In December 2001, Notre Dame football fans thought their prayers had finally been answered. The Fighting Irish—one of the most storied programs in college football—had been searching for the right leader to restore its glory days. After a high-profile coaching search, the university proudly announced George O’Leary as its new head coach. O’Leary had built a strong reputation at Georgia Tech, where he turned a struggling program into a perennial contender. He was tough, disciplined, and seemed to embody the values Notre Dame cherished. The press conference introducing him was filled with excitement and optimism. Finally, it looked like the Irish had their man.

But just five days later, it all came crashing down. A reporter at the Manchester Union Leader in New Hampshire was doing a routine background check when he spotted something odd on O’Leary’s résumé. It claimed he had earned a master’s degree in education from New York University. That raised a red flag—NYU had no record of him ever attending. A deeper look revealed even more: his résumé also said he had played three years of college football at the University of New Hampshire, but he had never actually played a single down there.

The lies weren’t new. In fact, they had been sitting quietly on O’Leary’s résumé for more than twenty years. When he was a young assistant coach, he embellished his credentials, likely thinking it was harmless. After all, everyone was padding their résumés back then, right? Over time, the falsehoods followed him as he climbed the coaching ladder. And for years, no one bothered to double-check. He built a successful career, became one of the most respected coaches in the country, and nearly reached the pinnacle of college football. But integrity is like a crack in a dam—it might go unnoticed for a long time, but eventually, under enough pressure, it bursts.

When the truth came out, the fallout was swift and brutal. Notre Dame, a university that prides itself on tradition and honor, could not afford to be associated with dishonesty—especially from its head football coach. After less than a week on the job, George O’Leary was forced to resign in disgrace. His dream job was gone before he ever coached a single game.

O’Leary went on to rebuild his career at the University of Central Florida, but his name at Notre Dame is remembered for one thing: scandal.

Trust Is Your Greatest Asset

When you’re getting started in a new career or trying to stand out in a crowded field, you’ll always be able to justify cutting corners. History is littered with the names of people who fell from grace because their secrets were exposed. Bernie Maddof, Lance Armstrong, Martha Stewart, and Barry Bonds, just to name a few. The thing about secrets is they never stay secrets. Eventually, they become scandals. And before you know it, everything you’ve worked for comes crashing down.

Integrity means your inner world matches your outer world—you are the same person in every room and every deal. It’s easy to assume you will be that kind of person later, when you’ve done what you need to do to get ahead, but you won’t. You’ve probably heard the saying, “money just magnifies who you are.” After earning hundreds of millions of dollars, I can verify it’s true. That’s why, if you wait until you’re wealthy or successful to make the right decisions, it will be too late. 

Early in your career, you’re not just building a résumé—you’re building a reputation. Every choice you make is casting a vote for the kind of person you’re becoming. Everyone assumes they have integrity, but you won’t really know until doing the right thing costs you something. That’s why, in the green phase, it’s important to decide who you will be, but more importantly, who you won’t be. How will you conduct business? How will you treat people? How will you handle failure?

There will come a moment in your career when you must choose between the right thing and the easy thing. A lie might help you avoid trouble for a day, and fudging the numbers might make the report look good for a quarter. Doing the right thing won’t feel like the smart thing, but shortcuts always lead to setbacks. You can recover from a failure, but it’s almost impossible to regain trust, and trust is the currency of business.

Am I making a big deal over nothing? Does it really matter if you tell a little white lie or round the numbers up a tiny bit? What every scandal has in common is that it started small, and the person breaking the rules believed they would get away with it. But they didn’t. Eventually, it always comes out. And usually at the worst possible time.

Like O’Leary, 70% of job applicants say they lie on their résumés. That’s probably why it feels so easy to try to lie or cheat to get ahead. It feels like everyone else is doing it, and a lot of them are. But if the only way you can get the job is by pretending you’re someone you’re not, then you’re stuck pretending forever. You trade a moment of success for a lifetime of anxiety. Is that what you want? There is no better feeling than knowing you have nothing to hide—no lies to protect and no fear of being found out. 

It’s important to distinguish between integrity and perfection. You will make mistakes. And integrity certainly doesn’t mean always being nice or being taken advantage of. It means being consistent. You own your mistakes rather than hiding them. You tell the truth even when it’s uncomfortable. 

Everyone, at some point, has worked for a boss who lacked character. You can’t trust what they say or that they have your best interests at heart. You constantly look over your shoulder, and you know that if push comes to shove, they will choose themselves over you every time. Working under that kind of leadership changes you. It drains your energy and promotes self-preservation. What’s interesting is that leaders like that rarely see themselves as unethical. They believe they’re pragmatic. They tell themselves they did what it takes to win. That everyone cuts corners. But they’ve lied to themselves so long they can’t see the truth anymore. No matter how much money they make, they are morally bankrupt. The opposite is also true. When you work for someone who does the right thing, even when it costs them, it changes the culture. Trust grows. People take risks, share ideas, and give their best effort because they feel safe. So what kind of leader do you want to be?

You won’t suddenly become a person of character when you get promoted or when people start looking to you for leadership. You become that person now, in the green phase, when the stakes feel small. And the best way to build that kind of integrity is to make a few clear commitments now, before the pressure makes the choice for you.

Tell the Truth

In business, credibility is currency, and nothing makes you more credible than being believable. In one study, 88% of people said honesty is the single most important trait in a leader they are willing to follow. ¹

Early in your career, you’ll be tempted to bend the truth. You want to appear better than you are. So you exaggerate, or take credit for an idea that wasn’t yours. You give a deadline you know you can’t meet, or round up your numbers. But being a dishonest person is exhausting. You live with anxiety about being found out, and you are always scrambling to keep your stories straight. Honesty is a much better policy. As Mark Twain reminds us, “If you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything.”² That’s why truth-tellers always sleep better and rise higher.

Everyone knows a liar. You just roll your eyes when they speak. They’re running late because of “traffic.” The deal is closing “soon.” But you stopped believing them a long time ago. You might like them, but you certainly don’t trust them. Is that how you want people to feel about you? Of course not. So now is the time to decide: Will you be believable? Is your word your bond? 

Let’s be clear, being honest doesn’t mean always being nice—sometimes the truth hurts.

Over the years, I’ve had to sit across from employees and friends to deliver difficult feedback. While I never enjoy those conversations, I follow through with them because I made a commitment a long time ago: You may not like me, but you can respect that I will always tell you the truth.

Treat People Right

As you build your career, remember this: Life moves at the speed of relationships. Your biggest deals and greatest opportunities won’t come from cold calls; they will come through the people you know. That’s why how you treat people is not just a character issue; it’s also a competitive advantage.

There’s an old adage in leadership: People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care. ³ I have found this to be true. If you were to think about the greatest people you’ve worked with, it’s probably not their talent that sticks out, but rather the way they made you feel. 

It was Jesus who said, “Do to others as you would have them do to you.”⁴ We would have liked it better if he had said, “Do to others as they have done unto you.” then we could get even, or get the last word. But the Golden Rule is golden because it places responsibility on us to go first. We choose how we want to be treated—and then we model it.

Over the years in business, I’ve learned that how you treat people eventually determines how people treat you. If you extend grace, when the day comes that you need it (and trust me, it will), someone will likely extend it right back. If you’re generous, that generosity has a way of finding its way home. But the opposite is equally true. If you manipulate, don’t be surprised when someone manipulates you. If you take advantage of people, someone will take advantage of you.

Let me make you a promise: You will have a chance to get ahead by leaving someone behind. Make the decision now: I will never step on people to climb higher. It doesn’t have to be lonely at the top. You just have to decide to bring people with you along the way. Not everyone will make the journey, but some will if you share your success. So share the credit and the profits. Share the spotlight. Because in the end, success is measured in relationships.

Take Responsibility

One of the clearest marks of maturity is how you respond when you’re responsible. Everyone wants to take credit when something works, but it’s rare to find anyone willing to take the blame when it doesn’t. 

There will be moments early in your career where things go wrong, and all eyes turn to you. In those moments, you will feel the pull to deflect or disappear. That’s what most people do, which is why you can’t. Everyone makes mistakes. You will say the wrong thing or make the wrong call, but when you do, learn to say, “I’m sorry. That was my fault.” There’s nothing more refreshing to a leader than someone on their team who will own their mistakes.

You know someone who refuses to take responsibility. There’s always a reason—or more accurately, an excuse: It’s never their fault. The team didn’t get them what they needed. The market shifted. Some of their reasons may be valid, but they are helpless, always at the mercy of someone or something else. 

The alternative is radical. Be the person to raise your hand, not point a finger. I can assure you it will stand out because when things go wrong, most people hide. What’s common is to be defensive or dismissive—It’s either not your fault, or it’s not a big deal. What will set you apart is radical ownership: It is your fault, and it is a big deal.

As your leadership and influence grow, so will the need to take responsibility. The most respected leaders in the world follow a simple rule: Share the credit. Shoulder the blame. 

Prepare versus Repair 

I want you to imagine your life 20 years from now. What does it look like? What’s your career? What kind of income are you earning? What is your physical health like? Most of us, when we dream about the future, lean toward the overly optimistic. We picture ourselves healthier, wealthier, and happier than we are right now—without fully accounting for the choices we’re making today.

So let me reframe the question. Instead of simply asking, What do you want life to look like 20 years from now?, ask yourself this: If I keep doing exactly what I’m doing now for the next 20 years, what will my life look like then?

That answer usually feels different, doesn’t it? Because the hard truth is this: you will become the sum of the choices you consistently make. Unless you change your habits, your trajectory won’t magically change. The future you dream of is only possible if you prepare for it now.

Sadly, most people don’t prepare—they repair. They spend their lives trying to fix yesterday’s mistakes rather than laying the groundwork for tomorrow’s success. Instead of building wealth, they spend decades digging themselves out of debt. Instead of maintaining their health, they spend their middle years battling diseases that could have been prevented with better habits earlier. Instead of strengthening relationships along the way, they try to salvage broken marriages or reconnect with children after years of neglect.

Repairing is always harder and more costly than preparing. Think about finances: how many people do you know who spend today’s paycheck covering yesterday’s spending? That credit card balance wasn’t built overnight; it was the result of years of small, seemingly insignificant decisions. And now, instead of investing in their future, they’re enslaved to repairing their past.

Or think about health. How many people do you know who are desperately trying to lose the weight they gained yesterday? Prevention always costs less than correction. A 30-minute walk every day might save you from years of medication later. Eating well now is far easier than trying to undo decades of unhealthy choices.

The same principle applies to leadership, relationships, and personal growth. If you don’t prepare your character now, you’ll spend years repairing the damage of broken trust later. Here’s the bottom line: it’s too late to prepare for today. The life you have right now is the result of the choices you made yesterday. But the good news is, you can prepare for tomorrow. You can choose today to invest in your health, in your relationships, in your finances, and in your career.

So the question is: will you spend your life repairing the past—or will you start preparing for the future you actually want? Be someone you’re proud of.