Recently I read that Tiger Woods was returning to golf. I’m glad, as he is an amazing talented golfer and he makes golf interesting. But Tiger apparently made some really bad choices – the kind that reveal much of the character of the person making them. His reputation, and the respect people have for him will likely never recover.
I remember a recent President, stoically staring into the camera, speaking to his country and saying “I did not have sex with that woman”. I once had a colleague tell me they would support a decision 100% and later learned they walked out of the room and broke their promise. It sometimes feels like character rarely survives success.
Character was defined to me as the ability of a person to continue forward to overcome a challenge even after the initial enthusiasm wears off. Abraham Lincoln once said, “Character is like a tree and reputation like its shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.”
Sadly, across America many people place a higher importance on the value of a person’s assets than they do on the value of their character. Making money is seen as success rather than making and keeping promises. Athletes who can commit a foul and not get caught are seen as ‘playing the game’ vs. cheating.
Building character is about telling the truth. It’s about making smart promises and keeping them simply because you made that promise. Character means not worrying who might know – because you know yourself what is right.
What we need now is for people to have the courage to expect more of each other, to exhibit some character, and to place value on people and their character. And maybe, celebrate those who are quietly setting great examples for us – the ones with real character.
A day at a time 
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