Participants:
Series Code: LTBW
Program Code: LTBW190042S
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00:49 Hi, I'm Dr. Kim Logan-Nowlan and welcome to Live To Be Well. 00:53 What is Live To Be Well? Mind, body and soul but the most 00:58 important aspect, without God we cannot live to be well. Today I 01:04 am blessed to have on the program Mr. Robert Pearson MBA 01:09 Welcome to Live To Be Well. How are you Robert? 01:11 I'm well and yourself? 01:13 I'm well. I like that I'm well. You're well, I'm well. 01:16 Let's talk about integrity and ethics in business. Well first 01:21 of all what is an MBA? 01:22 It's a master's in business administration. It is a masters 01:26 degree typically provided by accredited universities and 01:30 colleges when people have demonstrated the ability and 01:34 knowledge and discipline in business and 01:38 business administration, 01:39 how to manage complex organizations, how to give with 01:43 business management, finance, logistics, accounting, things of 01:48 that nature. 01:49 Wow! You know speaking about one of my business classes I did not 01:53 like it. But it was helpful as I look back over it now, what 01:57 I'm doing now in business. Why is integrity so important in the 02:02 way we view business and who we are as business owners? 02:06 Integrity. 02:07 Well integrity's very important in business as well as in all 02:10 aspects of life. I feel that you're only as good as your word 02:13 of course. And that's really as far as the business owner's 02:17 concerned that's your credit, you know, how good your word is. 02:20 If you say you're going to do something you know on time and 02:23 on price, you have to be a person of high integrity or your 02:26 business has to be a business of integrity and deliver. If you 02:29 don't well that's going to affect your business negatively. 02:34 And that goes from small business owners all the way to 02:37 corporate organizations, you know, global conglomerates. 02:40 It comes down to the individual person's moral integrity, doing 02:46 what's right. Myself personally as a Christian, you know you want 02:50 to do things justly and with balance in accordance with the 02:53 word. Ah, you know, God doesn't like unjust measures. So you 02:57 don't want to deal with people unjustly, slightly. You don't 03:02 to gouge people from a biblical standpoint or a legal standpoint 03:07 because they will come back around on you. We all reap what 03:10 we sow. [Yes] So with that being said, you know, you treat people 03:14 well. They will return to you and they will treat you well 03:16 in return. 03:18 Was there any doubt or when did you realize that this was the 03:20 area that God was calling you to? Was it in college, high 03:24 school or when you were trying to declare a major? What was it 03:27 now that happened? 03:29 Um, for the most part, I've always wanted to be a business 03:32 person. I just like the idea of it. You know, maybe even 03:37 watching old movies and seeing people in suits and like you 03:40 know doing stuff and counting money. That just interests me. 03:44 You know, I don't want to be a doctor or a lawyer, et cetera, 03:47 but I just gravitated towards business. I went right to 03:50 business school. I graduated from Wayne State University 03:53 getting my BA in finance and also going back again to get my 03:57 MBA as well. So I just took all business classes I really 04:02 enjoyed facets of business administration, management, ah 04:07 accounting, finance. I enjoyed the analytical part of it, you 04:12 know, forecasting, budgeting. I just... I enjoyed it. 04:17 You know I'm looking at you like you know really! You talk the 04:21 financier. I went in my first accounting class. I only took 04:25 one, you know, I said one, and barely passed it because I just 04:30 wasn't interested in it. But I said let me take it and see if 04:33 that's something I want to do. I knew I wanted to go into 04:36 business. I didn't know how God was directing me. And then 04:40 finally I said, That's why we have other people like you and 04:42 other people to do things like that. So when you were growing 04:46 up other children outside, because you have height, did you 04:50 play basketball? Did you take time to get involved with that 04:53 in sports? 04:55 Oh no, I wasn't a great basketball player but I did play 04:58 football and I ran track in high school. Then after high school 05:02 just intramural stuff in college I enjoy sports, I enjoy watching 05:07 football as an adult now. 05:08 Robert, tell me, how important is finance and having 05:12 integrity to it? 05:14 It's very important especially in the field of finance because 05:18 you typically dealing with other people's money so you have to be 05:21 a good steward of their money. So you have to build trust. You 05:25 have to be a trustworthy person. You have to be a credit worthy 05:27 person. Um so integrity is very, very huge dealing with all 05:33 aspects of business but particularly in finance. 05:35 Come on. Your workplace, let's discuss it. No matter what your 05:40 occupation is you should be using integrity on the job. 05:44 If you work eight hours you should be paid for eight hours. 05:49 Don't sign in for 12 hours. Integrity let's talk about that. 05:53 Yeah, definitely you know you should only be paid what you're, 05:56 you know, for the time you put in and compensated for it. 05:59 That's just being fair. You know as an employer you know you 06:03 shouldn't look to hurt your employees because that's gonna 06:06 affect your business long term. Also vice versa. From an 06:11 employee's standpoint, it works both ways. You don't want to 06:14 steal from your company per se or steal time. You know, it's 06:18 one thing if you have a family emergency, et cetera, and get 06:21 permission to leave but you know taking two-hour lunches is not a 06:25 good thing either. Also, affect your... 06:26 That's integrity right there. 06:28 Yeah, that's integrity because I can't trust you to do what you 06:31 say you are gonna do. 06:32 So integrity, attitude, trust all work together. [Um hm] 06:36 People today in our society, we don't see those components in 06:42 the workplace. Why? 06:45 Um unfortunately it's just a cultural society issue. 06:50 Um my opinion, we tend to champion people with negative 06:55 character traits so we laud people who have you know 07:02 cheated their way to the top per se. And that becomes part of 07:07 the collective conscience in my opinion of how people kind of 07:11 look at things. Oh you know my favorite character did whatever 07:13 it took to get to where he or she's at so I'm gonna kind of do 07:17 that my way. So for example people who might be in a trusted 07:22 position in the organization or in the business over someone 07:25 else's assets they might skim from the top. You know creating 07:30 fake invoices or doing things that are not above board and 07:35 figure that they might be entitled to or I'm not getting 07:39 enough money or whatever for their personal reasons are it 07:41 compels them to do wrong and that's really prevalent in our 07:46 society today. And it's unfortunate. But the good thing 07:50 is just as many bad people there are good people. 07:53 There are good people. Let's talk about going back to 07:55 wellness, stress. I remember reading about a story about 07:59 a gentleman who had embezzlement embezzled millions of dollars 08:04 from many, many, many people. It impacted his whole family 08:08 where even his son committed suicide because he couldn't face 08:14 the economic community for what his father had done. So when I 08:21 think about going back to middle school, elementary school, high 08:26 school someone looking on your paper and saying You got the 08:29 answer, you got the answer? We don't think about that. Right 08:32 there, that's where it begins, that cheating off the top. I've 08:37 studied all week and you come in and want to cheat off my paper 08:41 and that's right there, integrity [Mm-hm] honesty. 08:46 self-worth and it begins that young and it continues all the 08:51 way through life developing those behavioral traits that now 08:56 you come into my office and you say Dr. Logan I've been arrested 09:01 Arrested for what? Ah embezzlement. Um I stole 09:06 materials that didn't belong to me and they are saying that 09:11 part of my probation is psychological counseling to 09:14 understand why this behavior happened. We're dealing with a 09:18 lot of stress. Can you imagine I'm looking over my shoulder FBI 09:23 police. All right. One day I'll tell a story, true story. I'm in 09:28 my office, Robert, and I'm seeing a client. There's a knock 09:33 at the door and I didn't hear the knock, but my administrator 09:37 rarely, she rarely interrupts my therapy session unless it's 09:40 emergency. She knocked on the door and she said 09:43 (mouths) police. I said, huh? She said police (out loud). 09:47 And right there my mind did not go anywhere, what'd I do, I 09:52 been doing something wrong. I told my patient could you excuse 09:56 me a minute. I went out, spoke to the two police officers. They 10:00 told me what they were there to do. They came to my office to 10:03 arrest somebody who they knew would be here but the person's 10:09 appointment wasn't for an hour later. But the fact of the 10:14 matter was I didn't get uncomfortable because I knew I 10:19 had not done anything wrong with you know my patient or sharing 10:23 information or come on in my office and read my files. No! 10:27 But they told me why they were there. I knew in advance because 10:32 the other party told me they were going to send the police 10:34 here. But they were hoping to arrest the person but that 10:38 person had to deal with that, turn themselves in because of 10:44 integrity. So it all goes back from a young child. You know, is 10:50 there anything wrong with hard work? 10:52 There's nothing wrong with it. I mean, even in the book of 10:56 Proverbs you know the diligent maketh rich, the diligent hand 11:01 maketh rich. So it's seed time and harvest. So those are 11:05 principles in the Bible and that's also translated to the 11:07 rest of the world. You're getting what you put in. 11:10 So if you put in negative things you get out negative things. 11:13 So it's unfortunate that people feel that way but you know no 11:20 good can come out of it because you know what you're question 11:23 regarding wellness. I think the Bible says the wages of sin is 11:27 death. So when you're doing fraudulent things, untrustworthy 11:31 things it will take a toll on you. Yeah your bank account 11:34 might go up but your health is going to go down. I heard 11:38 similar stories you know people getting hundreds of thousands, 11:41 millions of dollars but soon they catch cancer or maybe their 11:45 child dies an untimely death. Those things, you know, it all 11:52 comes around. 11:54 The Bible also says what does it profit a man to gain the whole 12:00 world (reciting together) and loose your own soul. We are in a 12:04 place where we're chasing that dollar, but yet our hearts are 12:08 not fixed on Christ and if we are faithful to God he's 12:12 faithful to us. And therefore my mind says I should not be on 12:18 stress I want to have good wellness in my life total 12:20 balance and I don't want to reap negativity because that's what I 12:25 put out. I don't want to have to look over my shoulder because 12:28 I've been stealing and I've been skimming off the top and hurting 12:32 people. Because God sees every thing and he knows and he 12:37 already knows what we're going to do and what we're not going 12:38 to do. And so we have to change the way we think, Robert, to 12:42 healthiness, have good wellness to reduce stress and anxiety. 12:47 People jumping off of buildings because of... Remember the stock 12:54 market crash, many, many, many years ago and people literally 12:58 jumped out of windows because they lost everything. But I 13:02 believe if we have confidence in our Savior, our Lord and 13:07 Savior Jesus Christ, and we stand by the principles of the 13:10 word of God and we listen to what the Holy Spirit speaks to 13:14 us and when those temptations come they just go right past us. 13:18 Because God says Trust in me. Seek my way. He said, Seek ye 13:24 first the kingdom of God. All right, you know I don't get up 13:29 in the morning and say, Oh let's see what the stock market is 13:32 saying today. I hit my knees or I stand or I'm praising God to 13:38 guide me throughout that day. I'm in my Word trying to 13:41 understand what do you have for me to say to Robert today. 13:44 What can I say to encourage someone today? So when we talk 13:48 about integrity and ethics what's the difference? 13:51 Okay I have integrity but I don't have ethics. I have ethics 13:54 but I don't have integrity. Who cares? What's the difference 13:57 Sure. You ethics is your belief system, if your good beliefs you 14:02 know or moral beliefs or immoral beliefs. Your integrity is your 14:06 trustworthiness and your credibility. So they 14:09 particularly go hand in hand with one another. You know, is 14:12 your belief system good? Your trustworthiness will be high. 14:17 You just said credibility too. I think about... you know I was 14:21 talking to my program director Jason Bradley of Dare to Dream 14:25 and he was saying to me that when people look at social media 14:29 it could cost you your job. Can you talk about that because 14:33 it's your integrity? 14:35 Sure. Exactly. Particularly in large organizations they do 14:38 investigate people with social media because during the 14:42 interview process you're presenting yourself one way but 14:44 they want to know how you truly are to the rest of the world. 14:47 So you know most large organizations do have people 14:51 investigate people's social media to see what's really going 14:55 on. Particularly if you're going to be in charge of something 14:59 very important. If you're going to be a steward over someone's 15:04 large assets, they want to know what kind of person you really 15:07 are, what kind of integrity do you truly have, what kind of 15:10 ethics do you have. So they will look at your social media. 15:13 So and that could or would cost you opportunities. 15:16 Yes I think about how people find me, you know, and I'm very 15:21 grateful, I'm humbled by the reviews people write and the 15:25 first thing people say they look at the accounts of my character 15:31 based on the reviews that people have written. And you 15:33 know what I say, I say praise the Lord and I thank the Lord 15:36 for my wonderful clients and patients. I love them, they love 15:40 me and I don't believe that... And they have it set up where 15:45 you cannot do that. You know of course you could create an email 15:49 but you don't create 50 emails and write and some do but I did 15:54 not do that. So all the reviews that's on the internet about me 15:59 other people wrote and I'm very grateful. Sometimes I go back 16:02 and I read them and integrity counts and character and also 16:08 being honest of who you are. Honesty. Why is it important 16:14 that we are honest people? 16:15 Well to be honest well as believers, we should be honest. 16:20 And all people should be honest. You want to deal with honest, 16:25 trustworthy people. So it's very important to be honest in all 16:30 aspects because it transcends all aspects of life. So you know 16:34 if you're dishonest you can't be dishonest in business and then 16:38 expect your children to be honest with you. So they will 16:41 just pick up on what you're doing and they'll incorporate 16:44 that in their own personal lives. So it's all relevant. 16:48 And it cycles because think about when children tell little 16:53 stories and sometimes people say oh that's so cute. No, that is 16:56 not cute. I remember my mom, she was standing right there 17:00 but I did not see her. She was on the outside glass of my 17:04 grandmother's home. And I saw my mom's purse and I looked, but I 17:09 never looked out past the couch and I went in her purse and I 17:14 took a quarter, a quarter. My mother came in and she saw me. 17:18 She said, Did you go in my purse? And I said, No ma'am. 17:23 Lie number one. Did you take anything out of my purse? 17:26 No ma'am. Lie number two. Number three, did you take money 17:32 out of my purse? Mm-mm. My! I couldn't sit for three days. 17:37 She said, You cannot lie. Now all right. People who are 17:44 sinners saved by grace. People lie, they fabricate the truth. 17:47 They embellish the truth but only God can help us stop that 17:54 negative behavior because lying and being dishonest can cost you 18:00 your life also. It can put you in a place... That's why today 18:04 our prison system is overcrowded for various reasons but it 18:09 started with negative behavior. That should have been stopped 18:14 long before they got into their teenage years and older. 18:19 But someone ignored it or well it's okay. Should we just say 18:24 it's okay or should we say to our children, This is wrong. 18:29 Yeah, you should say to your children yes this is wrong 18:33 because it starts at an early age. Children tend to develop 18:37 their personalities around age five. So like you mentioned, 18:40 these little white lies, you know, a lot of people laugh it 18:43 off and it's cute, but what happens is they get positive 18:45 reinforcement from that so they'll continue to do it on a 18:48 grander scale as they go through life. I had a very similar 18:51 scenario with my own children. My oldest, I asked her to do 18:56 something and I followed up with her, Did you do it? And of 19:00 course she said yes, but when I went back to check on it, it 19:02 hadn't been done. And I asked her, Why did you tell me a lie? 19:07 And you know she couldn't give me a true response but she kind 19:12 of just blushed. I said, you know, lying is wrong and it's 19:16 not good and given our belief system, you know, we say Jesus 19:20 isn't like that you know on the young person's scale. So I want 19:25 to give them good ethics and good belief system so I tell 19:29 them lying is wrong. I had to start early and give them 19:33 negative reinforcement when they do that versus positive 19:36 reinforcement because it just will become a part of them. 19:39 So then after you matriculate in life and you become an adult 19:45 you're getting away with lying and cheating for so long. Here I 19:48 am in the business sense and I'm dealing with whatever scenario 19:51 and I'm going to lie and cheat [Right] to get over. 19:54 No one ever stopped me and therefore the behavior just 19:57 continued to build like those building blocks and then it 20:00 comes in like a domino effect. 20:02 Right and it affects your integrity. 20:03 And your integrity... And then once you've been arrested and 20:07 dealing with finances and other areas, you can't work in that 20:12 field anymore. 20:13 No because now you're untrustworthy. 20:14 Right. If you have a felony, you've been an attorney, you 20:18 cannot practice law. 20:19 You'll be disbarred. 20:20 You're disbarred. That's your integrity. So... 20:23 Same thing in the medical profession as well. 20:24 Medical profession as well. I could lose my license for doing 20:29 something that is not ethical or it's the integrity behind it. 20:34 I remember we were being... You know Arthur. And they came 20:40 in to meet with me, the Internal Revenue Service and an insurance 20:45 company was helping us set up things. I'd just gone 20:47 through a fire 20:48 and they were meeting with my administrator, Ms. Anderson and I 20:51 and walking through things. And I said, Well this lady said that 20:57 I did not do the work. So I got a letter from an insurance 21:03 company. So the insurance company called and said, 21:05 Dr. Logan, you have no record of any problems with your integrity 21:10 I said but she was in the therapy session. I was talking 21:14 to her son, he could not... well he had difficulty speaking so 21:18 she would answer the questions. So I billed her for the hour, 21:24 billed him because they both were in the session. She said, 21:27 How dare you bill me? That's fraud. So when the insurance 21:30 company called they said, Dr. Logan, send back the money and 21:36 we close this out. We know she was in the session, she knew she 21:40 was in the session but she said it was for my son. But how could 21:44 he answer the questions if you didn't answer, he couldn't speak 21:47 well. And so I sent it back. A month later she said, I'm going 21:52 to find someone else to service my son. And I said you have that 21:56 right. And I didn't say anything I said thank you for the 22:01 opportunity to serve you. A month later she called and said 22:05 I need your help. My son will not respond to anyone but you. 22:10 And I had to say I'm sorry, I have no openings until about 22:15 another six months. I was backed up. So she said I want to 22:21 apologize how I treated you and I want to send you back the 22:25 money that you sent back. I said No, no, no, no, no, we're good. 22:29 And I'll let you know if I can ever see your son. Sweet young 22:32 man. So I knew that I had not done anything. So the other 22:39 company said what they do, they go after people who bill 22:44 millions and millions of dollars and they're not seeing these 22:49 patients. Their integrity is not in place. So I think I owed 22:53 86 cents and I was like thank you Jesus. But the man said 22:58 Write me a check for 86 cents. So that was ethics and integrity 23:03 You know you are a private practice, small business, but 23:08 they are big people out here who are stealing and it's impacting 23:13 the church, it's impacting hospitals, businesses and then 23:18 our taxes go up. Then things go up for us because they got to 23:23 make this money up somehow, some way. Am I correct? 23:26 Correct. No, it's the people with low integrity and people 23:30 who steal and do these fraudulent activities. 23:33 Unfortunately the good people pay for it and that's in all 23:37 aspects from insurance to health services to even consumer 23:41 products and services. Because when someone steals from the 23:45 store the store, or the company that runs the store are going to 23:49 pass that loss on to the consumer. They're going to raise 23:51 the price up on each consumer item. You know, we all pay for 23:56 someone else's misdeeds and that person is going to pay a 24:00 different way. But, yeah, it all comes around full circle how we 24:07 treat others in business and how we treat others in our personal 24:11 lives. It all comes around full circle. That example you just 24:15 mentioned. The woman offered you an apology and unfortunately she 24:20 was at a loss because of her misguided ways. 24:24 And I truly did not have an opening for six months. But I 24:28 would not have lied. Because that's the whole point, you know 24:31 I'm going to... See because her son was in so much need. But the 24:40 other part of it was that really stressed me. I was hurt by it 24:45 my reputation. It only takes one person to ruin your 24:50 reputation. [Damage your high integrity.] 24:51 Yes I have high integrity but I was under a lot of stress and 24:54 they came through that door to meet with me and all I had to do 24:59 and I said, Fine I'll just send it back. Even if a person wrote 25:03 one review about me. And I tried to explain to them. So the 25:08 person asked me to lie when I went to court. I said, I can't 25:11 do that, that's perjury and I'm not going to go to jail for you. 25:16 So the person said, Well fine, I'm going to write this review 25:19 about you and no one's going to do business with you. 25:22 But greater is He that's in me than he that's in the world. 25:25 I am, that I am has sent you all right. So my god said you do 25:30 what is right and I will cover you in every aspect. And that's 25:34 the key, we have to have a connection to the Lord. We have 25:39 to implement prayer in the studying of the word of God so 25:43 that we will not make those kind of mistakes. And I never stole 25:48 another quarter from my mom. You know. Now when my husband 25:51 was alive he would put all his change on the dresser, all right 25:55 and he never counted it, and his dollars from golf. So I would 25:59 tell my little girl. Come here, come here. I said, Let's get all 26:03 daddy's coins. So he would get up the next morning, Hey 26:05 what happened to all my change? I said, I put it up to protect 26:09 you, all right. And do you know, we had jars here, here, here 26:14 and it was a blessing. Listen you have been amazing. I really 26:19 appreciate what I've learned today about integrity and also 26:24 ethics. Last 20 seconds, tell us what we need to do to be 26:28 better people. 26:30 Well, keep God first in your life. Treat others as you want 26:33 to be treated Always think about the greater scheme of things 26:38 and how it will affect you when you're presented with a negative 26:42 situation. Pray. Surround yourself with people of 26:49 good integrity. 26:50 I think that's so important Robert. I know you and you know 26:55 me. See it has to work both ways because I may want to be your 26:58 friend but you may say well Dr. Kim you're not someone I 27:01 want in my circles. Be very mindful who you associate with 27:05 because "guilty by association." You could be attached to a crime 27:10 because you were in that car. Your integrity... The Bible says 27:14 your reputation is far above rubies and gold. I want to thank 27:18 you so much for being with us today on Live To Be Well. And 27:21 remember without having God there is no aspect of 27:27 understanding what Live To Be Well is all about because he 27:30 he brings us all together. Have integrity, have ethics, have you 27:36 know the aspect of how you treat others. You reap 27:41 what you sow. Ask, don't take something that doesn't belong to 27:45 you. And remember, that God is willing, am I right Robert? to 27:49 bless you abundantly. I'm Dr. Kim Logan-Nowlan. 27:53 Ethics and integrity. With God you're on the right track. 27:57 Live To Be Well. 27:59 ♪ ♪ |
Revised 2021-09-14