Character, like a photograph, develops in darkness.
Building a sustainable business from your creative ideas is a long process
By Linda Lopeke
Building a sustainable business from your creative ideas is a long process. It requires endless hard work and the ability to withstand a great many dark moments before the light of success finally shines on you. Drawing on the 8 dimensions of character, identified by Wintley Phipps, can keep you going when your resolve and commitment are stressed to the breaking point. The eight dimensions of character are:
1. Strong faith: the ability to believe in what you cannot see.
You must believe in yourself and the value of pursuing your passion for business long before there will be any tangible evidence of a valid basis for it.
When the going gets tough, you might be driven to abandon your dreams of a better future.
The stronger your faith in yourself and your work, the less likely this is to happen. Not quitting when many others would surrender in defeat increases your potential to succeed.
2. Moral integrity and goodness.
The road to success is littered with opportunities to take shortcuts that include: lying, cheating, engaging in deceptive practices and even stealing. You may even see many such actions being rewarded and few of the people who choose to operate this way suffering any obvious penalty or punishment for their undesirable behaviours.
You instinctively know when something isn’t right. Your reputation is a valuable asset that must never be knowingly compromised. Don’t let others corrupt your moral integrity or sour the goodness in your heart.
Success achieved in less honourable ways, such as by gaming the system and taking advantage of people driven by desperation, is not worthy of having and often short-lived.
