[dbrunton]

If you want to be a successful bank robber, probably. Pirate, yeah, probably that too. If you want to be a successful hit man, smuggler, or drug dealer, you're going to have to bend some rules.

I think if you tell a different sort of story about what you're doing, that it's something worthwhile, and that success involves being a person that people can rely on... well, I don't think being unethical will help you much.

I suppose if you have enough power, people won't give a damn about your ethics. But I think if you can get to the middle without hurting a lot of people, you're going to be identified as one of the people the rest of the middle would like to have at the top.