Character Is Our Greatest Asset
“Ability may get you to the top but it takes character to keep you there.” — Stevie Wonder
Namaste, my brothers and sisters!
I welcome you.
May God bless you and your loved ones with joy.
This essay seeks to find out what is our greatest asset in life.
So, let us start.
Section I: The Genuine Need for Material Assets
Man is such a frail animal…he is at the very bottom of the hierarchy in the animal world in terms of physical strength.
Yet he not only survives but flourishes!
The credit for this marvel goes to his intellectual prowess which made him create and store tangible things to him win in the battle for survival…these things collectively came to be known as assets.
Since ancient times, food grains and livestock have been classed in this category.
These assets meant to fulfill the genuine need of man, however, slowly became a fuel for his greed instead.
We will see how in the next section.
Section II: The Worldly Greed for Material Assets
A man arrives in this world empty-handed.
So, whatever he accumulates by his labour during his life span, he terms it to be his own. Further, he keeps exchanging them with others to get multiply their value.
Money, gold, land, building etc. are good examples of such assets.
It is this ability of an asset to multiply itself that fuels the greed of man.
The more he owns, the more he wants.
But does he really own these assets?
No!!
This answer is pretty baffling, isn’t it?
So, let’s explore this puzzle in next section.
Section III: The Inherent Volatility of Material Assets
To answer the above riddle, let me take the case of money.
Today, the money in your bank account may be technically yours to be passed on to your heirs in due time.
But suppose there is an online fraud and the money in your supposedly secure bank account gets stolen. What happens then?
Or, suppose you incur a setback in your business dealing causing you to lose money and make you heavily withdraw from your bank account. What happens then?
Or, the government of the day seizes your bank for whatever reason and your account gets frozen. What happens then?
In all these and many more instances, the money supposed to permanently belong to you, will fill the wallets of other people instead.
Likewise, none of the asset classes dear to worldly men (such as gold, real estate, company shares etc.) will remain in their custody forever.
Finally, each of these asset classes will suffer gradual reduction in value through depreciation etc.
Hence, even when the material assets remain in the custody of their owners, the cruel hands of Father Time would ensure that all such things should get devalued.
Thus, worldly men condemned to remain forever unhappy with their assets, howsoever much they own of these toys of grown-ups.
So, then, what is the true asset of man? We seek the answer in the next section.
Section IV: The Only True Asset of Man
We saw that none of the worldly assets can really be called ours.
So, is there any asset that truly belongs to us…which no one can take away from us…which is ours forever?
Yes, there is!
The answer is the 9-letter word, “character.”
I am defining our “character” as the sum total of all the virtues present within us such as humility, moral uprightness, industriousness, courage, perseverance, truthfulness and all similar divine qualities.
Such “character” belongs to us forever — no one can steal it from us — no one can make us part with it — it faithfully remains with us till our last day.
Hence, that’s our true asset for it serves us all through our lives.
So, it will be of tremendous help to us if we can further strengthen this life-giving resource.
We take up this crucial matter in concluding section.
Section V. Strengthening Our Greatest Asset
Let us spend a couple of minutes discussing how we can raise our character to the highest level possible.
For that, we need to pay attention to the most crucial element of our character: “habits.”
Because it is solely through the cultivation of good habits that we can override our vices and empower our virtues to form the shining gold of ‘character.’
Therefore, come, let us make a commitment here and now that we shall keep forming good habits and sustaining them all through our lives.
It will result in making the fortress of our character so strong!
We can then always take shelter within its enduring walls as we pass through the thick and thin of our lives.
This is all I wanted to say.
Thanks for reading my essay.
