Without the roots

In his “7 Habits of highly effective people”, Steven Covey talks about the personality ethic vs the character ethic.
The personality ethic is what he calls “band aids” and “quick fixes” such as “how to make a good impression in the first 2 minutes of meeting someone”, “how to make someone like you”, and a lot of others “how tos” that are like enhancements of your personality.
The Character ethic on the other end, deals with building the core of a person. It deals with your spine and defines who you are.
“You cannot have fruits without roots” he argues.

I have been pondering that statement today. We all love fruits.
Let’s have person A and person B stand next to each other.
Person A has fruits, person B only has roots of a tree deep in the ground with nothing but a humble stem.
Who do you think people will go to? The one with the goods.
Because fruits guarantee instant gratification. They are appealing and delicious.
Hence, in society today, most people want to display fruits without having roots. What happens when Person A runs out of fruits? He will have to go another seminar to acquire more.

Person B has roots. He can water these roots and patiently wait for a tree to grow and bring forth fruits. His fruits are produced. They are not bought. He has a self-producing tree that will guarantee residual fruits.

instead of focusing on what to do, people ought to focus on who to become.
When you become, you have roots.

I cover this view in more details in a book I am writting entitled “Inspired to Become”.