A great phrase I follow is, “The mark or character of a man, is what he does when no one is looking”.

I know most (if not all) of us would like to think we had this in our DNA, or we ooze integrity, but you would be surprised at how many people don’t have that.

How many times in business have you been crossed and been left thinking, “That person really surprised me the way they reacted or behaved”.

Your reputation takes decades to build but can be destroyed in minutes. You need to protect it with your life.

Warren Buffet had such a good reputation that way back in 1991 when the Salomon Brothers had been found guilty of insider dealing, trading inaccuracies and failure to take any action, the Government wanted to shut and in fact did shut the company down.

Warren went to the treasury dept and based on his reputation, integrity and planning, the treasury reversed their decision and allowed Buffet to become chairman and put right the wrongs that Salomon had done. Now that’s a reputation!

He made his famous speech when he said to 300 staff at Salomon, “If you lose money for the firm, I will be understanding. If you lose reputation, I will be ruthless”.

Protect your reputation with your life!