Integrity, An Excerpt

sean low's (of tbbc) latest post came quite perfectly at the right time. its an interesting article on integrity which pretty much highlights the challenges faced by those part of any type of creative business. here's an excerpt, for the whole post head over to sean's blog! and for those involved in this line, i urge you to keep this in mind as it will all serve us well while we build our little enterprises towards greater success ;)

The problem with operating without integrity is that the result (positive or negative) is never really yours. If you blindly take another’s collateral – her pricing information, packages, marketing materials, blog posts, images, ideas, etc. – you can never really be sure that it is you your clients are really hiring. While you might be able to live with it in the short run, the lie will get you in the end. The spirit of creation and individualism behind any artist and their creative business simply will not permit being derivative forever. And to go down the path of being dishonest can do nothing but destroy your own sense of self. Hard to produce great work when the confidence in having faith in who you are and what you are about is gone.

Although we seem to be recovering from the trauma of last year’s economic events, the air of uncertainty remains. In that air, the temptation to copy (i.e., steal) from someone else, do business that is not right for you or lower your standards (i.e., prices, product quality, clientele) for the sake of the business is remarkably alluring. It IS harder to stay true to yourself and your art and work to see what opportunities will present themselves during this time of transition. However, if you can know, really know, that losing your integrity will make you myopic, the choice might not be that difficult.