Personal and Professional Standards

I think our professional standards should reflect our personal standards. If our principles are inconsistent in just one aspect of our lives, our integrity is compromised. What is worth more to us: our character or career? Ideally we’d like to improve in both areas as much as possible, but that is difficult to achieve in the real world. Sometimes it seems like our standards could hold us back from advancing in our careers. What is unethical to us may be perfectly fine to a co-worker, and we fall behind because of it. The more frustrated we become with this injustice, the more tempted we are to compromise our standards. I believe that it's worth it to stick to your standards. At the end of the day, once your career is over, there will be more regret in going against your values than in missing an opportunity to get ahead.