Perspective
From Neil Cavuto

Managing Editor,
Fox Business Network

I know all about Jon Huntsman and the way he views life. I wrote the book on him.

In More Than Money, published in 2004, I featured Jon and some 20 other individuals who understand the value of meaning over money and, to me, represent the inspirational people of this world who continually turn personal challenges into a positive element of living. What you have just read is a basic blueprint of not only doing good but also being good.

Jon Huntsman’s own life and personal values lend credence to his words. He walks his ethical talk and has done so in the face of incredible obstacles that at times surely must have made moral shortcuts tempting. Jon has no secret formula; it ought to be familiar to anyone with a conscience. But knowing what behavior is proper and what is not is the simple part. Living those principles requires commitment, integrity, and courage.

As a journalist and host of Fox News’ Your World, cable TV’s most-watched business show, I see it all. I, too, know of marketplace problems and of rotten apples in the business barrel, but in Your World, I attempt to go past the potholes. I go behind profit-and-loss ledgers to the individuals who make things happen.

In so doing, I have found many inspiring models who dispel the notion that what’s good for business can’t be good for me; men and women who are catalysts for wondrous endeavors, who know not only how to play by the rules but embrace ethical conduct. Genuinely successful business executives know there can be no dissonance between society’s values and corporate operations.

In my book, More Than Money, I define those who have gained fame and fortune not so much by their achievements as by how they got there—the enormous odds they overcame, the dignity and courage they displayed in the process, the way they treated people ethically and fairly along the way.

These heroes learned to train their eyes on the possibilities, not the odds. They made bumps in the road to success fodder for motivation—a motivation, incidentally, that is not solely centered on profits and power but also on making a difference in the lives of others.

A born philanthropist and self-made multibillionaire, Jon Huntsman is a textbook example of what I am talking about. Notably, he turned personal cancer setbacks—holding his mother at her death, watching his father waste away, being informed one year to the day that doctors told him he had prostate cancer that he now had an unrelated cancer—into a beacon of hope for others who find themselves with this dreaded affliction.

With nearly a quarter of a billion dollars of personal funds as seed money, and the promise of more where that came from, Jon launched a cancer research institute a decade ago and followed up with an accompanying research hospital seven years later. Together, they are the centerpiece of his search for controlling, if not curing, cancer.

The Huntsman Cancer Institute and Hospital is a scientifically and architecturally stunning complex. The research into identifying inherited cancer genes and controlling the disease with early intervention is breathtaking. The hospital has the patient’s comfort and dignity foremost in mind. It reminds you of a four-star hotel rather than a place where sick people are housed. And it is about to double in size.

Given my own experience with cancer, I am in awe of Jon’s indefatigable crusade to conquer this insidious disease. He shakes down pharmaceutical companies, federal agencies, and wealthy colleagues; makes political donations to Republicans and Democratic members of Congress who vote for cancer-fighting appropriations; and personally visits patients undergoing chemotherapy. When the chemical industry took a nosedive in 2001, he took out a multimillion-dollar personal loan to cover his philanthropic pledges until the bottom line rebounded three years later. He took his family-owned petrochemical empire public in early 2005, in part, to raise additional hundreds of millions for his cancer institute.

(Incidentally, Jon is routing his royalties from this book to the Institute, and I know he would most gratefully accept additional donations. The address, should you be so inclined, is: Huntsman Cancer Institute, 2000 Circle of Hope, Salt Lake City, UT 84112.)

In Jon Huntsman’s world, giving is a sacred duty. He doesn’t think much of billionaires who wait until they are dead to give away their money. I sometimes think Jon would be happiest if he could coincide his final breath with giving away his last dollar to someone in need, thus allowing him to leave this world the way he entered it.

But the thrust of More Than Money went well beyond identifying philanthropic stars. My heroes are those who squarely faced life’s hurdles, overcame them, and did so with class, high principle, and a sense of decency.

Thanks to Winners Never Cheat, we have been reintroduced to our values roadmap. It gives each of us simple directions on how to become a hero.