From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.
Luke 12:48
Power is often consolidated between just a few businesses within each industry. Industry leading businesses are often controlled by even fewer holding companies that work across many industries.
This allows power to be abused. Terms and conditions can be set heavily in the businesses favour, and often contain clear breaches of law. Prices can be fixed to maximise profits over all else. The environment sacrificed in the name of profit. Labour can be seen as ad treated like a commodity, rather than an integral part of a person’s life.
And often, there is no one that can stop such abuse. Customers, staff, all can find themselves in a quite powerless position. Even Regulatory Bodies and Governments cannot seemingly stop some of these larger businesses doing as they wish.
For both power and integrity to be most effective however, they ultimately must both go hand in hand.
This is where an internal dedication to doing good comes in, even when power means the consequences of doing otherwise can easily be avoided.
It is perhaps as the leader of one of the world’s biggest and best essay companies that I should known this more than anyone else.
Could we be stopped from encouraging cheating? No. Could we be stopped from selling the copyright with our work? No. Could we make more money by sacrificing our morals? Yes.
When we came into this industry we wanted to give students who couldn’t write essays a helping hand. I would have used my services properly and I know there are others that would do too.
Of course it’s absurd for an entire nation to pick who’s fittest for employment by their essay writing skills, but that’s the reality we have at the moment. Largely caused by the Universities business like approach to maximise profit from the system they accuse us ourselves of having.
It’s totally unfair that some people are prejudiced by such a system, when other than their essay writing skills they would be totally fit for employment. Our job is to get people that interview by achieving a good degree, the rest is then down to them.
We do however encourage honest use of our work, because not only is it the right thing to do, it benefits the student far more than handing our work in as their own. Maintaining integrity for both parties has always been key.
What other people think of that, and all the criticism they can levy is by the by, because they don’t know me and they don’t know my intentions. Even when I express such intentions to them, they simply aren’t interested in listening because they prefer the voices in their own heads to the reality.
Maintaining integrity is of course to benefit other people, and you have to work past the doubters and take what you can constructively from them.
If the business you are involved with doesn’t practice integrity as you think it should, I encourage you to push for change. Whether you are a customer, staff member, or someone else, you may surprise yourself by how much you can achieve.
Doing business with integrity not only usually means more profits in the long term, it also feels a lot better too.
Many times in life we can simply do as we want and escape the consequences. When we do so however, we lose our integrity, our foundation.
If you have a position of power and operate without integrity, you have nothing. If you have integrity, but no power, you’ll find it difficult to build any leverage and influence.
Power and integrity go hand in hand, and one without the other is always less effective in the long term.
Power can and does corrupt, because it seems to allow the temporary escape of consequences. This isn’t helped by the fact that those that crave power often do so for them and theirs. That self centred attitude however, is ultimately their undoing. The rules of God are always at play in the long term.
The good news today is that many in power have no integrity, and they are realising they have to change their ways, to keep their power. The masses at the same time are gaining power, and simply won’t stand for the abuses of the past.
New leaders will come to the forefront, dynamic leaders the understand they require power and integrity to effectively lead the world to it’s very bright future.
Leaders that understand there is far more to a nation that it’s economic performance, that the heart of a nation is the well being of it’s people, and the primacy of that, over money.