Stairway to Success: The Complete Blueprint for Personal and Professional Achievement

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WHAT VALUES ARE IMPORTANT TO YOU?

We may be personally defeated, but our principles never.

—WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON

So far you’ve learned how to identify your congenial competencies, your compatible careers, and your congenial roles. In other words, your career choices can now be guided by:

• the things you like to do
• the things you do best
• your preferred behavioral mode

But true success goes far beyond a career choice. History books and entertainment magazines are full of examples of people whose careers soared while their lives crashed—even as they were doing the things they enjoyed and did best. This can happen if your behavior is not in line with rules of conduct based on a set of principles grounded in positive personal values.

THE IMPORTANCE OF VALUES AND PRINCIPLES

Don’t worry. I’m not going to give you a set of rules to tell you what you can and can’t do with your life. But you can write your own rules of conduct, based on the principles you choose and the values you cherish.

Let’s stop to define what we mean.

A value is something you hold dear, whether it be a person, an activity, a material object, or a quality. A principle is a broad, fundamental truth. A rule of conduct is a guide to behavior designed to implement a principle.

For example, human life is a value. “It is wrong to take human life deliberately and maliciously” is a principle. “Thou shalt not commit murder” is a rule of conduct.

The principle supports the value; the rule implements the principle.

Different ...