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Business Ethics - How can I make a difference?
Home » Leadership » Introduction to Business Ethics » Business Ethics - How can I make a difference?Remember the Golden Rule, and you’ll be golden, as they say. Do unto others as you’d have them do to you is a pretty clear, concise rule for the way we should all act in business, in love, and in family. The Golden Rule is “the closest thing to a universal guideline for ethics a person can find,” Maxwell says. “There are really only two important points when it comes to ethics. The first is a standard to follow. The second is a will to follow it.”
Ethics means doing the right thing all the time at any cost. It’s not always easy. It’s not always appealing. It’s not always, or even often, comfortable. But doing the right thing, no matter the consequence to you, means treating other people as you’d want to be treated. To start making a difference, simply start living by the Golden Rule.
Another thing to remember: Every action, every choice, every situation, affects other people at some point. In the 2001 movie Pay it Forward, a child has this idea: Do three good deeds for other people, then watch the goodness spread. The child’s idea caught on, and in the end of the movie you see thousands of people who’ve been touched by his life and his idea standing outside his door.
It’s a movie, sure. But it also illustrates how every action has a reaction. Even when you think you’re deciding something for your own good, keep in mind that somewhere down the line, someone else will benefit—or hurt—because of your choice.
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