Marcus believes that if we have the right values, and are true to ourselves, we will put ourselves in the best possible position to make the decisions we need to make. We need to walk straight, and that requires both strength within and protecting ourselves from the potentially corrupting influence of anyone around us who is not equally committed to the life of integrity. We should ourselves be good and ethical in all that we do. But, in addition, it's also a good idea to do everything in our power not to work with, depend on, or even associate with, other people who are not likewise prepared to follow the demands of goodness. No matter how good a deal sounds, if it's with a bad person, you can be assured that it will end up being bad for you.
Unethical conduct is always, in the end, self-destructive.
By deviating from what is good and right, we undermine our own projects and prospects in this world. But it's also important to understand that by working with, or linking ourselves to, people with bad character, we also set ourselves up for serious problems. To think that you can associate or work well with a bad man and constrain the harm of his mischief is folly. It's tempting to some people, especially in their business lives, to think it's all right to have as an associate a human pit bull, a person capable of lashing out mercilessly at anyone outside the company, or the office, who gets in the way, and capable of doing almost anything to anyone on the outside just to get the results that are wanted by those on the inside. But to allow men to behave so to others, and to expect them not to do you any wrong, is irrational and tyrannical.