Our Principles Are Our Realities

“Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn’t go away.” – Philip K. Dick

There’s a lot of weird stuff going on these past few months. When it comes to our businesses, it’s a good time to review our most basic principles.

There’s a lot going on that we can’t control. Now isn’t the time to feign power of things we can’t make sense of. Bankrupt companies trading like high-growth startups, markets and economies out of synch, embedded policies on the verge of falling apart at the seams – these are all out of our control. These are surreal.

There’s a little going on that we can control. We can listen. We can answer the phone/email/text. We can make the best decisions we can with the information we have. We can communicate. We can relate. We can empathize. These are real.

Our principles are our realities. No matter what the external chaos causes, whatever we believe or don’t believe in the headlines of the day, we have to return to our principles. Again and again. Good businesses have good foundations. The bad news can’t trick us into losing sight of doing what matters.