Transparency, honesty, kindness, good stewardship, even humor, work in businesses at all times. — John Gerzema

Transparency, honesty, kindness, good stewardship, even humor, work in businesses at all times.

Author: John Gerzema

Insight: There's something quietly radical about this claim: that the traits we usually associate with being a good person actually make better business sense than corner-cutting ever could. We've been fed so many stories about ruthless efficiency and calculated deception winning the day that when someone says honesty works, it lands almost like a contrarian take. But notice what gets smuggled into that list—humor especially. It's easy to nod along with transparency and kindness as moral goods. Harder to see them as practical tools. Yet humor, in particular, does something business-minded people care about: it builds trust faster, defuses tension, makes people actually want to work with you. When someone can laugh at themselves, you believe them more. The same logic applies to all of it. Kindness isn't just nice; it creates loyalty. Good stewardship isn't just ethical; it builds reputation. These things actually compound over time. The trickiest part might be that this wisdom requires patience. The dishonest shortcut often wins immediately. But Gerzema's pointing at something that survives—what lasts when the shortcuts unravel, when trust becomes your actual competitive advantage. In a world of infinite options and transparent information, maybe the businesses that endure are the ones that simply act like decent people.