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Do You Want a Business or a Job?

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Here’s a proposal for you: raise a quarter of million dollars through withdrawing your life savings, borrowing from family members, and maxing out your credit cards. Pay that to a…

How To Recruit a Small Army

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If you want to take over the world, or at least change it in a positive way, you’re going to need an army to back you up. Your army does…

Getting To India

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First, a brief warning: this trip report, and the forthcoming ones about this trip and others, may be more detailed than some readers prefer. My regular essays on Life, Work,…

On Returning to Wal-Mart after a 4-Year Absence

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Until a few months ago, the last time I visited a Wal-Mart store was more than four years ago. There are no Wal-Marts in Africa (yet), nor are there any…

The 14,600 Hours to Virtuosity

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“A little knowledge is a dangerous thing…” -Alexander Pope, 1709 *** Thanks to the use of Frequent Flyer Miles, I flew back to New York City from Bucharest last year…

100 Countries or an S.U.V.?

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Traveling between Budapest and Prague in the summer of 2004, I suddenly realized how comfortable I felt with the process of moving from place to place. I was 26 years…

Two Weeks in India

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“The traveler, if he comes from a place of comfort, travels, in part, to be stood on his head; to lose track of tenses, or at least to be back…

Are 70% of American Men Lying?

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Every once in a while, I come across an article with the claim that a majority of people, usually men living in the U.S., would gladly give up a certain…

Creating and Living by Your Own List of Values

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Everyone lives their life by some sort of internalized moral code, but many people don’t take the time to sort out what they really believe in. Because of this disparity, we often feel conflicted when deciding how to make regular choices about time, money, and personal decisions.

One definition of integrity is how closely your life aligns with your values. In other words, do you do what you say you do? Do you live your life according to what you believe in?

This definition is somewhat incomplete, because it allows for you to do pretty much anything you want to do (even harm other people, which most of us would not consider to be a good thing). But there is still some truth to the idea that integrity relates to how you live by the standards you have set. If you don’t do what you say you do, how can you say you practice integrity?