I have been starting some kind of business, or side-hustle, the majority of my life. While there is a huge difference between cutting my first lawn as a 15 year old kid and sitting as Founder/CEO of SignMaster.com, one thing has remained constant – My Core 4.
Until recently, I had never put on paper exactly what my core values were or what I expected our company values to be. Our rapid growth over the past few years has forced me to pen them down. Several months of distilling my thoughts, principles, beliefs, and ideas produced a list. Here it is.
Customer First – Everything I do produces value for our customers.
Personal Accountability – It’s my fault, no matter what, period.
Continuous Improvement – I strive to be the best version of myself.
Stewardship – I am blessed to be a blessing.
Outward. Inward. Upward.
The first one is outward facing and can move to whatever environment I’m in. It can be Family First, Friends First, Cause First, etc. Point is, I want to be present and produce real value. The next two are inward facing, they help me stay focused on personal responsibility. The last one is upward facing, it’s the linchpin that holds everything together. When I use what God has given me to bless others I feel more alive and fulfilled.
There are times in life, personally and professionally, when we are all faced with tough decisions that seem to have no right answers. If you can take out a piece of paper and definitively write down your core values, they might not give you the answer you are looking for, but I guarantee they will point you in the right direction. Let me exhort anyone reading this, no matter where you are in your life, to establish your core values and go through the exercise of writing them down. Trust me, you will be better for it.
Keep pressing toward the mark.
– T. Trucks