Can A Business Borrow Character?

Can You Borrow Character?

Can a business model find a way to borrow character?

Some of the best and most successful business models have a lot of character.  Many great business models have been fortunate enough to find ways to develop a culture of good character.  Those models are often used as template examples for others to emulate.  This raises the question whether or not other aspiring business models can use those established patterns of character achievements in their own business efforts.

This again begs the question, what parts of character can be traded and used from one model to the next?

Seriously, can you borrow character?  It seems as though many people believe you can.

What Is Character?

What is character?

If you believe that other people travel through their life without experiencing the same level of wear and tear you have had to endure, think again.  And if you think you cannot build great character from dealing with adversity, think again.  Character is what you exhibit when you are faced with adversity, not what you get when it arrives.

Your thoughts create your character.  When your anxiety becomes the result from someones fault, you have placed a bomb near the foot of the mold to the components that build the character you will possess.  The selfishness within the blame game for exposing who caused your anxiety will light the fuse to ignite that bomb.  To avoid an unwanted explosion, learn to smell out the stink of selfishness.

When adversity weaves its way to your front door, an explosion of flaws will surround your wagons of protection and try to destroy the depth of your character.  It will succeed when you permit selfishness to control your thoughts.  What we are and what we become in the face of adversity is exhibited by how we deal with what we like and/or what we do not like.  Our character is formed from within these strains of thoughts.  It is at this point we recognize that someone else cannot hand character to us.  We cannot borrow character.  We can borrow money, time and possessions, but character...no.

You Can Borrow Someones Time.

Borrowing is an act performed by all humans.  We borrow time from others without asking for their permission.  We borrow ideas and words.  We borrow strength from others and often times forget to return the favor.  You can borrow intelligence, brains and wisdom.  But you cannot borrow character.

Character is what you stand for.  Character is made by the convictions you steadfastly protect.  Character is what you are in the dark, by yourself when nobody else is watching.  And if someone ever speaks ill of you, live strongly enough so that no one will ever believe when others falsely accuse you.  It takes a wealth of earned character to perform that task well.  There is nothing cheap about character.

All About Me!

The greatest test of your character is what you would do if you knew no one would ever know.  As internal as this is, every act, helps combine the projection of your character.  Yet only one single act, selfishness, can destroy it.  Character, as strong as it may seem, is very fragile.  Step on it once and a world of repair begins to appear.

For every business owner, thinking about building a business model that is alive with character is very close to being the ultimate dream.  If you have a business model that lacks character, you have a leader who lacks character.  If you want your business model to expose great character in the marketplace, you must earn the right to develop the skills that character specifically honors.  Otherwise, you can do as most business owners try to do and attempt to borrow character.  Good luck on that one.

Until next time...