Vito saw himself as a Don in the traditional sense...someone like Don Tomassino in Sicily, that is someone in the community who was a patron....a leader, who doled out "justice," and to whom people came for help, advice and "protection." As a businessman, he did well in the olive oil business, and as a mafia chief he dealt primarily with unions and gambling, one of which was arguably a "just" cause in those days, and the other was something he considered a harmless vice forbidden by the pezza novante. While he did and would employ murder as a tactic, I think he would only do so as a last resort. His murder of Fanucci was, in his mind, an act which liberated himself and his friends and his community of someone who took unfair advantage of his own people, and throughout his life he
developed many friendships and gained many loyalties.

Michael in turn was far more cold blooded, and used murder as a means to get whatever he wanted. He was a better business man, but at a terrible price. When his life ended he was a broken man, and an utter failure.

One of the more telling lines in the trilogy which demonstrates
Michael's failed life long attempt to fill his father's shoes was when he told Fredo, "Its not easy being a son."