What Builds Character?

What builds character? Upbringing? Faith? Experience?

I suppose we can never really know. This is partly, in my view, because whoever's advocating a position often has a dog in the hunt. So their opinion is suspect.

But we know what character is, and we know that it counts - particularly when it's tested.

A friend of mine, Skip Rowland, wrote a book (two books, actually) about the time he sold his business, bought a sailboat, and sailed off across the Pacific.

There are few things, I suppose, that can test your character more than being 3,000 miles from shore. Unless you include getting attacked by pirates. Or having someone steal your boat and set it on fire. Or having to manage a crew that's tired, hungry and soaked through to the bones fighting a 36 hour storm at sea. If you want to read a real page-turner, it makes a great Christmas gift to yourself.

The reason this matters to me is because there are few times when character matters more than in the day-to-day work we do - especially in the kind of work we do. We have to represent clients personally. On the phones. To people who can make or break their businesses. Putting someone on the phones who would embarrass a client, or not represent them to the highest standards, would ruin our business. That's why we work with people like Skip.

But getting back to the book, if you want to read how one of my heroes faces his tests of character, it's there in black and white. It's a fun story. And it shows that character counts.