]

Originally Posted by Mr. Humble

What is it? Do you have it? Is it subjective? Have there been times when you've failed to live up to your own standards of integrity? Do you demand it of friends, of lovers? Have you walked away from financial opportunities that may have compromised your sense of integrity?

Very interested in how integrity may be seen differently by different people, and how difficult you have found it to maintain yours.

Yes, it's subjective, just like morals. Yes, I have it. Everyone has some type of integrity. Yes, there have been times when I've compromised my own integrity, it's a part of life. And I do demand some requirements of my friends.

[PassTheChocolate]

To me, integrity is a code that we live by and it is not the same for everyone. I'm comfortable with mine. It serves me first and foremost so that I can then be at my best for everyone else. I believe that different circumstances call for different approaches and remedies. I'm not one to say "never" because challenges have darkened my door step more than once in my lifetime. I'm no stranger to choosing between bad and worse. But the important part of my code is that the choices I make allow me to still like who I see in the mirror at the end of the day. That is all that matters.