Skip to content

Principled People Finish First

Being principled gives us the strength to do the right thing, the connecting thing, to enlist others in our endeavors even when it’s inconvenient, unpopular, dangerous and seemingly unprofitable in the short term.
Sign up for Big Think on Substack
The most surprising and impactful new stories delivered to your inbox every week, for free.

There’s the adage or cliché that nice guys finish last and it’s important for me to convey that I’m not arguing the opposite, that nice guys in this world can finish first.  I prefer working with nice people but How is really about principled people finishing first. 

And you can be ruthless about your principles.  In the interdependent, social, personal, interconnected world there’s so much pressure on us to be situational, to get what we need to get in the situation in the moment and then it doesn’t add up.  

Being principled gives us the strength to do the right thing, the connecting thing, to enlist others in our endeavors even when it’s inconvenient, unpopular, dangerous and seemingly unprofitable in the short term although it turns out to be profitable not just in the short term but in the long term. 

So the thesis of How is it’s not about nice guys finishing first or last.  I prefer working with nice people.  It’s about principled people and leaders that are principled and they can inspire us because they are doing what they do in a HOW way, a principled way. 

In Their Own Words is recorded in Big Think’s studio.

Image courtesy of Shutterstock

Sign up for Big Think on Substack
The most surprising and impactful new stories delivered to your inbox every week, for free.
Related
A bearded man wearing glasses and a plaid shirt speaks with a microphone clipped to his collar in front of a purple background with white dots.
The Well
How Rainn Wilson discovered sacredness
The hospital where Rainn Wilson’s wife and son nearly died became his own personal holy site. There, he discovered that the sacred can exist in places we least expect it. During his talk at A Night of Awe and Wonder, he explained how the awe we feel in moments of courage and love is moral beauty — and following it might be the start of our spiritual revolution.
▸
13 min
—
with
Rainn Wilson
Up Next
Surprising Science
Tonight: A Live Blog of Obama’s Big Syria Speech
Join the Praxis live-blog of President Obama’s address tonight at 9:01pm, when he will face one of the most challenging tasks of his presidency. The three main audiences he needs to keep in mind— members of Congress, the American public and the Syrian regime—all need to hear a somewhat different message. Yet he must be resolute and clear.