Our most important possession

P Rajagopal Tampi

 

Introduction

The most important thing we possess is our reputation. It outlives us.

Some may argue that health is the most important thing we possess. I say yes too, but we do not actually possess it a hundred percent. It is not fully in our hands in the sense that one cannot guarantee health by one's thoughts and actions. Therefore, health drops out of contention.

Reputation is created by how much we achieve in our lives, the quality of our work and how we achieve it. Quality of our work is unquestionably the mandatory criterion for building our reputations. This article will focus only with how we achieve what we achieve, assuming that we have done high quality work.

How is reputation built up? 

Whether at work or socially or in the family, the secret sauce is the same. Reputation is built upon your character. We are all given the same powers of discrimination, evaluation and ethics when we are born. Intrinsically, most normal humans know what is right and what is wrong when they grow up. Yet most grown-ups choose wrong paths to tread. Why? For two reasons, the first is the skewing or biasing of balanced judgement due to one’s natural endowment and/or habits and second, the lack of moral courage to choose and follow the right path under life’s duress.

We need to do everything we can to identify the right course of action in every circumstance. This is possible only if we can control or eliminate our natural and habitual biases which all of us have. We must be able to control our natural likes and dislikes to be able to discern clearly the truth and facts of the matter. Our natural likes and dislikes act as a veil hiding the truth. This is not an easy task. I gave up drinking alcohol in order to see matters more clearly and to be anchored more firmly in my thinking. It has helped me a great deal. I am not recommending that you give up alcohol. You will have to discover what can help you. Take appropriate sensible actions to achieve this.

The courage to do the right thing needs to be nurtured constantly. It is very challenging but if done properly, takes a huge load off your shoulders and your mind. We will feel light and free and we will not have to remember so many things in your mind. It will reduce a lot of our cares. One must know that one cannot change the other person, but one can change oneself. That’s the only thing possible. That’s what we need to do.

I was once in a high responsibility role representing the country when I was verbally ordered by a top most authority to carry out certain tasks in a certain manner. In my mind, I saw this order as not only wrong, but corrupt and anti-national. It was one of the biggest challenges I have faced in my life when it came to integrity and ethics. I was dealing only with the top-most Government authorities at that time and could have been sacked for not following orders. I ignored the wrong aspects of the order, yet performed the task in an immaculately correct and clean manner, in exactly the way it should be rightly done. The outcome was the wrong and corrupt intention of the ordering authority was not carried out. I came back and sent a powerful message to the top most authorities in the country about what I had done. No one challenged me. I was not sacked. Maybe I could have become very rich and got promoted if I had followed those orders, but doing the right thing was far more important to me than being sacked, becoming rich or getting promoted.

Preserving your reputation

This is more easily said than done. We need to train ourselves constantly to do the right thing. This means that we have to focus on the factors that result in what we call our character in everything we think and do. Integrity, doing the right thing, supporting others when they are right are some of the things we can do.

Supporting others in their right deeds is as important to build character as any other factor. This is what is least practiced in our world and it is indeed very pathetic to observe. Let us recognize this and support others when they are right. It is also far easier and the right thing to do.

One has to become less selfish in the process too. The case” for the larger good” should take precedence. There is no reason to worry if one cares a bit less for oneself. Universality has a way of paying one back. We must have faith in the Universe. After all, is not the sun rising every day? Do we have any control on whether the sun rises or not?

Conclusion

I am not a subscriber to the case of achievement where the means do not matter. To me, the intent and means matter as much as the quality and quantum of achievement. If this were not the case, one person’s over achievement would be at the cost of another’s grievous loss.

One should practice fact-based, unemotional assessment and courageous execution in everything one does. It should become a habit. In the end, it should define oneself. The best way to put it is in Mahatma Gandhi’s words, “You must become the change you wish to see”.

  Copyright 2022 © Commander P Rajagopal Tampi (R) 

The views expressed are the solely that of the author with no intention whatsoever to create conflicts