From Chapter 14 “Integrity” in Ingredients of Outliers. “Because that’s what we do.” Over the years, the one sport that has seemed to avoid most of the scandals, which have plagued other sports, is golf. Now, I’m not talking about the personal lives of prominent golfers, but about how the sport itself is played. For example, golf is the only popular sport in which there are no referees overseeing the action on the course; the players themselves are responsible for playing by the rules and for penalizing themselves for any sort of violations of those rules, whether those violations are … [Read more...]
Integrity Shapes Lives
From Chapter 14 “Integrity” in Ingredients of Outliers. Simply put, integrity is doing what you say and saying what you’ll do. The term is derived from the Latin word integer, which means “whole or complete.” When a person has integrity, he or she is believed to have an inner sense of “wholeness,” derived from consistency of action and character. The characteristics or qualities that comprise integrity are often defined as truthfulness, honesty, consistency, morality, accountability, responsibility, and loyalty. Today’s media is filled with stories that lead to the almost … [Read more...]
Change Your Perspective, Change Your Life
From Chapter 11 “Perspective” in Ingredients of Outliers. Life is simply about perspective. If ranked, this is the most important of all the lessons I’ve learned. Simply changing your perspective changes everything. For example, I recently had a patient who was in moderate respiratory distress from the pulmonary embolism we diagnosed in the emergency department. He was also dying of colon cancer. When I told him about this latest diagnosis, he said, “Whew, at least I’m still on the right side of the turf.” For most of us—me included—the thought of a pulmonary embolism would be … [Read more...]