Cowboy Ethics

What It Takes to Win at Life

James P. Owen

• Publisher: Skyhorse
• Year: 2015
• Print ISBN: 9781628736632
• eBook ISBN: 9781629141398
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Business Etiquette
• Index: Business

A new approach to business ethics is quietly taking hold in executive suites and corporate boardrooms across America. Frustrated by an epidemic of misbehavior at all employee levels, management teams are getting back to basics—back to the idea that personal character and individual responsibility are the ultimate keys to integrity, just as they were back in the days of the Open Range.A decade ago, the book Cowboy Ethics first inspired businesspeople to look to the Code of the West. Once they did, they discovered that its simple, common-sense principles can be more effective guides to business leadership than a truckload of corporate mission statements, rules, and ethics manuals. "Cowboys are role models because they live by a code, " says author James P. Owen. "They show us what it means to stand for something, and to strive every day to make your actions line up with your beliefs. And isn't that as good a definition of integrity as you can find?" In the years since, the book's "Ten Principles to Live By" have been embraced by scores of companies, universities, and even a state government. This updated Tenth Anniversary hardcover edition traces the evolution of this grassroots business movement in brand-new chapters while preserving the inspirational lessons and stunning photography of the original. It's ideal for corporate gifts, the new graduate, business students, or any career person who cares about doing the right thing.

The CODE of the WEST

trust loyalty

character truth

honesty bravery

integrity courage

1 LIVE EACH DAY WITH COURAGE

2 TAKE PRIDE IN YOUR WORK

3 ALWAYS FINISH WHAT YOU START

4 DO WHAT HAS TO BE DONE

5 BE TOUGH, BUT FAIR

6 WHEN YOU MAKE A PROMISE, KEEP IT

7 RIDE FOR THE BRAND

8 TALK LESS AND SAY MORE

9 REMEMBER THAT SOME THINGS AREN’T FOR SALE

10 KNOW WHERE TO DRAW THE LINE

spirit

respect

honor

perseverance

LIVE EACH DAY WITH COURAGE

“A man wanting in courage would be as much out of place in a cow-camp as a fish on dry land. Indeed the life he is daily compelled to lead calls for the existence of the highest degree of cool calculating courage.”

Texas Livestock Journal (1882)

There is an old saying that “a cowboy’s a man with guts and a horse.” No one lacking in bravery could last very long on the range. Trailing beeves, as the cowboys called it, was dangerous enough on a good day. Cowboys encountered stampedes, quicksand, torrential rivers, clouds of alkaline dust that burned the lungs, hostile Indians, and other life-threatening dangers.

Yet cowboys cheerfully braved all these perils so they could sleep under the stars and earn seventy-five or eighty cents a day. Even so, their demonstrations of grit earned them no special recognition or praise from the boss, or even from their fellow cowboys. The virtues of fortitude and courage were part of the cowboy’s stock-in-trade ~ something to be remarked upon only in their absence. Cowards were not to be tolerated, because one coward could endanger the whole group.

Grit, guts, and heart: that's the Cowboy Way.

Real courage is being scared to death and saddling up anyway.

If you suspect that the courageous cowboy is only a Hollywood myth, read the words of John R. Erickson, a fine Western writer who has also lived the cowboy life, from his book, Some Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys (1999):

“The heroism of the working cowboy isn’t a joke . . . it isn’t something that has been cooked up by an advertising agency, and it isn’t something that cheap minds will ever understand. Cowboys are heroic because they exercise human courage on a daily basis. They live with danger. They take chances. They sweat, they bleed, they burn in the summer and freeze in the winter. They find out how much a mere human can do, and then they do a little more. They reach beyond themselves.”

This is not to say that cowboys never knew fear ~ only that they were able to put their fear aside when there was work to be done.

There is more to courage than jumping into a river to save someone’s life. It is also being willing to speak up and say that something isn’t right ~ even if that means going up against what others may believe.

TAKE PRIDE IN YOUR WORK

The cowboy is often portrayed as being unlettered and unskilled ~ a common laborer in spurs. In the cowboy’s own mind, he was no mere work hand, but a cavalier ~ a knight of the plains sitting tall in the saddle. The cowboy’s pride grew from his riding and roping skills, his indifference to danger and deprivation, and his capacity for hard work.

It is true that cowboys disdained work they could not do from horseback. They might rather ride twenty miles in a howling blizzard than dig postholes. But if there was a job that needed doing, no matter how humble, a cowboy was obliged to do it, and do it the best he could.

A poem by Red Steagall, the Official Cowboy Poet of Texas, beautifully evokes this principle. Titled The Fence That Me and Shorty Built, it is the tale of an old cowpoke who watches a young hire shirking a mundane job he resents. The old hand remembers how years earlier, he had felt the same way until Shorty, a wiser and more experienced hand, set him straight. These are the stanzas that get to the heart of it:

Worry about the effort ~ not the outcome.

Son, I ain’t much on schoolin’, Didn’t get too far with that. But there’s a lot of learnin’ Hidden underneath this hat.

I got it all the hard way, Every bump and bruise and fall. Now some of it was easy, But then most weren’t fun a’tall.

But one thing that I always got From every job I’ve done, Is do the best I can each day And try to make it fun.

I know that bustin’ through them rocks Ain’t what you like to do. By gettin’ mad you’ve made it tough On me and all the crew.

Now you hired on to cowboy And you think you’ve got the stuff. You told him you’re a good hand And the boss has called your bluff.

So how’s that gonna make you look When he comes ridin’ through, And he asks me who dug the holes And I say it was you.

Now we could let it go like this And take the easy route. But doin’ things the easy way Ain’t what it’s all about.

The boss expects a job well done, From every man he’s hired. He’ll let you slide by once or twice, Then one day you’ll get fired.

If you’re not proud of what you do, You won’t amount to much. You’ll bounce around from job to job Just slightly out of touch.

Come mornin’ let’s re-dig those holes And get that fence in line. And you and I will save two jobs, Those bein’ yours and mine.

And someday you’ll come ridin’ through And look across this land, And see a fence that’s laid out straight And know you had a hand,

In something that’s withstood the years. Then proud and free from guilt, You’ll smile and say, “Boys, that’s The fence that me and Shorty built.”

Excerpt from the book The Fence That Me and Shorty Built with permission from Red Steagall

Cowboying doesn’t build character. It reveals it.

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Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Author’s Note
• Introduction
• Living by the Code
• The Code of the West
• Conclusion
• About the Author
• About the Center