Principal's Principles

It has long been my goal to be a principal in my life, or in my own words, to have sufficient command over how I spend my time.

Is that the key to everyone's happiness? Probably not. But it's essential to mine. Living without agency is among my greatest personal anxieties.

• Principal: a chief or head, or "first in importance". In my own words - have command over how I spend my time, both in short timelines (today) and long ones (years, decades)

• Principle: a fundamental truth or proposition that serves as the foundation for a system of belief or behavior or for a chain of reasoning

Living with agency does not mean living without structure. In fact, it means almost the opposite; structure enables progress. So I am constantly making plans, measuring myself against them, trying to learn, and reflecting learnings in new plans.

I base those plans off of a living list of principles. Listed below. I call that list my Principal's Principles.

Almost all of them I learned from other people. You know who you are.

I don't know if anyone will care about this, but a good friend suggested I share. If you have principles that I should consider adding, please share with me!

Principal's Principles

1. Givers get lucky more often

2. Don’t say no to things that haven’t been offered to you

3. Truly unique opportunities come to the truly unique

4. Being different gets you further than being the best (or smartest)

5. How do you know where the line is if you don’t go over it sometimes?

6. Comfort is where careers (and lives) go to die

7. The fewer words you use, the more people will listen to you

8. Listening done well can be more convincing than speaking

9. No one has ever regretted getting off of their couch and working out 

10. It’s more expensive to be cheap than generous. People hate cheap people. 

11. Ooze humility

12. Keep it real. If you wait for the right words or the right moment, you’ll never find either in time. 

13. Giving someone else transparency about your own weaknesses builds trust. Trust is very helpful.

14. Incentive alignment outperforms operational excellence over the long term

15. Budget

16. Care about values not about things 

17. Find ways to laugh at or be fascinated by anything 

18. Believe that people have good intentions until they give you a reason not to

19. Believe in ideas long enough to let them mature. Big ideas are hard to get right the first time.

20. Give credit where credit is due 

21. Don’t accept LinkedIn invitations from people you don’t know

22. Real grudges are bad. Made up grudges are powerful. 

23. Don’t pass your bad shit on to other people, especially talent

24. When chasing a giant goal: focus on inputs, not outputs. When chasing a narrow goal: flip it.

25. It's respectful to be on time. It's even more respectful to be on time and prepared.