3 – Honesty and Integrity

With an Objectivist ethics based on Individualism, what moral conduct does this imply for an entrepreneur? Let’s begin with honesty and integrity. Honesty demands you be truthful with others. Integrity demands you be truthful with yourself. To be truthful is to be aligned with reality. To be untruthful is to be in conflict with reality, as it is an attempt to declare that which is untrue to be true. This is self-defeating as no one can evade reality for long.

“Being honest is to be consistent with reality. To be dishonest is to be in conflict with reality, and is therefore self-defeating.”

John Allison former CEO and Chairman of BB&T

To demonstrate the value of honesty and integrity consider the following proposition. If you could steal a fortune and get away with it; would you do it? Your immediate reaction might be a fear of being caught and punished, which certainly is a real deterrent. But the premise of this proposition is that you wouldn’t be caught. So why not take the money? Just think of what it would mean to you? You would never have to work again. You could live a life of leisure. You could buy whatever and do whatever you want. Wouldn’t it be great? Or would it; and if not, why not?

As improbable as this example might seem, as an entrepreneur you will be faced with this challenge to your honesty and integrity more often than you think. In your dealings with suppliers, customers and employees you will be tempted to effectively “steal” from them little by little, and you may well get away with it. When you exit your business you might literally attempt to “steal” a life time fortune. Small or large the morality of it is the same. You will be tempted by a longing for the unearned. The philosophy you hold and the morality it implies will determine your honesty and integrity when faced with such temptations.

“one must never seek or grant the unearned ” 

Ayn Rand

Considering this proposition let’s look at the morality implied by several opposing philosophies; and how they might respond before elaborating on the morality implied by Objectivism.

An Altruist in pursuit of equality might rationalize that if whomever you stole from has more wealth than you it is not immoral to “take” from them. They would claim it is not theft at all. Isn’t your need a claim on their wealth? If they have a bigger piece of the social pie than you, they must have acquired it at your expense. Don’t they have an obligation to “give back” to you what they have “taken” from you? The appropriate and rational challenge to this begs the question from an entrepreneur “What have I taken that I need to give back?”

A religious person would argue religious morality demands “thou shall not steal”. They would claim even if you get away with stealing on earth you will still be punished in the afterlife? Throughout all of history this is certainly the dominate argument made for honesty and integrity. It is a commonly held belief that morality is based exclusively on religious beliefs handed down through divine revelation. But, like most Objectivists, what if you aren’t religious; and don’t believe in divine revelation or an afterlife where you will be punished? Is there still any reason not to steal the fortune?

 A Pragmatist, focusing on the advantages of immediate gain, might answer, “take the money; deal with any long term consequences later.” Pragmatism is based on short term, unprincipled thinking rather than long term, principled based thinking.  Pragmatism is commonplace in business today.  Being “pragmatic” is considered a virtue. But being pragmatic does not mean being “practical”. Being practical implies being rational and principled. Pragmatists believe there are no principles. They are not driven to produce wealth, but to acquire wealth, by any means possible.

An Objectivist entrepreneur is a producer of wealth, not an acquirer of it. The Objectivist morality of Individualism as explained previously is neither based on religion nor pragmatism nor the exploitation of one individual by another. Objectivist ethics are both rational and secular. They are based on that which is appropriate for man’s life on earth. An Objectivist entrepreneur would uphold honesty and integrity and not steal from anyone as it would put them in conflict with reality, which is not in their rational self-interest.

“The Objectivist ethics holds man’s life as the standard of value—and his own life as the ethical purpose of every individual man”

,Ayn Rand

Here is why. Again, honesty pertains to being truthful with others. If you stole the money you would immediately have a problem being truthful with your family and all the people you know and value. They would wonder how you came into your new fortune. In all likelihood they would know you weren’t capable of producing it yourself. This would make it difficult if not impossible for you to fabricate a believable story. You would have to live a lie with all those people you value the most. You would have to live in conflict with that reality on a daily basis.

But this dishonesty with others would not be the most problematic aspect of this moral breach. Again, integrity pertains to being truthful with yourself. You might be able to get away with lying to others, but you would never get away with lying to yourself. You would know you did not earn what you stole. You would be lying to yourself, which puts you in conflict with reality and thus in conflict with yourself. You will eventually lose one of your greatest psychological values, your self-esteem.

“The desire for self-esteem without integrity is like the desire for wealth without effort – a longing for the unearned.”

Nathaniel Branden

A real life example of this is the story of Bernie Madoff. He literally stole $65billion in the world’s largest Ponzi scheme ever. He had multiple homes and yachts, and lived a grand life for several decades. But he spent the rest of his life in prison, where he died. Yes, he was caught and went to jail. But that’s not the revealing part of the story.

In a “Good Morning America” appearance in 2011, Barbra Walters said that “her jailhouse interview with Madoff revealed that he stated he has ‘terrible remorse’ for having ‘ruined his family’ but is ‘happier in prison’…..he’s more at ease now than he was during his last 20 years of freedom.” His dishonesty and loss of integrity during those 20 years put him in conflict with reality on a daily basis.

Honesty and integrity demand we do not compromise our values. A failure of honesty is an offence against others. A failure of integrity is an offence against oneself. If our values are consistent with reality they are in alignment with the potential for success and happiness. This is the importance of having clear values that are consistent with reality and are non-contradictory.

“Happiness is a state of noncontradictory joy—a joy without penalty or guilt, a joy that does not clash with any of your values…..”

Ayn Rand

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