🥊 Mentorship Minute: Integrity over Compensation

Profitable Python

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Would you take payment from someone if they asked you to do their homework for them that did not give you credit?

I recently ran this poll on IG, and the results shocked me. A vast majority would take payment and effectively help the student cheat. The more I think about it, the more conflicted I get.

Are the incentives all messed up on the freelancing platforms? If you don't give the client what they want, then you get a bad review. Bad reviews will haunt you the reset of your python coaching career. If you choose to have integrity, then you possibly do not get paid.

If my family must eat, do I sell my integrity to the highest bidder, or do we starve together so I may preserve my integrity?

If you were an open-source contributor and someone took my work and called it their own, that would undoubtedly be wrong.

The fraud homework submission could be the agent of change that moved the curve so abruptly that someone on the tail suffers from having integrity.

You could certainly argue this the other way. Let's take Walmart, for example. If someone went there and purchased alcohol, but their doctor told them if they drank alcohol, their kidneys would fail, and they would likely die. Is it Walmart's job to police everyone? Is it their job to probe your medical records to make sure you can drink that alcohol? In this case your integrity might just get you in trouble.

My goodness, the more I think about this, I understand how I would deal with it. The way I see it, my character is on the line, nothing else matters. If my character is one of high integrity, then I should choose to work with the student in a way that guides them to the right answer. I want to be responsible for being the agent of change that made the student better. Doing their homework for them is not helping the student, ultimately it will catch up to them at test time or when they get a job and have no clue how to execute.

After reflecting on this with you publicly, I keep getting reminded of how important it is to understand how we chose to act and ultimately brand ourselves.

No one may finally know about the homework submission except the client and the tutor. What matters more is the choice you make as the tutor.

Some guidance that was given to me when situations like this arise is to ask yourself if this story becomes published in the Wallstreet journal tomorrow, how would you want the story to play out? Approaching life with that question simplifies decisions when integrity is on the line.

- Ben McNeill

https://profitablepython.fm

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