A little over a decade ago, the movie, Saving Private Ryan was released 
over a Memorial Day weekend as a tribute to those who fought in World War II. The movie is intense, and if you haven't seen it - it's well worth an evening.
At the end of the movie there is a scene where a much older Private Ryan is in a graveyard in France. He is visiting the graves of the men who died in the final battle scene. During his visit, he turns to his wife, and with tears in his eyes, he says, "Tell me I'm a good man."
He says that because of the events that take place in the final moments of the last battle scene. In that scene, Captain John Miller is sitting on the end of a bridge mortally wounded. He has led a small band of men into hostile territory to find Private Ryan, who is the surviving son of a family that has just lost three sons. The military brass wants Ryan out before he meets the same fate.
Most of the rescuers have been killed, and Captain Miller is sinking fast. Ryan runs to him and Miller grabs him, pulls him close and says, 
"Earn this. . . earn it." Ryan carries that message throughout his entire life. At the end of the movie, Ryan is in the US graveyard in France after having lived his life, and he wants to know from someone who has watched him if he has been a good man.
I use this illustration for this reason. No matter what you do for a profession, in your spare time or at any time, your life will be judged by how you lived it. It won't be judged by the house you lived in, the street you lived on, the car you drove or the amount of money you made, but it will be judged by how you lived your life, how you treated others, what you did with your time and what you leave behind.
This week, I had another agent try to pressure and manipulate me and my client into buying his listing. He made such a case for my client to act immediately that she began to panic. She had fallen in love with a property and he convinced her that it would be gone before the day was over. He told her he already had four other contracts coming in that day. (That was four days ago. It's still there. No other contracts.) I've heard that spiel a thousand times, so I rarely get too excited. My poor client was so worried that she found herself making decisions she was uncomfortable with and taking actions she was unprepared to make. No amount of counsel would calm her. Fortunately, she could afford the house, but she shouldn't have been manipulated into buying it.
I realized at that point that I don't want to exit this world with people remembering how I manipulated others so I could make a few bucks. I want to be remembered as a man of integrity and good character. I want to be known as an honorable and honest businessman. Those are things you earn by living them.
No amount of money is worth trying to deceive clients and colleagues. There isn't that much money in the world. Like Private Ryan, I want to live my life with the simple goal of being a "good man." That's the image I want my sons and grandchildren to live with, not that I was a ruthless business man who would do anything to make a dollar. And, when I enter eternity I want my God to say, "Well done good and faithful servant."
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