In today’s world for disinformation campaigns, it is no secret that unscrupulous leaders are sometimes celebrated for their unethical behavior.

After the mortgage crisis of 2008-2009, for example, many of the high-powered investment bankers who sold the country down the line to make billions off of bad real estate investments were touted as “job creators” who were beyond the scope of the law. Many of these individuals were buying vacation homes while a significant number of Americans were having their houses foreclosed on.

But if everybody else in the corporate sphere seems to be making a killing by breaking the rules, why should we do otherwise?

1. Money Cannot Buy Self-Respect

That is a question that everyone will have to answer for themselves at some point. But real leaders understand that the short-term gains of unethical leadership are never worth the long-term costs. As a wise man once said, “For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, but lose his soul?”

Indeed, sacrificing our self-respect at the altar of profitability is no way to build a genuine sense of self-esteem. People may envy our successes when we’re unethical, but our family and friends will not respect us in the least when they find out what we’re up to in the workplace. No amount of money is worth that loss.

2. A Good Reputation is Worth More Than Gold

Moreover, we may be in for a very rude awakening if we lose our reputation. As it turns out, you can’t simply buy back your character. During the 1980s, for example, investment guru Michael Milken made a fortune in New York as the city’s “junk bond king.” He had a spectacular run as a  before the FBI indicted him on various charges of fraud.

Milken has tried to turn around his image since being released from prison in 1993. Undoubtedly, he has done many commendable things since turning his life around. But he has also never fully restored the public’s esteem for his work. Whenever anyone reads a story about Milken in The New York Times or The New Yorker, they will always be informed about the mistakes that he made over 30 years ago.

Try as he might, Milken can never outrun his past. Ironically, had he used his impressive work ethic and intelligence for good, Milken might now be regarded as one of the nation’s great philanthropists. Instead, he is known for his past behavior.

3. Money Cannot Buy Happiness

As it was for Michael Milken, earning money can be a very addictive pastime. And like any addiction, there is no endpoint to an addictive spiral other than failing health, financial ruin, imprisonment, or death. Even when most of us have earned a fortune beyond our wildest dreams, we’ll always be left wondering what we would do with just a couple million more in the bank.

It’s a never-ending process that is often the downfall of an otherwise good and capable leader. To wit, if we measure our happiness by our checking account, we’ll always be disappointed.

4. If You Don’t Love What You Do, No Amount of Money Will Make Up For It

If you want to guarantee that you’ll hate you’re job, just compromise your values to do it. You’ll quickly find that all your passion for a given field dries up very fast. Most human beings simply aren’t built to withstand toxic environments for very long, and when we’re the architects of our own toxic environment, we’ll quickly find that our love of our work will become drained of all its color.

Think back to any leader you’ve ever truly looked up to, and chances are good that their behavior was worthy of your respect. Isn’t that the kind of legacy most of us would like to leave behind? Do any of us want to be known as the person who compromised their deepest values in order to earn a quick buck? Would we enjoy earning a reputation as someone who hates what they do and makes the world a worse place by doing it?

Indeed, finding the strength to become the type of person that we ourselves would admire takes an astonishing amount of personal integrity. But if we’re honest with ourselves, most of us would say that that is the kind of person that we want to be in our heart of hearts. Falling short of that lofty standard would be a tragedy. Let’s hope that most of us avoid that path like the plague.