Values are much more helpful when we make them real. And the best way to make them real is to consider the implications of those values.

When I started my company with my partners, I told them that if we built a successful company but I didn’t have a great relationship with my kids it would be a failure. And I made explicit what that meant.

It meant I was closing my laptop at 5. It meant I was going to my kids games or activities. It meant I was home in time to make the family dinner. My wife works and has a demanding job - this was my company and ostensibly I had more control. So it meant I would bear primary responsibility for house stuff.

Of course there were exceptions - we’d occasionally be bidding on a project that had massive implications for the business and would require after hours work. But I would a) try to do that after they went to bed, and b) use each iteration to develop a better system so next time was faster and easier.

For each of the values you’ve listed, do the work of making them real by considering two sets of implications:

• Identify practical ways you could embody that value in your actions.
• Identify things that you won’t do as a result of having that value.