Young men and women are told to study Machiavelli instead of Bible, Dale Carnegie instead of Gandhi, they are told to consider Donald Trump a better example of success than Arlo Guthrie.

Fraud building upon fraud within a culture of fraud leads to results that are detectably fraudulent. Soon, more energy and effort is spent concealing truth than it would take to market an honest product made by Honourable people at a fair price.

It is true that if your only concern is wealth or power than it is much simpler - at least initially - to seek those goals without silly constraints of morality.

But aside from morality, aside from ethics, consider this truism: "Friends come and go, but enemies accumulate." When you define success in terms of "one winner takes many losers," you create endless amounts of resentment that will follow you forever. If you invest rather in building legitimate relationships built on trust, your immediate results may be less spectacular, but in end your personal edifice will be unshakable. Every friend you make brings you two more potential friends - at least.

The underlying rules of true business success are same as in any other realm of life, for life IS work, in both worst and best senses. Who we are is entangled with what we do; what we get is entangled with both.

So first rule is this; your word is your bond.

If you cannot be trusted in simple matters, do not expect to be trusted in any matter requiring a lawyer to draft a "click to agree" statement or a privacy policy.

If you can be trusted, you won't NEED a lawyer. You can use plain english if you don't feel need to create loopholes and exceptions. That is not to say that you shouldn't have a lawyer check your words to ensure they have legal effect you wish; I'm not counselling moon-eyed idealism.

The second rule is simpler still; do not presume. Do not presume that you are entitled to things you are not entitled to. You are not entitled to an email address as a "fee" for reading your content. You are not entitled to an extra browser window for a traffic-exchange scheme. You are not entitled to plant cookies or otherwise compromise privacy and function of a visitor's computer for your advantage. You may not spam people.

Hype, overpromising and other low-rent tactics are no different and no more respectable online as off, and lessons taught in "Music Man" about that sort of "salesmanship" are as true online as they were in era of steam locomotives.

Yes, you can make a living that way - by skipping town with loot ahead of posse.

Yes, you can cycle identities. You can buy a new domain name every week. You can move from "irresistible opportunity" to "surefire results method."

But effort required to do that effectively requires another thing - repeated, conscious evasion of countermeasures - which means that you will be eroding your own Integrity as you go about this. Whether or not your believe that matters, and whether or not anyone can trace this to you personally, it will, nonetheless mark and change you.

So don't do that. Because no matter how good you become at fleecing sheep - no matter how well you deceive them - you won't be fooling yourself.

The root of being respectable is self-respect. The root of Integrity is never having to lie to yourself to get through day.

Besides, there's a far better and far easier way. This is an example of that way.

Create something. Do something nice for people. Be open handed.

The internet is a place of largess; it is an environment where it's not just possible to be generous with your time and effort, it's part of "social contract."

It's possible to do that because it costs little or nothing to provide free things of value - and I don't mean "Ten Easy Steps to make Author of This Ezine Wealthy."

Last Thursday was a remarkable day. My 18-year-old daughter, who is just about to graduate from her alternative high school, had to present her academic portfolio as a requirement of graduation. Her charge was to demonstrate mastery in several different learning realms to a roundtable of teachers, parents, and members of community. Not an easy task.

She prepared for weeks. She pulled together all of work she felt best represented her senior year of learning. She also had to write a narrative about each learning realm as well as reflect in general about her high school experience. It was an amazing process to witness. She worked her tail off reviewing, synthesizing and preparing to present past year of her growth-filled life.

The day finally came. In a large, naturally lit classroom around a broad table, eight people carefully reviewed numerous folders of my daughter’s portfolio. The air was charged with feeling of a young woman’s rite of passage. At one point, my daughter was asked to leave room while we discussed her personal and academic achievements of her career. According to procedure, roundtable would determine if she passed and would graduate.

I must say, as proud mother, she came through with flying colors. The work she presented more than met requirements. The team was extremely impressed and awed by well roundedness and depth of my daughter and her work. She was lavished with praise and validation. I watched her soak in all attention like a sponge, almost to point of discomfort.