Organizational success results from integrity.

What's the fastest route to the top? What quality is necessary for real business success?

If you follow many of the self-help myths, you might answer aggressiveness, self-assurance, or maybe the power of persuasion or intelligence.

However, integrity is the quality most often cited as necessary for lasting success.

This revelation is as old as time, and you find its truth in studying every society that has gone before us. No society has ever survived its own success because, when it arrived at the top, it forgot the principles that got it there and began to live by rules of expediency, rather than integrity.

In ancient Rome, sculpting was a popular profession. You were not really considered to be in the mainstream if your home or workplace didn't have several statues of the gods adorning it. As with every industry, there was good and bad quality in the statue business.

When, on occasion, a sculptor made a mistake in carving a statue, the cracked or chipped area would be filled with wax. Sculptors became so good at "remodeling" with wax that most people couldn't tell the difference in quality with the naked eye.

'Sine Cera'

If someone wanted an authentic, fine-quality statue carved by someone who took pride in his work, he would go to the artisan marketplace in the Quad in Rome and look for signs at the booths marked "sine cera"--without wax. There, he would find the real thing.

In everything we do in life, we are looking for those items and individuals who represent the real thing. More than any other virtue we look for in people, we value sincerity, which comes from "sine cera," meaning without wax.

I've always believed that character cannot be counterfeited. Like rings on a tree, we become what we do. Every time individuals engage in dishonest activities of any kind, the results come back to haunt them. When a politician runs for a major office, the backers try to anticipate "skeletons in the closet" that can come full circle during a campaign or term of office. What goes around, comes around.

It's a sad commentary that many retail businesses must resort to lie-detector tests in advance to help select honest clerks and employees. In much of society's daily life, expediency has replaced honesty and integrity as the major consideration.

Respect Not for Sale

If you have the money and the source, you can buy term papers on any high school or university subject; you can hire a "surrogate" to take a final for you; and you can buy a bachelor's, master's or doctoral degree.

You cannot, however, buy respect and a reputation. They are not for sale. They are forged with honesty. They do not melt under the heat of inquiry or the test of time. They are without wax.

In my professional seminars and in our home discussions, I try to simplify the process of personal honesty because it is so fundamental in its nature. As a model for testing ourselves daily we can use what I call "The Integrity Triangle." It consists of three basic questions that we can ask of any decision:

* Is this true?

* Is this what I believe I should do?

* Is what I say consistent with what I do?

These three questions make up the points of the triangle--thinking, doing and saying what you believe to be true. The base of the triangle has one additional question, which you consider after you're satisfied you can be consistent on the three points.

The base question that keeps the triangle standing is: "What is the effect of the decision going to be on the others involved?" This question involves knowledge and understanding, as well as honesty.

Wisdom--Integrity in Action

It is not enough to think the truth, act the truth and speak the truth, although to be able to do these in concert is to succeed in life. To be effective human beings, we also must consider the impact of our decisions on other people. The ability to anticipate the probable effects of our decisions on other people's lives, as well as on our own, is what I consider to be wisdom.

When we honestly consider the well-being of others, before we decide to profit ourselves, we become truly rich in the deepest sense. Wisdom is integrity in action. It is the most sought-after quality in every personal and business transaction.

Waitley is a national authority on high-level achievement and one of the most sought-after keynote speakers in the country. He is the author of the all-time best-selling audio program on motivation, "The Psychology of Winning," and several best-selling books.