Vision & Guiding Principles

Some colleagues have asked if they can utilize some of the principles on our company profile page. Of course; feel free. We certainly utilized the principles of others when we crafted ours, most notably Jim Collins, Steve Jobs, Jack Welch, Larry Bossidy, Ray Dalio, and Captain D. Michael Abrashoff. What is on our company profile page is an abridged version due to space limitations. Below you will find the unabridged version of our vision and our guiding principles. Feel free to utilize, share, and even openly debate these with us. We believe open discourse results in better understanding of, and sometimes improvements to, our principles. Enjoy.

Our Vision:

• An organization that is a cauldron of open, intellectual freedom, curiosity, creativity, and collaboration, discovering and amassing knowledge and understanding of the universe, and utilizing that knowledge to make it a better place to live.
• An organization to which intelligent beings greatly desire to belong, with so much fun and meaning, they would willingly pay to be a part of our organization.
• We genuinely desire each other to succeed greatly, and willingly do everything we can to provide feedback and insight, yet we are cautious in doing so, as to allow each fellow, armed with knowledge, and the intelligence to use that knowledge, to blaze his or her own path.
• Together, we are able to achieve significant, meaningful things that none of us could achieve without each other.
• Our fellows are intelligent, witty, and hilarious, and we genuinely enjoy spending time with each other.
• We surprise each other--our achievements, our ideas, our insights, our progress. We “wow” each other often.

Our Guiding Principles:

• Do what is right. Even when it is difficult, or seems impossible. Find a way.
• Demand the best. Demand it from yourself, and from others. Accept nothing less.
• No excuses. Offer none. Accept none. Zero. Own it, 100%.
• Get the right fellows on the bus. And let only the right fellows remain on the bus. Hire only “A Players”--no exceptions; never, ever settle. Never let another fellow settle. This is even more important than where the bus is going. With the right fellows on the bus, they will figure out everything else.
• Hire purple frogs. You may have heard we would hire “purple frogs” if it would make us better. Let there be no barriers to hiring the very best in all cases.
• Grow the pie. Craft mutually beneficial relationships with customers, fellows, partners, and suppliers. Design bonus programs and incentives such that any fellow's bonus increases only as a result of the profitability of the organization(s), and thus the wealth of every fellow, increasing. Base bonuses and incentives on real, tangible value creation, not hope.
• Luck is the residue of great design. Luck is the result of an organization engineered with inherent adaptability. Design organizations and relationships with forethought for both the anticipated and the unanticipated, and the empowerment to effectively capitalize on future opportunities and deal with future challenges.
• Be radically transparent and brutally honest. Confront reality. Have robust dialogues. Truth and logic are more important than protecting someone's feelings or ego. There is no reason to cause unnecessary pain, but helping others be more awesome by confronting reality and dealing with it, trumps pain.
• Roll the bones. Take uncalculated risks when the risk of inaction is greater than the risk of action. When inaction is terminal and immediate, and you cannot decide which path to follow, move!
• Do the "impossible". Do what others do not believe is possible, but would be insanely great if it were. Do what others are unwilling, or unable, to do. Engineer solutions.
• Think like a pirate. If we are not the “800 lb gorilla” in the market, do not challenge the gorilla using the gorilla's rules. Find ways to use the gorilla's own strengths against them. Find opportunities where the gorilla is weak, complacent, or oblivious. Move quickly where size is a disadvantage. If we are the gorilla, be wary of what the pirates may be thinking and take action where prudent.
• Seek and destroy “sacred cows”. Do not let “sacred cows” inhibit the organization from advancing. The only thing sacred is making the organization, yourself, and others more awesome.
• Be excellent to each other. Know that pain and "tough love" are sometimes necessary. Help make everyone better, more successful, and happier. This does not mean fail to confront reality, or fail to be brutally honest; it means have the right end in mind when you do so: help make everyone more awesome.
• Mediocrity is the organizational equivalent of flesh eating bacteria. Never allow it, never be it, never accept it, never let it exist, anywhere in the organization. Actively search for it, detect it, and eradicate it immediately and completely. Make sure it does not return.
• Never let the lawyers take over. There will be fun, and lots of it. If we have hired right, we will be fine. If we have hired wrong, fix that problem instead of creating a new one by making the organization less awesome.
• Profitability is survival. It makes everything we do, and everything we want to do, possible. While we will not sacrifice our principles to achieve it, or enhance it, it enables these same principles, and the organization, to continue to exist. It is the fuel that allows us to do more, and to do more, more quickly.