There's No Such Thing as Business Ethics

I once heard a story about John Maxwell being asked to write a book on business ethics. Surprisingly, he turned it down. The people who wanted him to write it were shocked. "But you can write anything," they said.

He gave them an answer I've never forgotten: "There's no such thing as business ethics. There's only ethics."

There Are No Rules in Business

One of the first things my mentors taught me is that there are no rules in business. When you want to make a deal, that deal can be almost anything you want it to be. I can charge you a flat fee, and we can negotiate that fee up or down. Or instead of money I'll trade you, where I do the work and you do something for me. Or I'll take no cash at all and take stock in your company instead, the way Elon Musk doesn't draw a salary and takes shares instead.

There's no rulebook for any of that. You make it up as you go, building the deal that actually works for both sides. So if everything is negotiable, the price, the terms, the structure, all of it, then what keeps the whole thing from falling apart?

Except one. One thing, and one thing only: total integrity.

That's the single rule that never moves. Everything else is yours to invent, but integrity was never a term in the deal. It's the ground the deal stands on. Take it away, and it doesn't matter how clever your terms are, because there's nothing underneath them holding it all up.

You Can't Teach Honesty

I can teach you how to structure a deal, and I can teach you systems, sales, and leadership all day long. But I cannot teach you to be an honest person. You either are or you aren't.

That's an uncomfortable thing to say, because it means integrity isn't some skill you pick up later once you've "made it." It's not a phase you grow into. It's who you already are when nobody happens to be checking.

And the truth is, nobody is usually checking. It shows up in the small moments most people never even notice:

• The customer hands you a hundred dollar bill thinking it's a twenty, and you have half a second to decide whether to say something.

• The repair turns out to be half as bad as you quoted, and you have to choose whether to charge the lower number or pocket the difference.

• There's an invoice nobody would ever question, a corner nobody would ever notice you cut, a receipt nobody asked you to send back.

Those tiny moments, the ones with no witness and no consequence, are where your real character actually lives.

A simple gut-check has never failed me. Before any decision I'm unsure about, I ask myself whether I'd be comfortable if the person I respect most knew exactly how I handled it. If the answer is no, then I already have my answer. Try it the next time the moment is small and the temptation is easy. Picture that person watching. If you'd be proud to explain yourself to them, do it. If you'd feel the need to explain it away, you already know what the right move is.

Someone Is Always Watching

For a long time I didn't talk about God, and now I do, because it gives me a kind of accountability. It's the feeling that somebody far more powerful than me is always watching, even when the room is empty and no one would ever find out. We tend to lose our way the moment we believe no one's looking. You see it everywhere once you start paying attention:

• The driver who runs the red light at 3 a.m. on an empty road, because who's going to know.

• The person who pads the expense report by a little, since the company is big and the amount is small.

• The contractor who uses the cheaper material behind the wall, where no one will ever see it.

• The employee who works hard when the boss is in the building and coasts the second he leaves.

Every one of those is the same test. Not "what will I do when people are watching," but "who am I when they're not." Because the version of you in the empty room is the real one. The rest is just performance.

So whatever it is that keeps you honest when no one is looking, your faith, your name, the people you'd never want to let down, find it and hold onto it. That's the thing that keeps you steady long after the applause and the audience are gone.

The Bottom Line

Think back to what John Maxwell said when they asked him to write that book. There's no such thing as business ethics. There's only ethics. He was right, and everything I've learned in 25 years has only proven it tenfold.

The next time you're about to do something in business that you'd never do as a person, stop and notice what's happening. You're either ethical or you're not, and every deal you make just shows everyone which one you are.

So here's the one thing I want you to walk away with: be the same person everywhere.

• The same one in the boardroom and at the kitchen table.

• The same one when the contract is worth millions and when it's worth fifty bucks.

• The same one on the stage and in the empty room.

Because at the end of it all, you don't get to keep the deals, the titles, or the money. The only thing you actually carry with you is the answer to one question. Were you the same person when no one was watching as you were when everyone was?

Be that person. Then you never have to remember which version of yourself you showed up as, because there was only ever one.