Integrity

January 30, 2006
For Cloud, an author, clinical psychologist and corporate consultant, integrity is more than just a person's ethics and morals. The French and Latin meanings of the word hint at its origins, "that the whole thing is working well, undivided, integrated, intact and uncorrupted." Achieving this "wholeness" requires the development of six character traits (creates trust, unafraid of reality, results-oriented, solves "negative realities," causes growth and finds meaning in life) which Cloud examines in great detail, using business stories like Proctor and Gamble's success in China and the experiences of his CEO friends and clients. What each of his stories has in common is how success, often wild success across multiple fields, is fueled by openness, honesty to one's self and to others and "true trust," which is borne out of someone's goodness not being "dependent on anything." Cloud's conversational writing style makes for an easy read, and much of his advice is sound if not groundbreaking, but some aphorisms come off as hokey. ("Things never work. When they don't, that is the time to make them work. Then, if you do, they work," or "Character = the ability to meet the demands of reality," which is not to be confused with integrity, the courage to meet those same demands.) This book is not for the person seeking a quick-fix; Cloud's breed of integrity is a lifestyle choice.