A Huge Lesson on Integrity

Today I did something that I felt really good about, all because of the influence of this short little story that I had read from this book "Becoming a Person of Influence" by John C. Maxwell and Jim Dornan.

Here's an excerpt of the story which I have taken from "Chapter 1 - A Person of Influence Has... Integrity with People"...

A couple of days later, we took the long flight out of Heathrow Airport in London to San Francisco International Airport. After we landed, we got in line for the inevitable customs check. When they asked what we had to declare, we told them about the clothes Nancy had bought and the amount we had spent.

“What?” the agent said. “You’re declaring clothes?” He read the figure that we’d written and said, “You’ve got to be kidding!” It’s true that we had spent a little bit of money on them, but we didn’t think it was that big a deal. “What are the clothes made of?” he asked.

That seemed like an odd question. “A bunch of different things,” answered Nancy. “Wool, cotton, silk. Everything’s different. There are dresses, coats, blouses, shoes, belts, accessories. Why?” 

...

The agent said, “See, most people I see every day try to get all kinds of things through customs without paying duty, even stuff they should know better about. But you guys, you’re declaring stuff you could have gotten through with no problem. That’s sure a lot of money you could’ve saved!”

“That may be true,” answered Nancy, “but I can spare the money for customs a lot more than I can spare not having a clear conscience.”

Apart from this huge lesson on integrity, I am also very proud to have been in association with such wonderful people over the past year through books, audios and seminars. Thank you so much for the positive influence all of you had on me.  :)