If you are not a Rotarian, although you might see this on posters and billboards at most busy street corners in your town or city, the Four-Way Test may not be familiar. But for Rotarians everywhere who repeat these questions at the start of every club meeting, this is a test that we are expected to be guided by, a moral and ethical code for personal and business relationships. In essence, a way of life.

What does the Four-Way Test consist of? Twenty-four words make up four questions that a Rotarian, Herbert Taylor, coined in 1932 when he took over a cookware distributor and other household products on the verge of bankruptcy.

The setting then in America was the Great Depression triggered by the world's first stock market crash in 1929, when high unemployment, poverty, deflation, bankruptcy, and bank failures were the norm.

Taylor, a devout Christian, strapped for cash and faced with stiff competition, and very much desperately in need of a unique approach that would differentiate his company from its competitors, after praying and pondering long and hard on what to do to turn around the fortunes of the company, formulated four simple, easy to remember, everyday universal truths, wittingly structured as questions to enhance ready acceptance instead of as directives, that could be used as guideposts for all the employees in their dealings with customers and among themselves.

Gradually, a new culture embodied in the four questions took hold among the employees, and the company, over time, gained the trust, respect, goodwill, and admiration not only of its customers but even its competitors.

Needless to say, the company's debts were fully paid, and the profits rolled in.

The success experienced by Taylor prompted him to apply this 4-way test when he assumed the presidency of his own club in Chicago in 1938. Eventually, it gained global acceptance in the Rotary world by 1952.

And what are these four questions?

First, Is it the truth? Second, Is it fair to all concerned? Third, Will it build goodwill and better friendships? Fourth, Will it be beneficial to all concerned?

In sum, these questions center on truthfulness, justice, friendliness, and helpfulness.