The most powerful force in business is love. This is more true today than ever.

Love, in the sense that I’m speaking of now, is a verb. It is what you do to help others, to improve their lives.

Businesses must improve the lives of others in order to survive.

It turns out that the reality in business is that bad guys often finish last and good guys win. Sure, there are frothy boomtimes rife with irrational exuberance where this is temporarily not the case, but most of the time in most industries, reputation eventually catches up to the marketing and the good guys win. Reputation matters. Reputation counts. Reputation is the ultimate marketing.

In George Washington’s day, reputation was considered so crucial that when it was threatened, duels commonly erupted – in fact, Washington’s most important lifelong teammate, Alexander Hamilton, was killed in just such a duel after creating many of the institutions that ultimately made America the economic powerhouse that it is today.

Today your reputation can spread faster than ever – like wildfire – because of the internet.

The net leaves bad guys no place to hide. If you don’t like a person or a company today, it is easier than ever to avoid contact with them. And it’s also easy to tell the world what you think, via blogs, email, text messaging – you name it.

- Curt Finch, Journyx CEO