Nick Samuel and Sir Terry Leahy show why doing things the right way is best, says Neil Gillis

Last month, two men left the retail stage in very different circumstances.

In early June, Sir Terry Leahy announced his plans to retire next year after an outstanding career as the driving force of Tesco.

And, tragically, two weeks later Nick Samuel, the talented former chief executive of Hobbs and non-executive director at Blacks Leisure, lost his battle with cancer and passed away.

Reading the coverage of both events and the high regard in which both men were rightly held reinforced the fact that at the close of any business career what we leave behind us is our reputation.

But reputation is not just a legacy. As each career develops it is both the principal driver of how far we will progress and increasingly reputation supersedes financial reward as the true motivation for success.

Many of the most successful people I have worked with have been driven not by the expectation of a payout or bonus but because they cared about how they were seen and valued the respect of their peers.

If I could take just one lesson from my present self back to the impatient young man starting out in business 25 years ago, it would be to teach myself a proper understanding of the importance of reputation.

When we begin our careers we are unaware of how our reputation gathers around us imperceptibly until we arrive at some critical point when it becomes apparent just what view the wider world has of us.

It is a little like the excess flesh that we gradually acquire with the passing years - we tend not to notice the incremental accumulation until one day our clothes no longer fit.

In every career there are many opportunities and temptations to take short cuts, to treat others with a lack of respect and to behave less than honourably in the pursuit of our objectives.

But the business world is very small. People circulate within it, often in unexpected ways, and the interactions between people in business are usually more complex than we think.

I have been fortunate enough to move between various sectors in my business career. But I know that my actions 20 years ago in the food industry, 10 years ago in the pub sector or five years ago in health clubs can have an impact - for good or bad - on my current career in retailing.

Both Leahy and Samuel were rare individuals in business since the reputations they built and carried with them were entirely positive and completely untainted with any negativity.

They both understood that reputation is the most valuable asset in any career and that building one is the greatest investment you can make in yourself as a professional.

My advice to anyone starting their career in retail is to follow such great examples. View every decision, every action and every comment you make as the ingredients of a reputation that will either propel or retard your future career in years to come.

Rest in peace Nick; gentleman, valued colleague and exemplary retailer.