MinD

Author: Juraj Sipos

Every behavior or attitude breeds reactions according to its qualities and character. This article focuses on success from behavioral viewpoints. Success is based upon positive and proper behavior, which involves moral principles and ethics, thus predisposing better qualities of future life. Creative behavior, together with love, enhances harmony and can subdue deteriorating situations, which often lead to destruction and social isolation. Many great historic persons in politics or business were ruined because of their lack of generally accepted ethical rules of society.

You have heard that it was said, "Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth. But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right check, turn to him the other also. Matthew 5:38-39.

When I was a young boy, I could not understand this above-mentioned sentence, for it seems to be quite fatuous to turn the other check to an offender when being struck. The older I get the more logical this statement seems to me, and let me explain why.

Later, as I grew older, after years of observing people at the top of their professions I concluded that ethics, love and behavior are the best way of achieving success. Why? In my opinion we should consider the moments when public figures collapsed in their prime.

If an entrepreneur is not honest he will be irreversibly losing his customers, hence his business is in mortal danger. And the more rude he is to others the more often he is losing their friendship. They may become even vengeful, causing him detriment and disturbing his well-being. But if an entrepreneur is honest and cares for his customers, they begin to like him. Thus, he will be selling more, which means more money as well as success. Insofar as he will be turning his other check to be struck, the angry purchaser or hacker shall not be trying to place a bomb in his shop.

Entrepreneurship can be juxtapositional to life. If I wart to be an honest politician (I am sorry that many are not), I find myself in a similar position as the entrepreneur who turned his other check to be struck. And if I am struck and I shall not return it, I maintain the high moral ground in a mud-filled campaign. For example, look at Nixon and the Watergate scandal. Had he been moral and honest he would not have been the only US President in history forced to resign his post.

Creative behavior based upon love and moral principles is much less likely to be attacked, and willingness to let the other check be struck is sometimes more profitable. Of course, such behavior does not mean that people must be servile and passive. I only want to say that we should be more tolerant of those we disagree with, because it leads to fewer conflicts and thus to less stress in our lives.

There are thousands of examples of thoughtless behavior to gain money and good results but the outcome brought failures rather than achievement. There is one additional relevant factor here - the collective "soul" or "spirit" of society. This collective "soul" has been developing from cultural traditions of humankind through the centuries. It is being constantly recreated. We as individuals possess certain idiosyncratic features; all societies have such features, and in each country there is collective awareness. If somebody happens to be a murderer, this united spirit will consider him/her as an outcast and he/she is expelled from it. This "spirit" has certain laws, either written or not, and it may be a propelling factor which controls the rise and fall of an individual

If I perpetrated whatever act against the laws of this society's spirit, I will be called upon to account socially. Sooner or later, society always collects what is owed. If I am going to start a career, I must thoroughly consider that I must not go against these laws because I am doomed to eventual failure.

Adolf Hitler conquered an immense territory. But the more he conquered, the more he wanted till he ultimately lost everything. Even Sadam Hussein after the Invasion of Kuwait - blinded by temporal profit - actually became a loser. But sooner or later, even Bush may appear a loser.

I think that people desiring to be successful in public affairs must be forgiving. If anybody strikes your check and you will return it, the striking may go endlessly on. By the way, this is not a call to pacifism - there is a difference between a physical attack and an insult.

Here in former Czecho-Slovakia we have quite a different situation. Albeit we have good prospects to attain favorable results, 40 years of communism brought a lot of vexation and hatred. Currently we have an unsteady social climate rife with scandals because many politicians have been members of the secret police. Lists of the names circulate here, and these people, who have been involved in bad activities, simply have bad chances.

If I strike back in this never-ending cycle of revenge, it may later affect me. Those who make their living by various levels of deceit are only temporarily profitable; long-term they are, in fact, losers. Winners are those who bring sunshine into the lives of others; losers are those who bring evil and darkness. Although it is difficult to be honest, as it is sometimes burdensome to manifest love rather than animosity, I think the rewards of such behavior are priceless. It is clear that moral integrity and love are the most probable ways to avoiding morally unprofitable risks. We must be cautious for no one knows when the boomerang of our actions could devastate us or those we love.
About the Author

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About the Author:
I write computer articles. This one is about psychology and it was published in the US in 1994 in an academic journal