The Ends Don’t Justify the Means - "The How" Shapes "the What" and "The Who"
by Chris McCusker, Ph.D.
REVISED 7/9/25 2100 HST.
I. The Quick Win with a Hidden Cost
I recently noticed something. One way that really works to get attention — which is the new currency — is to tear someone down. Many people from Elon Musk to Jeff Bezos to Donald Trump and other politicians are routinely criticized and ridiculed to get clicks.
It works. That’s the problem.
We live in a time when being cruel can make you popular. When a person’s dignity is treated like a prop. When the fastest way to grow your audience is to tear someone down.
But is that really success? Does that kind of success make your mama proud?
Let’s try another example. A big company wants to beat its competitor. Let’s call it Boeing. So it rushes a new airplane to market. To save time and money, it skips some safety checks. It hides a design flaw from the customers, regulators…and pilots.
They get away with it—until they don’t.
Two planes crash. 346 people die a horrifying death. Our worst nightmare. They never made it back home. Just gone.
The brand implodes. And all the shortcuts are revealed.
Uber. Same logic. Same seduction. In their early days, they aggressively entered markets without regulatory approval. They used a secret tool “Greyball” to evade law enforcement. They ran opposition research on journalists. Spied on competitors. They created a toxic culture. They justified this cutthroat approach as necessary to disrupt taxi monopolies and build their network.
“We had a goal.”
“It was worth it.”
“The end made the means okay.”
But here’s the truth:
If you burn the bridge to get there, it won’t be worth arriving.
The end doesn’t justify the means.
Because the means don’t just get you there.
They shape what “there” becomes. And they shape who you become.
II. The Seduction – Why Shortcuts Feel So Smart
Let’s be honest. “The ends justify the means” can sound clever—especially when you’re under pressure.
You tell yourself:
“This result is important.”
“Everyone else cuts corners.”
“It’s just this one time.”
“I’ll fix it after I win.”
It feels efficient. It feels bold. And sometimes it works—for a little while.
But just because something works doesn’t make it right.
You can lie and get the job.
You can cheat and win the game.
You can hide the truth and hit your numbers.
But the cost shows up later:
In trust lost.
In reputations ruined.
In a self you don’t recognize anymore.
And if enough people think this way, the whole system breaks down.
Shortcut thinking may look brave. But most of the time?
It’s just cowardice in a hurry.
“I want this good thing, so I’ll do this bad thing.”
That’s not leadership.
That’s a marketing pitch for moral failure.
III. Moral Intuition – The Feeling That Won’t Go Away
Even if someone says the ends justify the means, deep down most of us know better.
That quiet, uneasy feeling in your gut? That’s moral intuition.
You feel it when:
Someone lies to win, and it works—but still feels wrong.
Someone is humiliated for laughs, and everyone laughs—but not real joy.
Someone gets deported without due process by mistake or deception — target gets hit but leaves a bad taste.
Someone cheats, and the team still wins—but it doesn’t feel like victory.
Here’s a famous thought experiment: the trolley problem.
A train is heading toward five people. If you pull a switch, it’ll change tracks and kill only one. Most people say they’d pull the switch.
But now imagine: instead of a switch, you’d have to push a man off a bridge to stop the train. Same numbers. Save five, lose one.
But now most people say: “I can’t do it.”
Why?
Because now you’re using a person. You’re treating someone as a thing. And that feels wrong—even if the outcome looks good on paper.
That’s moral intuition. It’s not soft. It’s not weakness.
It’s wisdom.
IV. The Rational Guardrail – Why Kant Matters
Immanuel Kant, a German philosopher, built a system that backs up that gut feeling with reason.
He asked:
What if everyone did what I’m doing? Would the world still work?
If everyone lied—could we trust each other?
If everyone cheated—would rules mean anything?
If your action only works because most people don’t do it, it fails the test.
Kant had another rule:
Never treat people like things.
You can’t use someone—lie to them, sacrifice them, manipulate them—just to get what you want.
That person is not a tool. They are an end in themselves.
If you break that rule, your “good result” is already corrupted.
A bad road doesn’t lead to a good place. It just hides the damage until later.
V. Open Hearts Leadership – It’s All About the How
In Open Hearts Leadership, we don’t just ask, “What did you accomplish?”
We also ask, “How did you get there?”
Because how you lead becomes who you are.
Our six guiding principles—Dignity, Well-being, Growth, Reality, Vulnerability, and Honesty—aren’t soft skills.
They’re the structure of integrity.
They are the means that protect the end.
You don’t create well-being by ignoring dignity.
You don’t create growth by avoiding reality.
You don’t build trust by hiding the truth.
Open Hearts Leadership is about the how.
Because the how becomes the what.
VI. The Deeper Truth – Ends and Means Are Not Separate
We like to separate the end and the path.
But they’re not separate. Not even close.
The means shape the end. They build it, they taint it, they define it.
An evil goal almost always travels with an evil method.
And a goal rooted in goodness can’t be reached through cruelty, fear, or deception.
You can’t lie your way into trust.
You can’t shame your way into change.
You can’t break people in the name of justice.
The temperature of the “what” can be felt in the “how.”
If the method is cold, harsh, or cruel, the outcome will carry that same chill.
What you do and how you do it are the same story.
And that becomes the story of who you are.
VII. Conclusion – The Road Is the Reality
People still ask:
“But what if it worked?”
Here’s the truth:
If the way you got there cost you your decency, your trust, or your soul—then what you “got” wasn’t worth it. Too much evil in your means? You will lose your ability to perceive right versus wrong, good versus bad. Period.
You didn’t win. You just got somewhere else, less whole. You arrived alright but with diminished character. A dulled and confused moral sense.
The end doesn’t justify the means. The means shape the end. The means shape who you become.
And the only way to reach something truly good…
is to take a path that’s good all the way there.
You can’t cheat your way to character.
You can’t lie your way to truth.
You can’t bully your way to love.
So take the harder road. The honest one. The human one.
Even if it’s slower. Even if it’s lonelier. Even if no one claps right away.
Because in the end—
The road is the reality.
About the Author
Chris McCusker, Ph.D. is Founder of the Open Hearts Leadership Project, which is dedicated to developing leaders to meet the challenges of our times. He is author of a forthcoming book on the subject. He also does public speaking and webinars for corporate clients. www.linkedin.com/in/cmccusker