Courage is a highly admired virtue. Most often we associate the word with physical prowess or bravery. But there's another form of valour that's much more important because it comes up more often. It's called moral courage - the willingness to face not physical danger but emotional pain, disapproval, financial insecurity, or uncertainty rather than compromise an ethical principle.
Moral courage is essential not only for a virtuous life, but a happy one. Without courage, we have no control over our lives. Our fears corrode our spirit and confine us like a barbed wire fence. That's why they say a coward dies a thousand deaths, a brave man but one.
Integrity is essential to self-esteem and the admiration of others. It requires us to put our comforts, possessions, friendships, and even jobs at risk in the defence of deeply held principles.
It takes moral fortitude to be honest at the risk of ridicule, rejection, or retaliation or when doing so may jeopardize our income or career. It takes boldness to be accountable and own up to mistakes when doing so may get us in trouble. It takes backbone to stand tough with our kids when doing so may cost us their affection.
Mark Twain said, 'Courage is not the absence of fear but the resistance of fear, the mastery of fear.' To paraphrase President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the enemy is not what we fear; it is fear itself. If our insecurities and anxieties cause us to lose confidence in the power of virtue, we will lose something very precious.
People with moral courage rarely get medals, but it is the best marker of true character and a virtue others can be proud of.
The Value of Moral Courage
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No Medals for Moral Courage By Brig NB Grant
The U.S. military gives no medals for moral courage by John T Reed
Showing posts with label Business Ethics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Business Ethics. Show all posts
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Saturday, July 11, 2009
Corruption kills creativity in developing nations
Friday, July 10, 2009
Here is what America's immigrant billionaires are made of
Devon Pendleton, Forbes
When New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg welcomed visitors to the newly accessible crown of the Statue of Liberty recently, he paid special tribute to the millions of immigrants who passed by the icon en route to America."The great business formations taking place today are done by people who value the opportunities that America gives them," the city's billionaire chief executive said.
Bloomberg was born in Boston, but dozens of his comrades on the Forbes list of the 400 Richest Americans immigrated to the U.S. armed only with creativity, energy and fierce ambition. Decades later they've built empires in technology, media, real estate and health care, created thousands of jobs and contributed billions of dollars to the U.S. economy.
Grocer and property baron John Catsimatidis, whose parents immigrated from Greece when he was six months old, credits his hardworking father for setting an example of what it takes to be successful."Growing up, my dad worked seven days a week as a busboy," he says. "There was no room for failure, that was instilled in me from the beginning."
Catsimatidis took a job as a grocery store clerk while studying at NYU, and dropped out in his senior year after a friend offered him a chance to buy a piece of his family's store. Catsimatidis owned 10 markets by age 24 and was making $25 million a year in revenue. He plowed $5 million into Manhattan real estate in 1977, and today owns hundreds of millions of dollars of property around the country.
"There is no question that there's a connection between one's drive and search for opportunities and having a foreign beginning," says California real estate magnate Igor Olenicoff. This is particularly true if your early years were spent in a poor country with a strong class system, he says. Olenicoff's Russian family fled to Iran after the 1917 Revolution.
Within Iranian society, "we would never be able to excel or achieve wealth," Olenicoff recalls. It was a sharp contrast to the U.S., where Olenicoff found opportunity--and credit--in abundance when he arrived in 1956.
Both Catsimatidis and Olenicoff say it's tough to instill the ambition and scrappiness bestowed on them by their foreign roots in their children, who have been raised with all the benefits--and trappings--of wealth. "To this day I go around the apartment shutting off lights at night," Catsimatidis says. "Until recently I cleaned my own plate. My kids wouldn't do that."
Tech-savvy immigrants have had a particularly profound impact on today's hyper-connected world. Had Google ( GOOG - news - people ) co-founder Sergey Brin not moved with his family from Moscow to Maryland in 1979, his fortuitous partnership with Larry Page and their subsequent founding of the world's most influential Internet company might never have happened.
Also crucial to Google's success is Iranian immigrant Omid Kordestani, often called the company's "business founder" for his success transforming Google's brand into a mainstream verb.
Yahoo was also the brainchild of foreign-born talent: co-founder Jerry Yang moved to California from Taiwan with his mother and brother in 1978. Ten years old at the time, Yang claims to have known only one word of English. Today he's worth more than $1 billion.
Here is what America's immigrant billionaires are made of
Here is what America's immigrant billionaires are made of
Devon Pendleton, Forbes
When New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg welcomed visitors to the newly accessible crown of the Statue of Liberty recently, he paid special tribute to the millions of immigrants who passed by the icon en route to America."The great business formations taking place today are done by people who value the opportunities that America gives them," the city's billionaire chief executive said.
Bloomberg was born in Boston, but dozens of his comrades on the Forbes list of the 400 Richest Americans immigrated to the U.S. armed only with creativity, energy and fierce ambition. Decades later they've built empires in technology, media, real estate and health care, created thousands of jobs and contributed billions of dollars to the U.S. economy.
Grocer and property baron John Catsimatidis, whose parents immigrated from Greece when he was six months old, credits his hardworking father for setting an example of what it takes to be successful."Growing up, my dad worked seven days a week as a busboy," he says. "There was no room for failure, that was instilled in me from the beginning."
Catsimatidis took a job as a grocery store clerk while studying at NYU, and dropped out in his senior year after a friend offered him a chance to buy a piece of his family's store. Catsimatidis owned 10 markets by age 24 and was making $25 million a year in revenue. He plowed $5 million into Manhattan real estate in 1977, and today owns hundreds of millions of dollars of property around the country.
"There is no question that there's a connection between one's drive and search for opportunities and having a foreign beginning," says California real estate magnate Igor Olenicoff. This is particularly true if your early years were spent in a poor country with a strong class system, he says. Olenicoff's Russian family fled to Iran after the 1917 Revolution.
Within Iranian society, "we would never be able to excel or achieve wealth," Olenicoff recalls. It was a sharp contrast to the U.S., where Olenicoff found opportunity--and credit--in abundance when he arrived in 1956.
Both Catsimatidis and Olenicoff say it's tough to instill the ambition and scrappiness bestowed on them by their foreign roots in their children, who have been raised with all the benefits--and trappings--of wealth. "To this day I go around the apartment shutting off lights at night," Catsimatidis says. "Until recently I cleaned my own plate. My kids wouldn't do that."
Tech-savvy immigrants have had a particularly profound impact on today's hyper-connected world. Had Google ( GOOG - news - people ) co-founder Sergey Brin not moved with his family from Moscow to Maryland in 1979, his fortuitous partnership with Larry Page and their subsequent founding of the world's most influential Internet company might never have happened.
Also crucial to Google's success is Iranian immigrant Omid Kordestani, often called the company's "business founder" for his success transforming Google's brand into a mainstream verb.
Yahoo was also the brainchild of foreign-born talent: co-founder Jerry Yang moved to California from Taiwan with his mother and brother in 1978. Ten years old at the time, Yang claims to have known only one word of English. Today he's worth more than $1 billion.
Here is what America's immigrant billionaires are made of
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Follow NRN, Singapore Minister tells Indian leaders
Tuesday, May 12, 2009 SingaporeSingapore's Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew has exhorted Indian political leaders to follow the ideals cherished by Infosys founder NR Narayana Murthy in order to set the country on a rapid trajectory of high growth and development.
Describing Narayana Murthy as an "exceptional" entrepreneur, Lee hailed his contribution to the phenomenal success of the information technology sector in India, extolling his humility, social awareness and simple living habits as qualities to be emulated.
"If all Indian ministers and top bureaucrats were like him- hard-working, tough taskmasters, hard negotiators, but always forward-looking- India will be one of the fastest growing countries in the world, and in one generation, will become a First World country," Lee exhorted Monday.
Lee, the founder of modern Singapore and the man behind the city-state's phenomenal success story, was speaking at the launch of Narayana Murthy's recent book, "A Better India: A Better World," at a function at the Global Indian International School campus here.
But well aware of the scale of the task ahead in India, Lee said "no single person can change India's system of governance to become as efficient as Infosys." He also referred to the limitations in India's political process, which he said stop it from "going at high speed." "Whatever the political leadership wants to do, it must go through a very complex system at the centre, and then an even more complex system in the various states," he said.
Follow NRN, Singapore Minister tells Indian leaders
Monday, March 17, 2008
India on the move
"India is on the move. The challenge before us is to make the growth process more socially inclusive and regionally balanced."
Manmohan Singh
"India jumped on to the world stage from its colonial cage sixty year ago with the vision not only for itself, but also for the world- for a democratic, peaceful world which would respect the freedoms of others and help each other in that pursuit."
Amartya Sen
With its unprecedented GDP growth rates, India grapples with rapidly rising relative and absolute inequalities, thereby leading to two grossly different faces of India. One is the “Shining India” which is prospering and the other is the “Suffering India” which battles with stark poverty and is excluded from the growth process. The two faces of India are both a ray of hope and a symbol of despair. Reconciling these two faces is the biggest challenge faced by India today.
How do you address this perplexing challenges of Inclusive Growth with Current Business Ethics? What are the human development indicators in health, education and opportunity? Are we headed in the right direction? Rural India comprise 70% of the population. Are our rural farmers rightly paid for their produce?
The Loyola Institute of Business Administration of Chennai held a two day seminar 14- 15 Mar 2008 to address the perplexing challenge of Inclusive Growth with LIBA BEACON’08, a National level Business Ethics Conference. LIBA BEACON 2008.
Highlights Inclusive Growth, Challenge of the New Era
Comments: Most of our ESM are from Rural India but tend to migrate to cities after retirement. The reasons are mainly due to lack of ECHS, CSD and other facilities enjoyed by an ESM settled in a city. The Armed Forces need to home deliver its Welfare Services to ESM in Rural India to make it regionally balanced.
Manmohan Singh
"India jumped on to the world stage from its colonial cage sixty year ago with the vision not only for itself, but also for the world- for a democratic, peaceful world which would respect the freedoms of others and help each other in that pursuit."
Amartya Sen
With its unprecedented GDP growth rates, India grapples with rapidly rising relative and absolute inequalities, thereby leading to two grossly different faces of India. One is the “Shining India” which is prospering and the other is the “Suffering India” which battles with stark poverty and is excluded from the growth process. The two faces of India are both a ray of hope and a symbol of despair. Reconciling these two faces is the biggest challenge faced by India today.
How do you address this perplexing challenges of Inclusive Growth with Current Business Ethics? What are the human development indicators in health, education and opportunity? Are we headed in the right direction? Rural India comprise 70% of the population. Are our rural farmers rightly paid for their produce?
The Loyola Institute of Business Administration of Chennai held a two day seminar 14- 15 Mar 2008 to address the perplexing challenge of Inclusive Growth with LIBA BEACON’08, a National level Business Ethics Conference. LIBA BEACON 2008.
Highlights Inclusive Growth, Challenge of the New Era
Comments: Most of our ESM are from Rural India but tend to migrate to cities after retirement. The reasons are mainly due to lack of ECHS, CSD and other facilities enjoyed by an ESM settled in a city. The Armed Forces need to home deliver its Welfare Services to ESM in Rural India to make it regionally balanced.
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