Source: John Tornow, Creative Commons
The title of the USA Today article said “50 things we’ve learned so far in the NFL”. Sitting at number 10 was this one:
Greg Hardy and Jerry Jones: The Dallas Cowboys owner can gush all he wants. But this one will not end well. It usually doesn’t when there is a character issue.
Now, you don’t need to be a football fan or know who Greg Hardy or Jerry Jones are. And interestingly enough, you don’t even have to know about the situation that the article is referring to because we all know that “It usually doesn’t turn out well when there is a character issue.”
Two recent books have done a nice job of tackling this issues:
- Return on Character by Fred Kiel
- Road to Character by David Brooks
I appreciated each of these books for slightly different reasons but let’s admit it, we really don’t need books to tell us that things don’t turn out well when there are character issues.
Take a minute to think back to that kid from your school years that you knew was just going to be trouble all his life. I’m not talking about the awkward kid or the one that just didn’t fit in or the one that was just too smart and knew it. I’m talking about the one you really knew, even from an early age that had a character issue.
Or in college that kid that was already on the fringe of the law. Or even the popular frat member that you know would toss the honor code out the window if it served them to do so.
Or any number of a situations, both public and private where a leader in the corporate community or just one of your colleagues caused great disruption or failure because of character issues. It usually doesn’t turn out well when there is a character issue.
David Brooks says the reason he wrote the book Road to Character was to save his own life. It usually doesn’t turn out well when there is a character issue. In fact, it may even be fatal.
Pay attention to character. It will be the only thing you have to stand on (or stand for) in the end.