Norman Schwarzkopf once said that "Leadership is a potent combination of strategy and character. But if you must be without one, be without strategy."  It is a valuable reminder that the essence of a person is their character, not necessarily something that they do for employment.  It is also a reminder that the development of a strategy and the thinking needed to build a great strategy is easier to do, and easier to outsource (if necessary) than is the development of one's character.  Character and the creation of a positive one is a something that is built over years, even decades and is the most important work that a person can do.

You cannot dream yourself into a character; you must hammer and forge yourself one. Henry David Thoreau

People do not seem to realize that their opinion of the world is also a confession of character. Ralph Waldo Emerson

Circumstances do not make a man, they reveal him. Wayne Dyer