Picture of Jim Kestner

Quoting Character
For the Week of 6/29 - 7/3

Monday
“In few men is it part of nature to respect a friend's prosperity without begrudging him.” -Aeschylus

Tuesday
“Pretend that every single person you meet has a sign around his or her neck that says, Make Me Feel Important. Not only will you succeed in sales, you will succeed in life.” -Mary Kay Ash

Wednesday
“Respect for ourselves guides our morals; respect for others guides our manners.” -Laurence Sterne

Thursday
“Dream lofty dreams, and as you dream, so you shall become. Your vision is the promise of what you shall one day be; your ideal is the prophecy of what you shall at last unveil.” -James Allen

Friday
"If you want to be respected by others the great thing is to respect yourself. Only by that, only by self-respect will you compel others to respect you.“ -Fyodor Dostoevsky


Strong Character Builds
Success and Fulfillment

Hello, I'm Jim Kestner. Welcome to my home on the web. My goal with this site is to provide educators, parents, students, and others with valuable ideas and resources for finding success and fulfillment in life through the pursuit of good character. Use the links in the orange bar across the top of this page to find programs and resources, including free downloads added weekly, along with information about me and approaches that will help you make a difference.

Educators and parents will find programs and resources that improve their abilities to equip young people with character in a research-based approach that also improves academic achievement. Students who have attended my Standing Out from the Crowd session may use this page as a launching point for following up with me as they strive to put those suggestions to work. Managers, supervisors, and organizational leaders will find programs that help them to motivate members of their organizations to move beyond just getting by, instead improving themselves and their organizations in ways that lead them to greater fulfillment in their lives.

I'm hoping this site will become a launching point for all things related to character on the web. Here you'll find not only information about my own programs and resources, but also links to other character-development organizations, resources, and research. Keeping up is quite a challenge, so I'm going to state right away that I need your help. If you know of a quality web site for educators, parents, students, or anyone else interested in character, please contact me so that I can keep this site up to date. If you'll pitch in with suggestions, I promise to do my best to make your search for character ideas and resources as easy as bookmarking this page. If you're using Internet Explorer, click here to bookmark this page now! If not, pressing Ctrl+D will usually do the same thing.

Take your time and look around. If you're an educator, you'll find free resources that you may download and use immediately under the "Free Downloads" link above.