Key to real success: ‘Bulletproof integrity’

“Integrity Is All You’ve Got”
By Karl Eller
McGraw-Hill,2005



WITHOUT meaning to, this book is as timely as the headlines in print and broadcast media in this part of the world. I am referring to the political and ethical dilemma our head of state has been thrown into-to speak or not to speak about wiretapped voices. And to speak or not to speak the truth about her kin’s involvement in “jueteng” an illegal numbers game.

From this book, here’s a quote that may show her the light at the end of a dark tunnel. It begins with a question: “What should you do when your reputation takes a major hit?”

Answer: “Don’t hide, deny, dissemble or fake the truth. Above all, don’t lie. Face the facts. Speak immediately and frankly. Nothing disarms your critics as being totally candid and quickly correcting whatever went wrong.”

The author says it simply on other page: “A straight shooter is someone who does what’s right and keeps his or her world.”

This book is entitled, “Integrity Is All You’ve Got,” and yet it turns out to be an insightful guide for entrepreneurs-and leaders-about selling, creativity, hammering out win-win formulas, opportunity-seeking, making connections, the joy of giving-and, of course, success because (not in spite of) integrity.

Karl Eller, a billionaire who made good in the billboards business, tells his story with distilled truths. You sit up and listen, because the insights come from someone who, in his words, has his “follies, takeoffs, crashes, comebacks and final reckoning.”

It is one thing to talk about integrity or earning trust-but it’s another to live a life of complete honesty.

The author, after whom a school of management was named, has lived integrity first and now is talking about it.

In other words, unlike many people we know, he has remarkably gone beyond paying lip service to this much desired virtue.

Speaking of trust, Eller is laconic: “Your handshake matches the tightest contract drawn up by the fanciest law firm in town.”

“I’ve been around long enough to confirm that integrity is key to business life and success. Integrity is what allows you and me to trust each other. Without it, we begin suspecting and then fearing each other , and soon bad things happen.”

Written on a prominent wall at the Eller College of Management is a quote from the author:

“Without integrity, motivation is dangerous: without motivation, capacity is impotent; without capacity, understanding is limited; without understanding, knowledge is meaningless; without knowledge, experience is blind.”

The book laments that “the priority of MBA student seems to be learning a thousand ways to kill your competitors, rather than the one true way to really succeed – develop bulletproof integrity.”

At the home front, this seems to be not the case. My alma mater, the Asian Institute of Management, has ethics in its curriculum – so with other major graduate business schools.

While the author devotes an entire discussion titled “Integrity is your only collateral,” he dishes out words of wisdom on succeeding as an entrepreneur, and yet still peppered with ideas on forthrightness and earning trust.

For salesman, he has a brilliant one-liner: “Love selling and sell what you love.”

For those having a problem with optimism, he quotes Winston Churchill: “A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.”

And idea makers, this quote is graphic: “Minds are like parachutes; they work only when open.”

He has advice for CEOs who think they can take over any company, even a different industry and erroneously think they can succeed: “If you’re going to take over a business, you had best arrive with a real understanding of what makes it work.”

“I learned that lesson the hard way,” he says, and he relates heartbreaking stories when he lost billions of dollars because of disastrous decisions.

What about the seeming staple of entrepreneurs – luck? Quoting his friend, Mort Feinberg, he writes: “You need to keep running, so that when the train comes by you’re ready to jump on. If you keep missing the train, you have no one but yourself to blame.”

This book is for rising managers – and for CEOs who must still run their businesses and are daily confronted with ethical decisions.

The book also throws in nuggets of wisdom on what makes business a calling and an exciting life’s work.

After giving us the impression that everything is business to him, using all his waking hours thinking and concluding business deals, he dishes out a life-saving advice. He asks: “How do you keep failure from wrecking your life?

His answer could prevent a disastrous bout with depression: “Business is only part of life, and not the most important. Your family, your friends, role as citizen of your community and nation – these are what counts.”

After reading this book, remember the truth in Oliver Wendell Holmes’ quote: “Man’s mind, once stretched by a new idea, never goes back to its original dimension.”