Friday, March 11, 2011

Edclick values

Our work is a major part of our lives and we intend them to be lives well lived. We will be useful and be of service.

I was reading a book on entrepreneurship last night, and came across what I thought was a good suggestion. The author said to figure out the top two are three values that drive your business. What most excites you, gets you up in the morning and keeps you working late at night? And what makes you angry and makes you want to walk away from the whole thing? Express them as beliefs or values.

I knew it was a good idea because when I first started thinking about it, it was hard. Here are some items that didn't quite make the cut.

We will be useful. I deeply believe that but I think it sounds kind of boring. But it's a passionate belief around here. We don't want to just appear to be filling a requirement, we really want to be useful. That goes for products, our personal service, even things that aren't directly part of our business but where we can help others out. Many business people will say that the only purpose for a business is to make money. That's nonsense. Of course you need to make money to live, but being useful helps you lead lives well lived.

Yes we can service. I liked this at first because it really makes me happy when we can do something important for someone even if we didn't know it needed doing. On the other hand, this one has also been the source of my greatest frustation when a customer takes advantage, asks for the moon and wants it for free. Do we want to provide Yes we can service? You bet. Does that mean we'll say yes to everything that comes along? This one didn't make the cut.

Our best ideas come from our customers. Well, that's true. But it might give the impression that any idea from a customer is a good one. Well, not quite. And even some of the good ones take a while to make happen. I like it, but it didn't quite make the cut.

We're in business to live well. This is certainly true. If you're spending all day working, it's crazy to think otherwise. But this didn't make the cut because I thought "live well" could be misconstrued as "be wealthy." Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against being wealthy. But it is more important to lead a life well lived and that is independent of wealth.

Our work is a major part of our lives and we intend them to be lives well lived. We will be useful and be of service.

From these and other considerations, I settled on the statement above. I hope it communicates that we want our customers to be happy that they chose to use our products and we hope they enjoy dealing with us personally.

Posted at 12:00 AM Keywords: values 3 Comments