Walk the Talk - the Definition of Ethics

Martena, I must share this story with you. It happened today. Two days ago, I purchased gasoline for my car at a local convenience gas station. I also purchased some groceries too. The clerk charged me for the groceries and not the gasoline. When I got home later I wondered if I had misplaced a separate bill for gasoline. I am busy, and I thought, well, maybe you went to the station twice and received a bill for the gas visit and a bill for the food visit. Later in the day, the phone rang. It was the clerk. He said that he had forgotten to add the gas to the bill; he advised me to come to the station to pay it without any penalty. I did. The clerk was not there; his boss was. I explained how I guard my credit rating carefully and not paying for gas is a fast way to destroy it. He agreed. Today, I met the clerk again, and he told me how the manager, his boss, wanted to have the central office contact me for payment instead of the clerk calling me. The clerk then related to me how he pointed to the "Mission Statement" of the company at the register for payments, which stated that workers ought to treat customers as they would want to be treated! The boss agreed. The clerk saved me from the risk of a bad credit report, for if the central office of the stores, which has stores across three states in the Midwest here, had received the job of contacting me, the risks of a creating a record that would damage my overall credit rating was very real and high! I told the clerk how I would share this story with you because of your interest in business ethics. We briefly discussed the importance of "watch what I do, not what I say" in ethics. I mentioned "walk the talk" and Plato's definition of ethics. The clerk in fact has two degrees, bachelor's in economics and master's in finance! He is looking for a job suitable to his talents! I think I have found one of the recruits for my own proposed business startup later this year here!