Week in YE Vol 1: A Recap
PROFILE: Cowboy Eddy
– The Easy-Going Entrepreneur
Cowboy Eddy
grew up working in the family business. He started as a rancher in Dodge City,
KS after high school. Cowboy Eddy believes that treating his business partners
with respect and humility is the best way to build honest business relationships.
Thanks to everyone who submitted "What INTEGRITY means to you." to Cowboy Eddy last week. Here is a sample of some of our entries including pieces of our winner Austin's entry.
Having Integrity as an entrepreneur is more than just the basic meaning of the word. ... It’s making the customer feel like they’re a part of something great by the level of comfort you offer them as an entrepreneur which will in and of itself make you a profit. For example, when setting commitments to a customer you must follow through. When you’re late on a date or you don’t commit, you start to lose integrity. ... To keep a good name for your business while maintaining good integrity, I believe you must establish a system to treat everybody using your product with respect. ...Making a customer feel good about using your product keeps that Good Samaritan to keep your customers happy. In conclusion, having integrity as an entrepreneur means more than just having good righteousness, it’s having enough business knowledge and ethics to be able to be an over achiever in the integrity aspect and make the customer feel like family.
Integrity is something not a lot of people know about, but should. I, myself, have a lot of experience and training with it because of my interest in the military. I've been in numerous programs allowing me to learn about this such as: the Young Marines, and JROTC. Integrity to start, is one of the 14 principle leadership traits. So, to be a good leader, you must posses integrity. Integrity is doing the right thing, even when no one is watching. It's about being honest not only to others but to yourself. In life, you have many times you can cheat, and know for a fact you'll do better than others, however in reality, your only cheating yourself by not working as hard, or if you did cheat, you will not understand say, the material, later, when its useful. ... Besides integrity in school, this takes place a lot in everyday life. If your at the gym, or working out with a sports team, if you're suppose to do 20 reps, and you see everyone's starting to stop but you're behind and only at 10 ,and stop, you're simply killing yourself. You're not going to be as fast, strong, or ready for the season, because those 10 reps add up. Or even in relationships, Integrity is very important. Honesty with yourself and the other person. ... Last instance, in the business world. as a CEO, or even as a cashier, like myself, you're in control of hundreds, thousands, millions, of dollars. Its very tempting to take a couple dollars here or there but that's embezzlement, not just morally wrong, wrongful to your employer, but illegal! Integrity, honesty, to me means a lot in my everyday life. It takes place all the time, in many different circumstances. Without it, life will go downhill because, like my dad says, its only matter of time until someone figures it out. You'll loose your relationship, you'll loose the trust others have put in you, and will be behind, and loose jobs.
