In the world of business, you find three kinds of people: the unsuccessful, the temporarily successful, and those who become and remain successful. When all’s said and done, what does the last category have that the others don’t?

It’s not talent. It’s not business acumen, or knowledge of the market. Nor is it intuition or a special knack for dealing with people. It’s not even dogged perseverance nor good old fashioned luck.

According to the author of a new book by a billionaire philanthropist who founded a company that grew to be the largest petrochemical and plastics business in the world, there’s only one answer to our question: character.

“Character,” explains Jon M. Huntsman in the new work, “is how you act when no one is watching…Once dishonesty is introduced, distrust becomes the hallmark of future dealings or associations.” He quotes the 18th century Scottish philosopher Frances Hutcheson: “Without staunch adherence to truth-telling, all confidence in communication would be lost.”

Huntsman’s book is aptly entitled: Winners Never Cheat: Everyday Values We Learned as Children (But May Have Forgotten). Indeed, his description of how his childhood values carried over to his later business life is most illuminating:

As a teenager, he writes, his father explicitly stipulate “a.m” or “p.m.” when he ordered him to be home by 8 o’clock, but he knew very well his father meant 8 that night. Similarly, “there was no fine print to detail what was meant when he said he didn’t want me driving the family Ford. Although technically, he only said I shouldn’t drive that 1936 Ford coupe, he was including my friends.” Although a lawyer might have counseled that technically and legally his friends or anyone else were not prohibited from driving the car, our future business tycoon knew better.

So why, asks Huntsman, do we employ the same feeble excuses in our business and professional lives when we are caught doing something we knew we shouldn’t be doing?

“As we grow older, our rationale for not abiding by the rules would make a master storyteller green with envy…. We rationalize that immoral behavior is accepted practice. Shifting responsibility away from ourselves has become an art form.”

Indeed. And I think we need to ask a pertinent question here.

In later life, the author clearly succeeded in sustaining, and building upon, the moral and ethical values that he had imbibed from his parents and teachers, and possibly other adults in his community, during his youthful days . Many others who enter the business world, as he intimates, are not so successful with this.

Some willfully cast off the moral and ethical values they had inherited at the very first opportunity. In other cases, the whittling away of acquired ethical standards may be more gradual, as young entrepreneurs from the best backgrounds slowly succumb to the unrelenting pressure and intensely competitive atmosphere of modern business.

But whether sudden or slow, if this erosion of principles is so commonplace with people who were indeed exposed to the right role models and a sound educational environment in their early lives, what chance will youngsters have who didn’t have that privilege?

We’ve stressed it before. Parental example, whether for good or bad, is undoubtedly the most powerful influence on a child’s moral and social development. The influence of teachers and other significant adults in the child’s immediate environment shouldn’t be ignored either.

And indeed, the process continues throughout life. College students watch their professors. Workers keep a close eye on their managers and supervisors. The less educated keep tags on the more educated. Civic and political are targets for emulation, one way or the other.

It’s an awesome responsibility for all of us.