To be respected by others, one must have integrity, honor, and must always tell the truth. Integrity means doing the right thing, even when someone is not watching. As one’s integrity grows, one starts to earn honor, which is the respect one may deserve because of their ability to be trusted in any circumstance. Honesty is the ability to tell the truth whether or not the consequences may be severe. It is very important to uphold the respectable conducts, because a leader without integrity, honor, and honesty is a man that will cause chaos to his followers and the goal in which they tend to. Without integrity, his followers will wonder why they are doing the right thing if their own leader is not doing it. Also, when a leader has no honor, his followers will not have respect for him, therefore they will not do what the leader tells them to do. Most importantly, a man needs to be honest to his people, if he does not display this characteristic, his followers will always think he is lying whether or not he is telling the truth.One of the main ways one may exemplify the characteristic of being a respectable person is through having integrity. Whether or not someone is watching, one must always do the right things. If one only do the right thing when, someone is watching, one may earn the same respect, but eventually someone will find out. Then one will not be pleased with himself, therefore his attitude will be of a blissful man. Here is for example, a boy is taking an ROTC course, and his teacher gives him the position of flight commander. A class project, assigned by his teacher, says that he is to get the whole class together as a group and build a model airplane. He has a few students in his group that knows how to build the plane, but he has no idea how to construct a plane. His group successfully built the plane without his leadership. He then shows the teacher the plane that his group built, and says to him that he built it himself. His teacher says, to the class, that everyone should be as hard-working as he is and how much he is a good student. He later finds himself in need of assistance for the accomplishment of his homework, and he asks one of his classmates for help. His classmate relentlessly says no and reminds him of his integrity issue with the ROTC project. He had no one who would be willing to help him, and then he failed his homework assignment. As one may learn from this lesson, integrity is the key to giving respect to others, and the more respect one gives, he shall receive. If one does not give any respect, the chances of getting any respect is rare. The way the flight commander should have handled the situation was by giving all his students, in his group, the credit for their work. If he would have done this, then not only would he earn his respect from his pairs, but also from his teacher as a good leader. “Every man is said to have his peculiar ambition. Whether it be true or not, I can say for one that I have no other so great as that of being truly esteemed of my fellow men, by rendering myself worthy of their esteem (Abraham Lincoln Integrity Quotes).”
Along with integrity, one must have honor to earn respect from others. A man of honor is a man that tries his best to satisfy his follower’s needs. In other words, he would put his followers first before himself. If a leader only does things for himself, then the chance of someone doing something for him is very unlikely to happen. One day, a leader was given three sandwiches to share with his followers; instead, he chooses to eat them all. His followers asked him where their sandwiches are, and he says that he ate them all. The next day, the people, who gave the leader the food, did not have any more food to give to him. The followers, in fear that their leader might not share the food, brought their own food and extras to share with their comrades. The leader tried to ask for some of their food, but they all denied him for his selfishness. Through this life experience, the leader learned that it is very important to take care of his comrades, for they will take care of him in return. “The attitude and act of welcoming a stranger into our lives as well as our homes may bear eternal fruit as well as be a practical form of ministry (Christian Quotes by John Wimber).” This is true because people tend to want to repay one for their desire to help them and therefore will be in one’s favor in many circumstances.
Not only does having honor give respect from others, one also needs to be honest. To be truly honest, one must tell the truth no matter what the consequence is. If one does not tell the truth all the time, when he is actually telling the truth, no one will believe him. Not telling the truth to someone, could also lead to false interpretations, which could lead to severe outcomes. Let’s say a man, name Josh, cooked his famous grill cheese sandwich. The person he served the sandwich to asked him if there was jalapeno in the sandwich. Josh, who does not want anyone to know that jalapeno is the reason why his sandwiches are so delicious, said that that there is no jalapeno in the sandwich. The person that ate the sandwich developed an asthma attack that brought him to the hospital. If Josh had simply told the person the truth, he would not have to deal with all the consequences that occur after what he did to the person.
To earn respect from others can be a difficult task, because it is hard to do the right thing when no one is looking. It is also hard to tell the truth, especially when there is a severe punishment in process. If one manages to develop these two things, then honor will come right after. One does not usually get the respect he deserves right away, but as time goes on and people realize the type of respectable person he is, then they will respect him and speak nothing but good words about him. So, one should make an example in this world, and be the man of honor so that others will also follow in the same path to make the world a better place.
Works Cited
“Abraham Lincoln Integrity Quotes.” Abraham-Lincoln Quotations.com. Web. 15 Aug. 2012.
“Christian Quotes by John Wimber.” Daily Christian Quote.2012. Web. 15 Aug. 2012.
