The Kind of Empire You Can Sleep In
A man can build a kingdom two ways. He can stack it on love and truth, or he can nail it together with lies and stolen boards. Both will stand for a while. One will let him sleep.
The easy way is always the cheap way. You whisper the right lie in the right ear. You shave the truth a little. You take what is not yours because no one is looking, or no one can fight back. You climb faster that way. People call you clever. They pour your drink and laugh at your jokes. But every step up is standing on someone else’s neck, and you feel it when the room goes quiet.
The hard way is the clean way. You tell the truth even when it cuts a little profit off the top. You refuse to take what wasn’t offered. You build slowly, brick by honest brick, and while everyone else is racing past you, you wonder if you’re a fool. Then one night you go to bed and your mind does not put you on trial. You close your eyes and nothing comes crawling out of the dark to ask, “What if they find out?” That is the dividend of an honest life.
Lies are like termites in the beams. From the street the house looks fine. There’s music, light, a good car in the drive. But the man who owns it hears things at night. He knows which signatures values-based success were forged, click here which partners were cut out, which friend he betrayed to get that view. He can buy a soft mattress and a high wall, but he cannot buy a quiet conscience. The structure stands, but he never truly lives inside it.
Love builds different. Love pays its debts. Love tells the hard truth early instead of the easy lie late. When you build an empire on love and truth, you build fewer rooms—but every room is safe to stand in. The people around you aren’t there because they fear you or need something from you. They are there because they trust you. That kind of wealth does not show up on a balance sheet, but you feel it in your chest when trouble comes and no one runs.
The secret is simple and most people look right past it: the point is not just to get to the top, it’s to like the man you are when you get there. If you climb with love, you arrive with joy. Your conscience is clear, your hands are clean, and your sleep is deep. If you climb on betrayal and deceit, you may reach the same height, but you will stand there alone, staring down at everything you broke to get up there.
In the end, an empire is only as strong as what it rests on. Love and truth make a foundation you can die on with peace. Lies and theft make a pile of rubble that click here only looks like a throne—until the day it collapses and buries its builder.
By THE ROYELVIS BAND
Legendary Singer–Songwriter
Roy Dawson – Earth Angel, Master Magical Healer