We’ve always believed that forming a strategy is impossible until you’re clear on what your values and principles are. Without values and principles to guide you, making decisions can seem impossibly difficult. Given how important setting values and principles is to decision making we asked folks we admire to tell us about the values or principles that matter most to them.

Erin Malcolm | Wedding & Couple Photographer

Serving others is what matters most in everything that I do — both as a creative business owner and as a human in general. In the creative industry especially, it’s all too common to create from a self-serving place. Everybody wants to be the next person to get published or be credited with a viral Instagram post, but when that’s the driving force behind creativity, the “who” behind why we get to do what we do can get left behind. In my eyes, I’m able to live my dream life because of those who support me, so the least I can do is pay it forward. When I wake up everyday and choose to live through the purpose of serving others well, the rest falls into place. Read more>>

Dhananjay Jha | Travel services and consultant

I think the principle of consistency matters most for me . If you are honest to your work it will definitely give you are working for. You have to work consistently for your desired result. Most of people’s get disappointed & distracted from their goals after working few days or months and seeing the other getting results.
I think this is so wrong, I say one thing if you are consistent for your work, if this is your passion then why you are seeing other people’s results or getting disappointed from your work. Read more>>

Stow Miller | Artist

The principle that matters most to me is maintaining that I make the paintings I want to make. It is easy for artists to chase after trends and end up creating work that they think will sell and because of that, lose the inspiration that brought them to their craft originally. It’s important to me to create work that I want to see and to follow ideas and inspiration that are my own. This can be a really challenging practice and it doesn’t mean that you can’t stand on the shoulders of giants, but my father expressed this idea to me when he said “true creatives never realize they’re out of the box.” What this means to me, and what I think is most important in any creative practice, is to do what you want to do and avoid considering or defining you’re creative choices in any auxiliary contexts. Just make YOUR art. Read more>>

JB Teller | Author

Kindness is the value that matters the most to me. If I could choose to be anything, I chose to be kind. It’s my selfish trait because I am kind for myself just as much as for the person I’m being kind to. The feeling you get is amazing. Read more>>