Do Nice Guys Always Finish Last?

By Jon Von Knight

Do nice guys always finish last? This is a simple question to be pondered by all the nice guys and girls out there navigating their way through a world that, all too often, seems to have misplaced it’s common sense, courtesy and integrity. Let’s first ask an easier question. Where did the infamous phrase come from, and how did it become so ingrained in our collective consciousness?

In 1946, Brooklyn Dodgers manager, Lee Durocher, said this about the Dodgers bitter rivals, the New York Giants, “The nice guys are all over there, in seventh place.” Which at that time might as well have been last place. That’s where it started. Someone took the ball and ran with it, an action that makes no sense in baseball, and we ended up with nice guys finish last. And when you think about it that shouldn’t make any sense either.

 
‘Nice Guys’ Face Many Challenging Rules

But for some reason being a nice guy – or girl – can be a challenge these days. Always operating in integrity in a world where corruption runs amok is frustrating to say the least. When you try to do the right thing and find yourself in a quagmire of one obstruction after another, it can be very tempting to throw in the integrity towel and start taking short cuts, maybe even break a few rules. After all, everyone else gets away with it, right? Why not you?

When we consider the endless number of rules we are asked to follow on a daily basis, it’s easy to conclude that some of them were made to be broken. But there has to be a line somewhere. The corruption that permeates our banks and government, for example, is the result of many years of blurred lines being crossed with no concern for consequences. Eventually the blurred lines just disappear. It’s a slippery slope and as an old saying goes, “Integrity is like virginity, you can only lose it once.”