Doing right by people includes doing right by yourself
“Do the right thing” gets talked about a lot in leadership and business.
Most of the time, people mean “do right by others.”
That matters. Honor your word. Own your mistakes.
Treat people with dignity, even when you disagree.
Yet there is a piece that rarely gets named:
Doing right by people is incomplete if it requires you to do wrong by yourself.
If “doing right” means abandoning your own boundaries, absorbing disrespect, or paying the full price with your health, values, or peace, that is not integrity.
That is self‑betrayal dressed up as virtue.
Real integrity holds both:
• I will make things fair where I can.
• I will not sacrifice my safety, sanity, or values to keep someone else comfortable.
Sometimes the most honest thing you can do is to treat yourself as “people,” too.
To ask, “What is the right thing for everyone involved—including me?” Because when you stop writing yourself out of that equation, your decisions may not please everyone,
yet they will come from a place you can live with for a long time