When you refuse to compromise your principles, your progress may look slower than that of the person who is willing to do whatever is necessary | Global TV
NV Paulose, Chairman, Global TV +91 98441 82044
We are often told that progress is the measure of success: move faster, earn more, get promoted, build a bigger career, take the opportunity, and do not fall behind. The message is repeated so often that we begin to assume that anyone progressing slowly must be doing something wrong. But what if that is not always true? What if sometimes progress is slow because you have deliberately refused to compromise? I was reminded of this when I recently met my mentor, someone who had guided me since I was in the seventh standard. Whenever I meet him, he tells me the same thing: “You should speed up your progress.” He believes I should have achieved more by now, and perhaps, by conventional standards, he is right. But I once told him, “If my progress is low, you are responsible for that.” He asked me what I meant. I reminded him of something he had told me when I was a seventh standard student.
He used to tell me stories about the establishment, conflicts with management, and the pressures that come with working inside a system. And he had one principle that stayed with me: “I will never compromise on my values.” At that age, I did not fully understand what he was saying. But something was happening. My conscious mind may not have understood it, but my unconscious mind was listening. The message was getting absorbed. I was learning, without realizing that I was learning, what kind of person I should become. Years later, I found myself living according to that principle. That is why I told my mentor, “If my progress is slow, you are responsible. You planted these values in me without asking my permission.” It was said partly as a joke, but there was truth behind it. If I had chosen a different path, if I had been willing to compromise whenever the system offered me an advantage, perhaps my career would have looked very different. Perhaps I would have progressed faster, accumulated more, or received opportunities that I turned away. But I would also have had to become someone else.
And that is the part of the success conversation we do not discuss enough: every choice has a cost. When you choose integrity, you may lose an opportunity. When you refuse to participate in something you believe is wrong, someone else may get the promotion. When you refuse to compromise your principles, your progress may look slower than that of the person who is willing to do whatever is necessary. This can be frustrating, especially when you see people around you moving ahead. You may begin to ask yourself, “Am I being foolish? Should I have compromised? Would my life be easier if I had simply gone along with the system?” But there is another question that matters even more: “What would I have had to become in order to achieve that progress?” That question changes everything.
Progress is not simply about how far you travel. It is also about who you become while travelling. A person can build an impressive career and lose his character. A person can become financially successful and lose his peace of mind. A person can gain influence and lose the trust of the people around him. From the outside, it may look like progress. From the inside, it may be something completely different. This does not mean that every slow-moving person is principled or that everyone who progresses quickly has compromised. There are many legitimate reasons why people progress at different speeds. Circumstances are different, opportunities are different, resources are different, and timing matters.
But we should recognize another possibility: sometimes slow progress is the result of a deliberate choice. You may be saying no to dishonesty, manipulation, shortcuts, relationships that require you to betray your values, or an opportunity that comes with a price you are unwilling to pay. Those choices may not appear on your résumé. Nobody may applaud you for them. In fact, nobody may even know about them. But they shape your life. This is why mentors matter. A good mentor does not merely teach you how to get ahead. A good mentor teaches you what is worth giving up in order to get ahead and what is not worth giving up at all. My mentor may have unintentionally slowed my progress by teaching me not to compromise, but I am grateful for it. Because there is a difference between having a successful career and being able to respect the person you became while building it.
The world will always give you reasons to compromise. Someone will tell you that everybody does it. Someone will tell you that this is how the system works. Someone will tell you that you are being impractical. Someone will remind you that the person who compromised is now ahead of you. Sometimes those arguments will sound convincing. But principles are easy to talk about when there is nothing at stake. The real test comes when following your principles costs you something: money, opportunity, speed, recognition, or comfort. If you know what you stand for, you can accept that cost without feeling that you have lost yourself. That is what I learned from my mentor many years ago. Perhaps my progress could have been faster. Perhaps I could have achieved more. Perhaps there were easier routes. But I am happy with what I did. Because there are some things that should never be exchanged for progress. If moving forward requires you to abandon the person you want to be, then perhaps moving forward is not progress at all.
