Integrity

I went back to my hometown yesterday, and as fate would have it, they were showing "Cleopatra" on TV. Now, that's an old movie, made in the year 1963. I have seen it when I was young, but now I am seeing it again in a different perspective.

One scene that stayed in my mind is the Battle of Actium, which is the battle between Marc Antony and Octavian on the seas. Cleopatra's ship was behind and when her ship retreated, Mark Antony abandoned his ship and followed, leaving most of his men and ship destroyed.

Even though he survived, his soldiers did not trust him anymore and under cover of darkness some 19 legions and 12,000 cavalry fled before Antony was able to engage Octavian in a land battle.

Which brings out the concept of integrity.

Integrity is a concept of consistency of actions, values, methods, measures, principles, expectations, and outcomes. In ethics, integrity is regarded as the honesty and truthfulness or accuracy of one's actions. Integrity can be regarded as the opposite of hypocrisy, in that it regards internal consistency as a virtue, and suggests that parties holding apparently conflicting values should account for the discrepancy or alter their beliefs.  

In simple terms, don't expect people to work for you if they don't know whether they can trust you or not, or wondering will I get screwed for trusting someone.