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Winners Never Cheat: Everyday Values We Learned as Children (But May Have Forgotten)

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This little book is small in size only as it covers significant and wide ranging discussions on a persons moral compass. The author is probably one of the most successful and positive people I have ever read that would write a book that focuses on the positive side of human nature. The author believes in being honest, fair and gracious at almost all costs. He argues that if we all focused on these aspects of our human contact, then many other positive results will present themselves.

Not only is this book a wonderful pick me up for anyone fighting their way through the corporate jungle, but it is full of bits of solid management techniques for those of us in the business world. Even the authors personal story is a wonderful look at how someone can become such a success treating people fairly and honestly. Overall I can not say enough positive about this book. It is a great shot in the arm and a road map for a positive legacy. This book is a keeper and one that you will find reading over and over.

"Winners Never Cheat" is a tonic for our jaded age. To those already imprisoned in cynicism this book will read like a bunch of soft platitudes suitable only for children, but worse than useless to anyone trying to make it in the "real world". Of course, the cynics are not objectively correct. Cynicism and bad behavior are only necessary when you deem them to be the tools of your trade. If you decide that lying really is a losing long term strategy and that short run gains aren't worth long term losses, well, lying becomes a stupidity and easily avoided.

This is not to say that the kind of honorable behavior Huntsman advocates in this book leads to easy business success or a world of bright flowers and constant sunshine. Far from it! Competition is still tough and things still go wrong. It is simply how you compete and what you do to get things right that matter. These "everyday" values make for a more sustainable success that lead to better personal interactions, trust, and a more enjoyable life for everyone. Business failure is unpleasant, but it is transient. Corrupting your character for short term success is bitter and not easily undone.

Huntsman fills this short book with anecdotes from his own successful career. We learn about lessons he learned in the Nixon Whitehouse working on HR Haldeman's staff. The author describes how he handled various negotiations for rather large business deals. He tells us that lawyers are invaluable as business tools, but not as a substitute for business thinking or creativity. He describes his personal relations with a few business leaders of large companies.

In a couple of these I feel he raises some questions that are never directly addressed. For example, he describes the Chairman of Royal Dutch Shell as a friend without addressing what the huge and expensive reserves write down implies about the leader's character and leadership ability. He also mentions Armand Hammer as a friend! All I can suggest is to read about Mr. Hammer's true character in Edward Jay Epstein's terrific "Dossier". It is actually frightening to contemplate these two men being actual friends. I have to assume that Mr. Huntsman was simply using friend as a polite title the way Congressional enemies refer to each other as "my good friend". They could not possibly share genuine ideals and have anything in this book actually mean anything.

It is also clear that Mr. Huntsman has no use for Wall Street bankers. He must have hand some bad experiences in dealing with them. This makes me wonder why he ended up taking his company public. I also wonder if the bankers who helped him do so were honorable in his eyes or of low character. If they were honorable, shouldn't he have noted the exception in his book? If they were scumbags, why didn't he walk away from the deal?

Mr. Huntsman also makes a huge point of charitable giving. His personal example is inspiring and demonstrates what considered and generous giving can do to lift people and benefit communities. He also is unsparing of the notion that public corporations should be focused on profits for their shareholders. Mr. Huntsman says that as long as he is running Huntsman Chemical it will be doing charitable giving. This begs a thought experiment. Let's suppose that Mr. Huntsman were to retire, but still live a long, robust, and healthy retirement. Let's suppose that a chairman appointed by the board should decide, for personal reasons, to donate millions of Huntsman Chemical's dollars to anti-Mormon causes (Huntsman is a believing and faithful Mormon). Would this seem sensible or appropriate to Mr. Huntsman? That the person who did this would be immediately fired is beside the point. That shareholders in widely held firms have diverse interests apart from the management of the firm they own and that they are perfectly capable of their own charitable giving is really the point. When Huntsman chemical was a private and closely held firm, its giving was his business. Now that it is a publicly held firm, it is a different creature and has to act differently. There is a reason that I am more and more in favor of more firms staying private.

Two other short points. Two honest people with good intentions can still come out with different interpretations of simple English statements. I know this can all be avoided with careful negotiation, good contract writing and so forth. My point is that the fact of a powerful and even bitter disagreement is not necessarily evidence of bad character on the part of either side. It might well be that one or both of the parties is a ratbag, but they could both be good people who strongly disagree. This is important to note as you go about your business career and simply make sure to take extra steps to avoid such painful disagreements through prevention.

The second point is that I wish Mr. Huntsman had gone one step further. It is true that bad managers and dishonesty caused the financial tragedies at Enron, WorldCom, Tyco, Adelphia, and others. However, who hired them? Why were they hired? Shareholders hired them by investing their money in these firms looking for the big returns. Those who lost money investing in equity in these firms are not innocent. They helped create an environment where the solid management teams of older less explosive firms were cast aside for the go-go huge return firms of the nineties.

We hired these clowns and they delivered the lies we asked them to tell us because they agreed with the lies we were telling ourselves about the likelihood of these huge returns. It is actually a dishonesty to simply blame the CEOs who ran these firms. Oh, they deserve every punishment they get. But let's not deceive ourselves that they were the only bad actors in this scenario. We were all acting in that dark comedy and deserve the wages earned.

Highly recommended.

No matter what business you're in, these principles apply to your work and your life. None of them are new - honor, fairness, honesty and respect are as old as time - but this is a refresher course that reinforces what you already know about morality and ethics. Author and successful business leader Jon M. Huntsman can cite himself as living proof that you don't need to compromise your core values to become a success - or even a billionaire. If you're a leader or aspire to be a leader in any field, this quick read is well worth your time. We recommend it to help you focus on values that the modern world often tramples. The message is sweet, simple and clear: stick to your beliefs staunchly, even if it costs you in the short term, because character, integrity and long-term results are what really count.

I read a lot of memoirs "written" by business leaders and wealthy people. Seldom do I expect to be uplifted by what they have to say. Instead, I usually find them doing a fast shuffle in print to explain why they facilitate much inhumanity to their fellow beings.

Winners Never Cheat is a very happy exception to the typical book in this genre. Jon M. Huntsman isn't a perfect human being. He is subject to being swayed, using bad judgment and making mistakes the same as the rest of us. Where he is virtually unique, however, is in recognizing and attempting to correct his errors as soon as they become apparent to him.

He provides his examples in the context of two backdrops that will fascinate you. The first is inside the Nixon White House as "the boys" put loyalty above their responsibilities. Mr. Huntsman didn't play along, and he's one of the few Nixon-era insiders who didn't draw a prison term before it was all over. The second describes his rapid scramble up to the top of the business world through the ups and downs of the chemical industry's cycles. Just a few years before he became a billionaire, Mr. Huntsman was very close to being bankrupt -- having to borrow against his holdings to pay off his philanthropic promises.

His points are all pretty clear. We all know right from wrong by the time we are still children. But we soon find ourselves drawn away from doing the right thing by the siren song of personal advantage. He argues strongly against anything other than the moral approach. He doesn't make any arguments you couldn't have made yourself. His book becomes eloquent, however, as he describes expensive decisions he made to put people and doing the right thing first.

My reaction to this book is that it's the applied version of Dr. John Maxwell's excellent book, There's No Such Thing as Business Ethics. I recommend both that book and this one to you very highly.

Be the leader you would like to admire for following moral principles!

"Play by the rules. Keep your word." This is, easier said than done. But it's still a vital principle to stand and abide by. Honesty and integrity are certainly not always followed in the competitive business world. However integrity, trust, and reputation, is an ideal. And in some industries, the only ones that survive and prosper are those that cultivate, trust.

When someone ascends to the stratosphere in any niche, profession, or circumstance they can advise the rest of us, and base this advice largely on past anecdotal experiences. Author Jon Huntsman has achieved many things and he's had a lot of experiences in life. He worked as a staff assistant to Richard Nixon, on H.R. Halderman's staff. Not willing to cow-tow to unethical requests, he didn't last long in in Nixon's administration. He was also one of the few upper-level staffer to emerge out of Watergate unscathed. Huntsman didn't like Nixon because he didn't give enough to charity. He became a billionaire in the international business realm -- He also came from nothing. The world has grown more complex and fast-paced in recent decades. And appropriately, this book does NOT say that the world of business competition is all roses, because it isn't the case. But the value of integrity is very powerful.


Beginning with Chapter One: Lessons from the sandbox to the philosophical points of this book vs. reality in 2006:

Huntsman strongly advocates building and maintaining employee loyalty. This has proven to be the most productive model. Turnover does lessen it today, however. In recent years there have been several instances of unethical behavior in U.S. business. Indictments and convictions for fraud, and numerous other crimes committed. Is this corruption and criminal activity in U.S. business practices increasing? Or, was it just not as exposed as much in the past? Is the American business mind-set and model changing for the worse? Maybe. Maybe not. Whatever the case, the recent crimes have resulted in a substantial loss of public, regulatory, and legal faith and trust, in accounting, basic transparency. Workers' incomes have declined for decades, but CEOs give themselves multi-million dollar salaries, lump-sum pay raises, and bonuses - even after - pensions are wiped out. The Board prospers even in companies that are losing millions and even billions of dollars, per year.

Who should be reading this book?

I do like Huntsman's withdrawal from Mitsubishi business project in Thailand he'd invested in, by refusing to pay bribes. Unfortunately, companies that want into East Asian markets have to grease some elbows to be allowed in. The corporations and business people that pay, get in. Those that don't, are excluded. It's not right, but that's the way it is. Huntsman did note that he'd made "handshake deals" on price, securing his position, even though later the the price increased shortly thereafter before purchasing. In the U.S. and most places in the world today, "handshake deals" don't work because of the risk and potential loss involved. As for Huntsman take of the high road, when someone "talks about himself" in a self-congratulatory way, my red flags go up a little. Especially if they are an American.

Again, the concept of "Winners never cheat," is an ideal. In reality there are many of the victors who do cheat. But it still....is an ideal....one of which we must abide by, espouse, and practice, if the U.S. will continue to be the dominant player in international business in our global, economically interdependent, and ultra-competitive, world. I strongly believe as studies suggest, that U.S. dominance of economics, creativity and innovation, are because Americans in general, play by the rules, and can be trusted more than many foreign individuals, organizations, and institutions.

Huntsman deserves credit. He recognizes his faults and works toward being a better person. Many of us don't do this.

This book is a positive diamond in the contemporary business rough.

Whan I wrote my tenth book "Human Side of Management" my friends told me that book on "normal human behaviour in business environment" will not work. Ethics is unknown word among Croatian businessmen (or anywhere around the World), they said. Six months later whole first edition (2000 copies) is sold and second edition is on the way (bare in mind, Croatia has only 4,2 million inhabitants). Many copies were bought as a business gift to colleagues or bosses.

Therefore, book "Winners Never Cheat" was a great support and confirmation for me, showing that people are the same around the world - some want to do business according to ethical rules, without cheating and with respect to other people and some always has an excuse that lying and cheating is necessary because everyone else is doing business that way. Fortunatelly, world market is big enough so one can find his own "blue sea nitche", show knowledge and skills, win without cheating...and sleep like a baby.

In today's often cutthroat business practices, it's important to remember the lessons we all learned when we were young. To help, read this short book... Winners Never Cheat - Everyday Values We Learned As Children (But May Have Forgotten) by Jon M. Huntsman.

Chapter List: Lessons From The Sandbox; Check Your Moral Compass; Play By The Rules; Setting The Example; Keep Your Word; Pick Advisors Wisely; Get Mad, Not Even; Graciousness Is Next To Godliness; Your Name Is On The Door; The Obligation To Give Back; The Bottom Line

Jon Huntsman is the chairman and founder of Huntsman Corporation, which was the largest privately held chemical company in the world prior to going public in 2005. Jon built the business from a small operation in 1970 to what it is today... a multi-billion dollar firm. But instead of using business practices all too common these days (think Enron or Worldcom), he built the organization based on solid moral principles that everyone knows are intrinsically right. A handshake and promise is something to be kept. You should surround yourself with people who have and live the same ethics and value that you have. Giving back to the community and those less fortunate isn't a nice thing to do... it's a moral obligation. It'd be all too easy to write this off as simplistic platitudes that are easier said than done. But Huntsman has proven they do work, and there are numerous examples in the book that offer proof.

This isn't a 400 page book that requires days of patient determination to get through. It's a small-sized practical book that's only 185 pages, and each chapter and concept shouldn't take more than 10 to 15 minutes to read. But once read, and if contemplated and applied, they will change your life in more ways than you can count. A highly recommended read...

Jon Huntsman Sr. is a true rags to riches story.

I'm sure he is an astute businessman, but after reading this book I believe his "emotional intelligence", or maybe even his "moral intelligence" is the true key to his success.

He frequently gives examples where he sacrificed short term benefits for principle. Sometimes he was materially better off in the long run for the sacrifice, sometimes not. But Jon doesn't seem to place material gains at the top of his list of priorities, which I think is the primary reason he has been so materially successful. Jon's employees, customers and partners all trust him, and know that Jon is incapable of finding success in a transaction where he wins and you lose. Once you can establish such a unique reputation, everyone is on your team, so no one wants you to lose.

My favorite quote in the book:

"Worldcom, Tyco, Enron and other giant companies had leaders who failed to play fair. Because they cheated, they lost. Accumulation of wealth became a driving force to these executives. They forgot the golden rule of integrity. Trust is a greater compliment than affection. With integrity comes respect." (p.39-40)

We need more people like Jon in this country -- Jon always wants to give more than he takes.

Reading this book has renewed my confidence. If you want to win in life, you don't cheat -- because if you cheated, you really didn't win anything worth keeping.

Having just read Senator John McCain's book, "Character Is Destiny: Inspiring Stories Every Young Person Should Know and Every Adult Should Remember", I can see how Salt Lake City billionaire philanthropist Jon Huntsman can get passionate about the same subject. Both books contain the overriding message that there is nothing circumstantial when it comes to people who achieve greatness, that in fact, they achieve greatness as a result of their own character. Whereas McCain uses a diverse gallery of 34 real people as his examples, Huntsman looks more inward toward his own experiences to illustrate the same conclusions. In so doing, he offers a "moral compass" by which business leaders and others can live.

Huntsman reflects on his childhood in Blackfoot, Idaho, where his father imbued him with the ethical standards by which he runs his corporation. He contends that children raised without an emphasis on honesty and virtue will find their truth in evasions and loopholes. Because they get away with it, they grow up to employ the same feeble excuses in their business and professional lives when they are caught doing something we knew we shouldn't be doing. We rationalize that immoral behavior is accepted practice. Shifting responsibility away from ourselves has become an art form. Parental example, whether for good or bad, is undoubtedly the most powerful influence on a child's moral and social development, especially for those not exposed to other role models or a caring educational environment.

It's a compact book, 185 pages, and the ten chapters have titles that seem more appropriate for a Gail Sheehy self-help manual. However, the truths that he espouses have great value and show Huntsman to be someone who lives by his rules. In particular, on his chapter about the obligation to give back, he is not afraid to expose Richard Nixon as someone who did not epitomize character. As his White House special assistant and staff secretary, he saw that Nixon gave only $500 to charity on a declared income of over $400K in 1971. Whether "that pittance was more onerous than Watergate" is arguable, but at least the author infers a valid point about how Nixon's alleged lack of character marked his Presidency.

Today we see leaders who willfully cast off the moral and ethical values they had inherited given the opportunity for personal economic betterment. The dissemination of acquired ethical standards may be more gradual in some cases versus others, as ambitious entrepreneurs succumb to the unrelenting pressure and intensely competitive atmosphere of modern business. Regaining public trust in the private sector, according to Huntsman, is imperative through the execution of a number of key principles - operating businesses and organizations as if they are family-owned; surrounding oneself with associates who listen to their conscience and act accordingly; and of treating customers, colleagues, employees and competitors with respect. His other points are even more fundamental - set the example; revenge is unproductive; return favors and give back to help those less fortunate.

Huntsman has certainly achieved a lot in his life to justify authoring this book, becoming one of the nation's largest philanthropists and raising a son who was recently elected the governor of Utah. Still, I think McCain's more deflective approach of using historical figures as prototypes of powerful character provides somewhat more resonance than an autobiographical treatise. I also could have done without an afterword by FOX News Channel commentator Neil Cavuto or a quote of praise from Dick Cheney. Whether intentional or not, their politically controversial presence undermines Huntsman's invaluable perspective.

Jon Huntsman is a rare jewel in the apparent sea of mud that is the conduct of American business and politics. Leaders, from the CEO on down are constantly being indicted and the business trade journals are filled with stories of the outwardly illegal to the ethically questionable. Things are no better in politics. Elections are now more than ever decided by which side can make the most negative charges on the other stick. As I was watching the news today, lobbyist Jack Abramoff has reached a plea agreement where he will name the members of Congress that he claims took money in return for favorable political treatment. During that news program, journalist Chris Matthews of "Hardball" fame was narrating as Abramoff was walking out of the courthouse. Matthews called the guy "Satan." I was so surprised that I turned to my partner and asked her, "Did he really use the word Satan?" She agreed that that was what Matthews said.
Huntsman believes that business negotiations can be concluded with a handshake that is a binding contract. He has given up millions of dollars in business compensation because he verbally agreed to a price before the value appreciated in his favor. He has also made charitable contributions a fundamental part of his business activity and actually took out a bank loan when business took a downturn just so he could maintain the previous level of charitable giving.
Honesty and integrity are fundamental parts of his business life, and he expects those who work for him to act the same way. Since the family company he built has made him a billionaire, it is clear that he is truly a nice guy who has finished first. I was impressed with him, it is clear that the American business and political climate would be a much better and profitable place if his message were taken more seriously. Unfortunately, it is very unlikely that many people will start to live in the manner he does.
What amazed me the most about Huntsman was the fact that he worked in the White House in the Nixon administration. Nixon crony H. R. Haldeman was his boss and encouraged him to engage in questionable behavior to aid Nixon. He refused to yield to the pressure, and the end result was that he was one of the few people in that group who never had to answer to legal authorities. Any man who could do that deserves to be admired and respected. I give him that and five stars for an inspirational book that unfortunately will not affect as many people as it should.