I asked Jim why he'd been able to choose to do the right thing, and he went back to his childhood, his formative years—and the strength that grew out of his own failures and weaknesses, his own personal pain. He told me he wasn't a precocious youngster marked for leadership from an early age. Just the opposite. He was a slow learner, often called immature. His body grew faster than his emotions and personality. "It took me a long time to grow up emotionally," Jim says. "In fact, I was scared to death half the time.

Jim had to struggle for many years to achieve maturity. In many cases, when people are marked somehow with characteristics that single them out from the herd, the struggle to mature ultimately fails. They never grow up. Sometimes, they end up in prison, in mental institutions, or simply living half-lives of under-achievement and failed relationships. But for others, the struggle to accept oneself forges character. Jim agrees that, for him, achieving self-acceptance was something that he had to battle with over a period of years, into his adulthood.

"It was hard for me to face my own weaknesses and needs. But once I was able to do that, I became willing to reach out to a force of goodness in the universe that can give us strength and lift us above our personal failings. Call it God if you like, though I'm not religious in any conventional sense. But it's something greater than self that we can call upon when we need it—if we're willing to admit we need it," he said.

Burke drew strength, not despair, from the turmoil that surrounded him as a child and adolescent. His father had a clear, rigid sense of right and wrong. His mother was more intellectually curious and liked to challenge assumptions.

In family debates around the dinner table, Jim began to learn to reason, to argue, to struggle toward the truth. All four Burke children went on to have fascinating, often tumultuous lives and careers. Jim's best known sibling is his brother Dan, who, with partner Tom Murphy, was one of the most influential and revered television network leaders ever at ABC, and the industry in general, during the 1980s. So an early experience of adversity, and growing up in a family where he was continually challenged both intellectually and emotionally, was an essential part of the background that prepared Jim for the crisis. The risk-taking inherent in his decision to do the most ethical thing wasn't, in itself, a deterrent. He'd loved taking risks his entire life—it was, in fact, a problem for him.

"I used to be a compulsive gambler," he said. "There's probably not a casino in the country I haven't seen the inside of."

Risk-taking was, in a way, an essential part of his life. Early in his career, Jim left Procter & Gamble, after three and a half years, to join J&J. It was the first big stretch for him, and it pushed him to the limit of his abilities, testing his skills. Ultimately, he felt constrained, and he quit the corporate life to try his hand at entrepreneurship, launching three separate businesses, all of which failed. When he returned to J&J, he took on the new products division—which led to even more adversity. His first few years, after his return, were a sequence of failures. The company head, Robert Johnson II, known as The General because of his work running the New York Ordinance District during World War II, called Jim into his office. Jim expected to be fired. Instead, The General congratulated him for the fact that he kept finding new ways to fail.

"Don't ever make these mistakes again. But please make many other mistakes. That's what we're paying you for."

It was a remarkable and unforgettable lesson. It reinforced Jim's belief in himself and his certainty that, if he kept trying long enough, he'd win. It also gave him the sense that J&J was a safe place for experimentation, growth, and risk taking—a place that respected hard work and talent, even through times when it wasn't generating instant results. Those failures taught him fortitude, the refusal to be defeated—and were key to his courage during the Tylenol crisis. He'd seen the worst. He'd been there. He knew he could lead a company through terrible times without compromising his principles.

In their moments of crisis, leaders respond in their own ways. When Enron was about to implode, Chairman Ken Lay, with a straight face, told the outside world and his nervous employees that everything was fine and a new era of prosperity for Enron was about to unfold. At the same time, he quickly sold millions of dollars of Enron stock, while the getting out was still good. But when Jim Burke faces the greatest crisis of his career, he acts from the foundation of his character and does the right thing, regardless of the risk. And his company, eventually, is rewarded handsomely for years to come.

Values are no longer a luxury in business. They are no longer optional codes of behavior just for the good guys. Values are essential principles which guide a company's or a brand's vision, make the behavior of competent, motivated employees fit an organization's core mission. Consistent application of core values is the critical facilitator for proper alignment among all critical company constituencies.

If you want a consistently successful business life and a fulfilled personal life, you must dare to be good. Good at all the five enduring business principles, but especially good at values. If you dare to be good at the thousand of small decisions, you will do the big ones right when it comes time to put your integrity to the test. You will be a great business person by being a good human being.

There is a wonderful addendum to Jim Burke's life story. After he retired from J&J, he started the most worthy "Partnership for Drug Free America," which uses volunteer advertising agencies, media and some government investment to convince America's youngsters not to take drugs. The effort has had a significant positive impact in the long struggle to diminish drug usage. For his character, for his values, for winning his own personal struggle for good, for his real achievements in the face of adversity, Jim was honored by Congress and the President with the Medal of Freedom, the highest non-military recognition our country can bestow on one of its citizens.