May
12
The Four Virtues
In business, as in life, certain qualities deemed ‘virtues’ are constant, timeless, ancient and yet so often painfully ignored. We should always remember that we ignore the lessons of history at our own peril. The four Cardinal Virtues have their roots in Plato’s philosophy and are sometimes synthesized in human form, as in the beautiful renditions to the right from a Masonic site.
This particular Virtue is also one of the Five Precepts of Buddhism. Though in olden days it was more related to chastity and the evils of alcohol, it is still no less crucial in business, where I’ve seen far too many businesses (including a former employer) start out with over ambitious yet under developed plans and burn through all of their money before even having a shot at real success. An even better example is the current recession caused by excess and greed of the few at the expense of many. Temperance is fundamentally moderation in all things.
Fortitude
This Virtue is one of the most crucial, and is more familiar to us in the modern vernacular as courage. As a virtue, courage is discussed extensively in Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, where its vice of deficiency is cowardice and its vice of excess is recklessness. When Bill Gates dropped out of Harvard to work on what would eventually make him the richest man in the world, he was exemplifying this trait. Without the courage to act for something in which he believes, there is very little a man (or woman) can achieve in this world fraught with risk. As Bill Ford once said, you can’t build a reputation for what you are going to do.
Prudence
The gift of proper judgment, prudentia in Latin, makes all the difference. Although prudence is the only virtue that does not concern itself with action, all the other virtues are dependent on it. It is the ability to make the right decisions. At the beginning of this recession, when Paulson & Co. were celebrating the millions their fund had made shorting stocks by spending millions hosting an opulent dinner in Manhattan opposite Central Park, they were not exercising prudence. They were being disgusting.
Justice
This Virtue is the moderation between selfishness and selflessness. It is the quintessential Win-Win scenario, where everyone benefits… A good example: investments in green technology, touted by President Obama when he took over. Not only will they make living on this planet more sustainable (making the tree huggers amongst us happy), but they will also cut energy costs (sure to please even the most hardscrabble conservative) and ostensibly make for a far better investment strategy for our children, for our future, than betting on misery. No one ever said one has to be morally bankrupt to succeed! Let’s do right by each other, because its the right thing to do.
