Character and Success – the Connection

"I can tell you without hesitation, being president of this country is entirely about character."

These words uttered by President Andrew Shepherd (portrayed by Michael Douglas) in the film ‘The American President’ actually demonstrate the fact that character and success are fairly intertwined. One does not need a strong character to only uphold a position of responsibility. It is also required to get to a position of responsibility and authority. This is so because with authority comes the potential of corruption and selfishness. Once at the prime position, it can be tempting to fall prey to the baits that other people throw to sway a decision.

Given the fact that a successful position can only be fulfilled by a responsible person with a positive moral character, it is evident that the path of positive character leads to success. However, not many people understand this. With the large amount of emphasis on academic qualifications, character education takes a back seat at times. Character can be defined as the complex mesh of attributes that determine a person’s moral and ethical actions and reactions. Parents who try and get their children to the best of schools without assessing the kind of character education that is provided undermine the benefits of such a strong base that later decides the fate of a child. Even though character traits like honesty, humility and self control, selflessness do not add to getting better grades in school, these are clearly the kind of character traits that can differentiate you from the crowd.

There are some people who believe that dishonesty, playing “favorites”, aggression and other such character traits can lead to faster growth in career. Though this may seem true in some cases for the short term, the long term always sees such people in difficult times. And the fact is that once you have a blotch on your character, it is very difficult to have people think of you otherwise.

On the other hand, people who are honest, hard-working, selfless and genuine retain their jobs and are always given ample opportunity to prove themselves. Positive character traits like positivity and enthusiasm also contribute greatly to success. Workplace colleagues always prefer to be around positive and optimistic people. Such an attitude brings you recognition and fame in the organization This is not to state that you don’t need to perform but it is important to note that all people who perform do not achieve success and therefore there is much more to success than just plain and simple performance. People who perceivably perform but are dishonest are not successful in the long run.

Success in any field requires constant positive energy and negative emotions like anger, jealously, spite and vindictiveness consume too much energy and are deterrents to long term success.

It is important to note that character traits are only partially genetic in nature. Most of these traits develop during the course of life and are formed in the early stage of life. Positive character traits need to be taught, inculcated and built upon. Having respect for yourself and others and nurturing respect for all other things that nature created is the corner stone of a sound character. Each human begin feels anger, but learning anger management tricks that help you direct your energy into more positive sources can help in conquering negative character traits. Similarly, other negative emotions like hate, dishonesty, greed and selfishness tend to contribute immensely towards one’s lack of self confidence and must be managed for positive outcomes.

Negative character traits spread negativity in ones work place, personal sphere, and all other relationships and this automatically takes away from ones opportunity for success. Positive character building is the one sure shot path to success and developing sound character is therefore essential for long term peace and joyfulness.