I take a lot of pride in myself in always being a man of my word. Whenever I have been tasked with something at work or one of my friends have asked me for a favor, and I gave them my word that I would follow through; I always manage to follow through. The reason for this can be summarized from a phrase in Ecclesiastes that reads as follows: “Good Oil is never as good as having a good name.”
You can own anything in this entire world. You can own planes, books, cars, paintings, mansions, the freaking works, but if your word can’t be relied upon and you are an openly dishonest person, what value do you bring to this world? What are you contributing as a person? As a human being that is living and breathing the same air as all others, you have a responsibility to others that once you give your word, you are required to follow through. I get so frustrated by those that don’t follow through.
Back Story
The back story here is that a friend of mine promised me that they would follow through and deliver on something that we had reached an agreement on. I became somewhat happy because I didn’t trust my friend and because they made the initial gesture and promised me something, I became happy. I almost took them at face value because I thought I could trust this person. I legitimately thought that they realized some of their previous mistakes, owned up to them, and was willing to demonstrate honesty and follow through with dignity. Of course, those that already have damaged names, do not have the integrity to pick themselves up and correct their mistakes.
Resolution
I can do two things at this point. I can either sit and be bitter about how all humanity is flawed and how all human beings don’t have pride and can’t follow through with promises they make. I can do that and be so bitter that I basically isolate myself from those around me.
The alternative is changing my attitude and appreciating that not everyone is flawed and there are those that care about carrying themselves with dignity and having a good name associated with themselves. Those that operate on that premise IMO are the people I choose to associate myself with and that is how I am going to proceed here on out.
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