Jerry Weintraub, the epically successful producer of movies and manager of legendary performers, notably Elvis Presley, has written an entertaining autobiography entitled, “When I Stop Talking You’ll Know I’m Dead: Useful Stories From a Persuasive Man.” Maybe the stories are useful, but clearly not in the way Weintraub thinks they are.

As Weintraub was promoting his book on NPR this morning, he told several stories, all amusing. One involved a period when he was managing the late singer John Denver. Denver was upset about the venues and accommodations on his European tour, and threatened to fire Weintraub. Weintraub explained that “Fergusen” was his subordinate responsible for the problems, and promised to fire him. Later, Denver expressed more satisfaction with the way things were going, and Weintruab suggested that they rehire Fergusen in another job. Denver was happy about the idea, becuase he felt bad about firing the guy, and thanked Weintraub for suggesting it.

There was no Fergusen. The host and Weintraub had a good laugh over that.

Then there was the time one of Weintraub’s clients, a famous hard rock band, complained that they couldn’t hear their music during concerts, despite a state-of-the-art sound system. Weintraub said he’d fix the problem, and erected stacks of black-painted boxes disguised to look like speakers, in the arena. After the next concert, the band’s lead singer told him appreciatively, “Now that’s a sound system!”

You see, Jerry Weintraub clearly regards lying and deception as legitimate tools to solve problems. In these and other stories, he deceives clients and others who trust him with clever contrivances designed to manipulate their attitudes and conduct. And it works, don’t you see? Weintraub is fabulously wealthy, a legend in multiple industries, and he’s accomplished a lot of it  with the assistance of clever tricks and lies. He’s a philanthropist. He’s done good things with all his money. Weintraub’s life must be proof that you can lead an unethical life and still end up on the plus side.

Right?

I doubt it. I am certain that his book doesn’t detail all the other lies and deceptions that Weintraub must have engaged in as a talented liar in the music and movie industries, both of them famous for unethical cultures barely distinguishable from those of the Colombia drug cartels. The lies left out of the book, I suspect, are the uglier lies, the ruthless lies, the lies that caused pain and anger. When he finally broke with Weintraub, Denver wrote,

“I’d bend my principles to support something he wanted of me. And of course every time you bend your principles – whether because you don’t want to worry about it, or because you’re afraid to stand up for fear of what you might lose – you sell your soul to the devil.”

I’m  guessing this wasn’t only about the Fergusen caper.

No doubt about it: some people are very successful doing business, and living life, using lies and other unethical forms of conduct. One reason they succeed is because there are enough honest and ethical people around them to take advantage of, people who still trust and expect those they trust to be worthy of it. The best use of Weintraub’s amusing stories may be to remind us that his success is a bit of a delusion: if everyone behaved like him, nobody would be successful, or rich, or happy either. The lesson of his life is that one incorrigibly unethical person might succeed, but a lot of ethical people have to suffer for that success. The ethical life, on the other hand helps everyone succeed.