Lesson 55: Integrity

In 1919, Charles Ponzi amassed nearly $10 million within months from investors. By 1920, investors found out none of it was real: the money new investors sent was used to pay the old investors. Charles served over 10 years in prison for his crimes, but his name will forever be known for the “ponzi scheme.”

Charles’ story is an example of a serious breach of integrity. Integrity goes beyond telling the truth but encompasses adhering to a strong set of principles, even when no one is watching. People who work in skilled trade are known for their integrity. They follow a code that aligns their values, words, and actions. Partnering with a trade school means I will be serving this group of people.

There is a reason this community is known for their integrity: it is built into the training. SkillsUSA is the #1 workforce development organization for students, and one of the values they teach is integrity. They build a combination of personal skills, workplace skills and technical skills to ensure students are ready for successful careers. Not only are these students graduating at higher rates but they are also developing their character. This work is inspiring, and I feel grateful to join this community.

Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition is a different journey for everyone. We each pick different measures of success. The success of skilled trade education should be measured by student outcomes. For example, the average high school graduation rate for students in career and technical education programs across the southeast is 97.7% according to the Association for Career and Technical Education. The national rate for all students was 87%.

High School Graduation Rates for Students in Career and Technical Education Programs (2020-2021)

By joining this community, I must also have integrity as the CEO. Anthony Walker co-teaches a class called Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition at Chicago Booth, who said this about CEOs, “The situations where I have seen entrepreneurs get into trouble is they try to fix it without informing the board of what has happened.” This makes me wonder if Charles realized he made a terrible mistake and tried to fix it himself rather than be honest with his investors. It could be a story of “ego” and he was too ashamed to admit he made a mistake. As a first-time CEO, I am bound to make plenty of mistakes. When (not if) that happens, my integrity will pierce the balloon of my ego so we can all move forward.

My values are to act with love, humility, and wisdom. Our students will learn about integrity, love, humility, wisdom, and more values. In their technical training, they could learn how a level will measure success for what they built. In their personal skills training, their integrity will measure success for who they are. This will help students (and myself) become the best version of themselves.

This is Lesson 55: Integrity. Next week is Lesson 56: Passion.