PART FIVE THE MOST ESSENTIAL VIRTUES

PART FIVE THE MOST ESSENTIAL VIRTUES The Virtue of Prudence and Justice The Virtue of Generosity The attitude of Gratitude The Essence of Loyalty

The Virtue of Prudence and Justice

The Virtue of Prudence and Justice Think About This: 1.How do you make decisions in matters to your personal affairs and in other area of your life? 2.How do you prevent wrong decisions? 3. How Is justice being perceived today?

The virtue of prudence refers to your developing the habit of providing well for yourself, your family, your friends, your coworkers and your company. This requires that you think intelligently and honestly about the very best course of action to maximize your opportunities and minimize possible danger and threats.

The habit of prudence means that you investigate every investment carefully, think ahead about what might happen if you were to take a particular course of action, and take intelligent steps to guard against setbacks and reversals of fortune. The most successful people are those who are prudent in the conduct in all of their personal and business affairs.

Justice Is Blind The next habit for you to develop is the habit of justice. This refers to your commitment to the establishment and maintenance of laws in society that protect the persons and property of every individual.

Justice Is Blind The American Republic has endured for more than 200 years because it was carefully established by the Founding Fathers on the basis of law, not men. At every level of our society, specific laws are prescribed and laid down that are applicable to all people, regardless of wealth or station in life.

John Rawls, the Harvard philosopher and author of A Theory of Justice, once presented a question to his class that has been repeated often through the years. Imagine that you could write the laws and create the circumstances of your society. You are given the power to prescribe the economic, social and political relationships that would exist in your country throughout your lifetime.

There is only one limitation on your power. You would set up this structure without knowing into what sort of family or situation you would be born. You would not know in advance what sort of physical condition you might be born with. Whatever system of laws and customs you decided upon, you would then be required to live under them for the rest of your life. What kind of structure would you design in this situation?

The answer to this question is the very essence of the concept of justice. The statue of justice, holding the balances and scales in her hand, is blindfolded. True justice is therefore applicable to all people who live under a certain system, irrespective of their background.

When you make the habit of justice an organizing virtue for your own character, you will insist that, whatever the relative power of the parties, everyone be treated fairly and justly in the resolution of any difficulty or dispute.

The habit of prudence is essential for personal success. The habit of justice is essential for the creation of a society within which a person can pursue his or her own best interests with the greatest of possibilities. The rule is that you should never want or demand anything for anyone else that you are not perfectly willing to accept for yourself.

Discussions and Action Steps 1.Share How Important to You is the virtue of prudence? 2.List down how you make future decisions to prevent setbacks of any kind? 3. Is there Justice around you? Discuss.

The Virtue of Generosity

The Virtue of Generosity Think About This: 1.Are you generous? How do you view yourself? When you give something, do you expect something in return? 2.What does this mean, What goes around, comes around?

The third quality or habit that you must develop is the habit of benevolence. This is one of the hallmark characteristics of the truly superior person. Aristotle referred to it as one of the eight essential virtues, that of generosity.

Each person is psychologically and emotionally structured in such a way that they are only truly happy and satisfied when they feel that they are doing something that serves and benefits other people. When you give freely and generously of yourself to others, whether it is to members of your family or to members of the public, you feel more valuable and happier inside.

When you dedicate yourself to serving your customers with the very best quality of product or service of which you are capable, not only do you feel a deep sense of personal satisfaction, but you also put yourself on the side of the angels when it comes to personal and business success.

You remember the principle: The more you give of yourself to others without expectation of return, the more good things there are that will come back to you from the most unexpected sources.

The regular practice of prudence, justice and benevolence leads naturally to feelings and actions of kindness, compassion and tolerance toward other people. You become more open minded and flexible. You develop greater patience and understanding. You are less judgmental or demanding of others. You become a better and finer person.

Discussions and Action Steps 1. When you give something, do you expect something in return? Is there anything you want to improve in this area? 2.How will you practice the virtue of generosity? 3. What do you think is the reward of being generous?

The Attitude of Gratitude

Think About This: 1.Is there anything you need to be grateful for? 2. How do you value gratefulness?

The final habit for you to develop in becoming a person of great character is the habit of practicing an Attitude of gratitude in every part of your life.

The habit of feeling and expressing gratitude, of saying thank you to people, and thank you to life in general, for all of the things in your life that you should be grateful for, has a wonderful effect on your personality. An attitude of gratitude makes you a warmer, friendlier and more genial person.

An attitude of gratitude causes you to be more sensitive and aware of people around you, and your environment. An attitude of gratitude gives you a great sense of happiness and inner satisfaction. The more gratitude you have, the more gratitude you express, the better and more positive is your personality, the higher is your selfesteem, and the more popular and liked you are by all the people around you.

Be Thankful For Everything Even in the midst of the greatest difficulties you will experience, you can find things for which you are truly grateful. In fact, if you take a piece of paper and begin to write down the parts of your life for which you should be grateful, you will be amazed at how many items appear on your list.

Think about your physical body. No matter what your condition, you can be grateful for all of your senses, for the miracles of sight, sound, touch, taste, smell and feeling. You can be thankful for the functioning of your body and for the health of your limbs

You can be grateful for the incredible gift of the life that you have lived up until now, and the great life that lies ahead of you. Just sitting alone in your room, thinking about your current blessings, can give you a page full of reasons to be truly grateful.

Look around you at your personal life. When you begin making a list of every person in your life, and the good qualities and actions of those people, you cannot help but be grateful. Think of every material item in your world, your home, car, clothes and other possession, and you will not know where to stop.

Just thinking about the health and well being of the people you care about, your spouse, children and friends, and the qualities of their personalities, will make up a list that goes on and on.

Think of the wonderful experiences youve had in the past, the lessons youve learned, the books youve read, the movies youve seen, the songs youve heard and the foods you have eaten. Think of the places that you have visited and the experiences that you have had in your travels and work.

Look back over the years that have passed and look at the years ahead. Think about the opportunities you have lying ahead of you, and you will be amazed at how many things you have in your life for which you can be truly grateful.

Your Great Good Fortune The most successful people, including millionaires, multi-millionaires and even billionaires, always seem to describe their successes in life by saying, Life has been very good to me. I have been so fortunate. I have so many things to be grateful for.

Virtually every successful person attributes their success to other people, to their spouses, their children, their parents, their coworkers, their friends, associates and customers. Sir Isaac Newton, who is ranked as one of the ten most important people in human history, in the latter years of his life was asked, How is it that you, amongst all men, could have made so many great contributions to so many sciences?.

Newton replied, thinking of all the great scientists who had preceded him and who worked for so many years before he came along, If I have accomplished anything worthwhile in life, it was only because I stood on the shoulders of giants.

Discussions and Action Steps 1.How grateful are you? What are the things you need to be grateful for? 2.List them down.

The Essence of Loyalty

Think About This: 1.What does loyalty mean to You? 2. How important is it to You?

The habit of loyalty seems to be a quality of the very best people in our society. Disloyalty is a major reason for failure in business and the world of work. The decision from the outset that you will be completely loyal to the people who expect and deserve your loyalty enables you to remain clear and focused in the face of short-term successes and reversals.

Sometime ago, one of the big three automobile manufacturers in Detroit arranged a public demonstration against Japanese imports, demanding quotas, restrictions and higher tariffs in order to protect American manufacturing and jobs. As they had been ordered, the automobile workers arrived for the demonstration from all over Detroit.

To the surprise and chagrin of the organizers, fully 40% of the Detroit autoworkers were driving Japanese cars. These workers were not even prepared to buy the same cars that they were manufacturing. This became a source of major embarrassment when the television crews began filming the arriving demonstrators.

Support Your Company

Family,

Friends

and

The habit of loyalty requires that you be absolutely loyal to your company. You never criticize your boss or the people you work with, especially outside the company in the presence of other people.

In addition, you purchase and use the products and services of your company, and recommend them proudly to others. It is amazing how many people work for one company but use the products and services of a competitor. They are then amazed to find that they are seldom if ever promoted to positions of higher responsibility. Their disloyalty disqualifies them from any kind of advancement.

Bryan said, I have been strongly loyal to my friends and business associates throughout my life as well. Once I have decided that a person is my friend or colleague, I will stand by them almost indefinitely. I will praise them to others and defend them if they are attacked. I will take any challenge to their character or personality of a friend or relative as if it were a personal attack on me. You should do the same.

Discussions and Action Steps 1.Why you think loyalty as a virtue to hold on? 2. What are some implications of being disloyal? 3. Discuss the statement made by Manuel L. Quezon when he said, My loyalty to my party ends, when my loyalty to my country begins.