Our leaders and managers need to be active, dynamic, and competitive but with integrity: earning with honesty and spending with compassion. There will always be competition, but we must have principles of which lines we won’t cross in our need to compete with others. Integrity means that we have sacred ideals and we can brace those sacred ideals, even if there are temptations wherein we can earn so much by giving them up. Or even if there is fear, that I may lose so much if I give them up. The greatness of a person is to live with that integrity. It is that integrity which brings true fulfilment. It is that integrity which is the legacy that we can give to our children.
This was nicely demonstrated by the American gangster, Al Capone. Probably the most famous gangster in American history, he had a lawyer named Easy Eddie. He was such a good lawyer, that he could manipulate the law in so many ways that nobody could touch Al Capone or his leaders. They would kill people, exploit people and so many such things, but they couldn’t touch them because of Easy Eddie. And Easy Eddie was given so much money. He had his own airplane and he had a house which was practically like a city block in downtown Chicago with massive fortunes. He had boats and everything else. He had a son and his son could have anything he wanted at any time. But Eddie was thinking, “there’s one thing I haven’t given my son an example of integrity. He has everything that he could ever want, but he doesn’t have a father that he can be proud of.”
Eventually, he came to the realisation that the only way to give his son such an example was by testifying against all the people who he’d supported and who were causing so much harm to others.
He actually did it and he knew that by doing so it was only a matter of time before he would be shot dead. Many of those gangsters went to prison on the basis of his testimony.
Then one day as he was driving his car, another car drove by with machine guns. With dozens of bullets in his body, in an alleyway of Chicago, he lay dead. He paid a heavy price because he wanted to give his son something that was greater than money, airplanes, cars, clothes and jewels. This was his legacy of integrity.
Related to this story is that of the World War II US naval aviator Edward O’Hare, nicknamed Butch. He fought on an aircraft destroyer in the Pacific Ocean against the Japanese army, navy and air force. Flying one time with a squadron of airplanes to go on a mission he realised that he had taken a plane with less fuel. Forced to leave the others on their mission, he turned back all alone. But on his way back, he saw something that horrified him.
He saw a whole group of Japanese planes coming to bomb the ship where there were thousands and thousands of sailors on board not knowing that they were coming. Nobody knew they were coming and he had no way of contacting anyone. So what he did was he flew into about fifteen fighter jets, flew right into them shooting at them—one against fifteen. They were shooting back and in the battle he shot down several of them. When he ran out of ammunition, he started flying into them and knocking off their wings. Finally, these fifteen Japanese fighter jets thought this man is totally crazy and they all flew away. His plane was beaten down but he landed where everybody had seen what was happening.
He was given the first Medal of Honour in the US Air Force in World War II. It was because he had this higher principle that he was willing to give up his own life for the sake of all those people on the ship.
The most interesting part of these two stories is that Butch O’Hare happened to be the son of Easy Eddie. His father had taught him this principle, not just by words but by example. We have a sense of responsibility to ourselves, to God, to the world and to each other.
When people trust us, our family, our friends, our employees, or the public, that trust is what gives us real credibility. It is that trust alone that brings people to actually make a commitment to the cause we are representing.
In this world—a place of dualities—honour, dishonour, success, pain, happiness, distress, victory and defeat are always changing like the changing of the seasons. There’s winter, spring, summer and autumn (and in India there’s another season, the monsoon). There will be storms in our life, and sunny days. The Bible tells us: If you build your house on shifting sand, when a storm comes the building will crumble. If you build your house on solid rock, no storm can knock it down. What is that foundation? It is the integrity of our character, which is built on inner fulfilment.
What we do, what is our character and what is our integrity is what’s going to make a difference. To love God is not a cheap thing. It means living with compassion, forgiveness, self-control and love. That’s the greatest need in politics, business and family.
It’s even the greatest need in religion where it is often absent. Seeking the essence is what is required and we can all do that just by giving some time and building our foundations. Then we can earn with integrity and spend with compassion, as trustees of God’s treasures.
The author is spiritual guru of ISKCON