What is Loyalty?

Honestly speaking, it’s not a person you’re loyal to — it’s your value system. When a person represents something important to you, then you’re loyal to that person because of who he or she is. In this sense, loyalty is selfish and that’s good. Loyalty is the implementation of integrity. A person who never shows loyalty lacks integrity and perhaps lacks any values to which to remain loyal. Shallow people are not loyal. Deeper, thinking people are loyal. Loyalty from another is not an entitlement, though. You’re no more entitled to the loyalty of another, merely because you want it or need it, than you are entitled to another’s material possessions, just because you want them or need them. If you fail to live up to another person’s values or ideas, you’re not going to get that person’s loyalty.