Orrin Woodward on LIFE & Leadership

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    Former Guinness World Record Holder for largest book signing ever, Orrin Woodward is a NY Times bestselling author of And Justice For All along with RESOLVED & coauthor of LeaderShift and Launching a Leadership Revolution. His books have sold over one million copies in the financial, leadership and liberty fields. RESOLVED: 13 Resolutions For LIFE made the Top 100 All-Time Best Leadership Books and the 13 Resolutions are the framework for the top selling Mental Fitness Challenge personal development program.

    Orrin made the Top 20 Inc. Magazine Leadership list & has co-founded two multi-million dollar leadership companies. Currently, he serves as the Chairman of the Board of the LIFE. He has a B.S. degree from GMI-EMI (now Kettering University) in manufacturing systems engineering. He holds four U.S. patents, and won an exclusive National Technical Benchmarking Award.

    This blog is an Alltop selection and ranked in HR's Top 100 Blogs for Management & Leadership.

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Character = Integrity * Courage

Posted by Orrin Woodward on March 29, 2011

I resolve to focus on character more than reputation, knowing that character is who I am and reputation is only what others say that I am.

“To sin by silence when they should protest makes cowards of men.” – Abraham Lincoln

Character is that special quality, that makes men and women, who have it, appear larger than life.  Character is more than just what a person says or does, rather, it’s what a person is.  Words like honorable, honest, trustworthy, dutiful, and fidelity, describe the person with integrity, in any field of endeavor.  But character moves beyond integrity, since integrity is ‘not doing wrong,’ while character is moves beyond that into ‘doing right’.  For example, if someone is picking on little Billy at school, but a person didn’t participate, then he displayed integrity by not doing wrong.  But to display character, a person must move beyond integrity, having the courage to defend young Billy against his oppressors, risking his personal peace and affluence for the sake of justice.  In other words, integrity refuses to do wrong, but character is more demanding, expecting people to have the courage to do right.  By helping Billy, a person moves from integrity to character through his display of courage. John Wooden, one of the all-time great basketball coaches, and life coaches, said, ““Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are.”  Character then, if displayed as a mathematical formula would be: Character = Integrity * Courage.  If one doesn’t have integrity, then displaying courage doesn’t give him character.  For example, many bank robbers had courage, but not integrity, thus not character.  But, one can also have integrity, but no courage, thus lack character through not standing up for principle when required by justice.  Character, in other words, requires massive courage to ‘do right,’ especially in the current pragmatic culture that expects timidity, even when gross injustices are routinely performed.  Most people will mind their own business, leaving the oppressors a free hand to abuse the victims, but people of character will have none of this.  As Reverend Martin Niemoeller, a Nazi prison camp survivor, said, “First they arrested the Communists – but I was not a Communist, so I did nothing. Then they came for the Social Democrats – but was not a Social Democrat, so I did nothing. Then they arrested the trade unionists – and I did nothing because I was not one. And then they came for the Jews and then the Catholics, but I was neither a Jew nor a Catholic and I did nothing. At last they came and arrested me – and there was no one left to do anything about it.”  Character is essential for all true success, for without it, nations, corporations, charities, and families are destroyed.  God Bless, Orrin Woodward

4 Responses to “Character = Integrity * Courage”

  1. […] Guru, Speaker, Best Selling Author and Community Builder ORRIN WOODWARD had a great post.      Character = Integrity * Courage  “Character is that special quality, that makes men and women, who have it, appear larger […]

  2. […] and I needed some help. Thankfully, a friend introduced me to the guy who would become my mentor, Orrin Woodward. Orrin coached me to a seven figure income in 31 months and more importantly coached me in all areas […]

  3. […] and I needed some help. Thankfully, a friend introduced me to the guy who would become my mentor, Orrin Woodward. Orrin coached me to a seven figure income in 31 months and more importantly coached me in all areas […]

  4. […] and I needed some help. Thankfully, a friend introduced me to the guy who would become my mentor, Orrin Woodward. Orrin coached me to a seven figure income in 31 months and more importantly coached me in all areas […]

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