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True Integrity


Clint Maun, CSP

How do you handle true commitment?

In 1927 a real estate and insurance company in Savannah, Georgia failed. Approximately 500 stockholders were out several hundred thousand dollars. Both the owner of the company, a man named Mercer, and his young son vowed that some day the stockholders would be repaid their losses. The company never got going again and the father eventually died. His son, however, never forgot the debt. Twenty-eight years later the son deposited a check for $300,000 in the bank to repay the debt to the stockholders. It had taken nearly three decades to fulfill the commitment, but finally it was completed. The young man was Johnny Mercer, the songwriter and singer. One of the many popular songs he wrote allowed him to earn enough royalties to be able to pay off the debt. The name of the song was Accentuate the Positive.

This story points out one person’s true commitment to a promise. I suggest that the reason for Johnny Mercer’s success was his goal-directed effort toward making good on the debt. If you want to achieve your goals, you must have a purpose in life. That purpose must be a guiding star and it must be based on true long term commitment.