The Integrity Question

I woke up this morning feeling a great sadness. The sensation of it felt like it reached into the core of my soul. As I laid in bed and pondered the feeling, two incidents from the previous day came into my thoughts. The first thing I noticed about the incidents was that they seemed to be from opposite polar ends of the experience spectrum. But, as I continued to be aware of them and the feeling of deep sadness, the connection came – it was a question of integrity.

Watching “10 Questions for the Dali Lama” last night, I was disappointed again to see the subject of Google and Yahoo censoring their search returns for their China search engines. Here are two companies started by what I thought were young idealistic people that had great ideas. They make a zilion dollars and now have big companies. It appears they have allowed themselves to fall prey to that fatal character flaw of sacrificing their personal integrity for the idea of more business. It’s sad to think that they don’t see that their decisions directly contribute to the continued pain and suffering of thousands of human beings.

I wrote this post on ActiveRain about Zadzoo. If you read the comments you will find this fellow, Jonathan, standing up for Zadzoo and questioning my position. Now, I’m no genius and I could be wrong, but the only thing that makes sense to me is that Jonathan is Zadzoo. Why would some homeowner find my post on Zadzoo? Why would they take up the cause and come back for more than one comment? Why move off the point about spamming and bring in the absurd accusation that I am afraid of free listing sites?

The only thing that computes is that this guy is Zadzoo and he continues to get it all wrong. Many of you, like me have read a great deal about blogging, the etiquette of blogging and how one should handle negative or challenging posts about oneself or one’s company. The first thing everyone says is – transparency. Transparency works best – forthrightness, honesty, integrity = transparency.

So, here I am with the sadness pulling at me and the question of integrity floating through me like Sunshine on My Shoulders only deeper – penetrating me, floating through my mind like an enticing perfume. What I notice is that a host of associated experiences around the issue of integrity begin to surface. Some involve me and my challenges around the issue. Some involve others – situations I have observed and others that personally affected me.

This brings to mind Otto Kernberg and his notion of affective nuclei, one of the ways that our minds organize information. Not really that important to the point I want to make, but I throw it in to demonstrate that my reading habits are not limited to real estate blogs.

Dr. Henry Cloud has an excellent book on Integrity. It is worth reading. He comes at the question of integrity from observing the character of successful business people. His definition of integrity is interesting – The Courage to Meet the Demands of Realty.

At long last here is my point: Integrity is not fixed or set in stone. Integrity is not a moral code or a list of shoulds. Integrity is more a process of continued refinement and subtlety – it’s a journey into one’s depth. We are in a people business; times are challenging; the industry is changing – I find myself surrounded by opportunities to explore and discover the depth of my integrity.