Morality vs. Survival

2025.09.04.

When I launched Games for Business Ltd., about a month before the official start I attended a dinner with other entrepreneurs. The room was full of young, energetic, likeable business leaders. One guy — probably the managing director of the biggest company there — asked me about my new venture. When I explained that I wanted to sell game-like solutions to multinationals, he asked:

– Balázs, do you give kickbacks to the executives?
– No.
– Do you go sailing with the CEOs?
– No.
– Do you sleep with the HR director?
– No.
– Then why do you think you’ll get the work?
– Because I think I’m creating something good…
– You’re an idiot! – he laughed. Then others joined in, saying what I wanted to do was a Don Quixote fight, and that business doesn’t work that way.

In the end, it turned out it can work that way.

This story perfectly illustrates the negative entrepreneurial culture that has grown around us. We often think there’s no other way to succeed than through connections, favors, and paybacks. As if business success were equal to bending the rules and pushing moral boundaries.

“We’ll fix it the smart way!”

But that’s a huge burden for any entrepreneur. Not everyone is chasing only their own gain, and not every decision is about how much someone can pocket. Many leaders are struggling daily just to survive: how to keep their people, how to avoid shutting down the family business, how to balance integrity, financial goals, and “market customs.”

But where is the line? When are you a good person?

If you stick to moral rules but have to let some of your employees go because of it? Or if you secure their future at all costs, even if it means operating in the gray zone?

These questions don’t just weigh on the individual.

A society that worships profit places enormous pressure on itself. Burnout, uncertainty, and distrust are on the rise — especially in tough economic times like these. If values are pushed aside, only short-term gain remains, but we lose the human side that is the foundation of every community.

So the responsibility is twofold: the individual’s, who makes daily decisions, and society’s, which provides the framework for those decisions. And as long as our leaders show us this picture… if they can do it, why couldn’t we?

As long as business is seen purely as profit, integrity will always be a disadvantage. But if we start looking at it differently — as an opportunity to create value, to lift people up, to keep communities alive — then morality and business don’t have to be enemies. They can actually reinforce each other.

And there are good examples.
We should be talking about those more!

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In a conversation today, the question came up: where does a leader’s responsibility lie? Is it more important to follow the rules, or to keep their people?

Does breaking the rules become morally excusable if it means I can keep my employees or save the family business?

How many business leaders are forced into under-the-table deals just to stop their company from collapsing? And how does society judge them for it?