The Principle: The values that guided you when the company was small should still guide you when it’s big. Your values aren’t slogans on a wall. They’re the lines you’re not willing to cross. Culture is not what you say it is. It’s what you tolerate, what you reward, and what you do when no one is watching.
Don’t outgrow your values.
The Hard Truth
Success will test your values more than failure ever will.
đź‘Ą Executive Insights | Let me tell you how that played out in my company.
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the Rules matter.
đź“– the book behind the Rule
The Advantage, by Patrick Lencioni
The Advantage argues that the best businesses aren’t necessarily the ones with the smartest strategy or the most talented people. They’re the ones that are healthy, where leaders are clear about what the company stands for, people trust one another, decisions are understood, and everyone is pulling in the same direction. Lencioni puts a lot of emphasis on building a cohesive leadership team, creating clarity around values and priorities, communicating that clarity over and over, and reinforcing it through hiring, management, and everyday decisions. In plain English: get your people aligned, get clear about what matters, and keep reinforcing it until it becomes how the business operates.
Executive Takeaway: A healthy organization with clear values and aligned people will outperform a smarter organization pulling in different directions.
“Companies don’t fail because they grow. They fail because they forget who they were before they grew.”
– Patrick Lencioni
It’s easy to have principles when nobody is asking you to compromise them. As your business grows, you’ll be faced with more pressure, more money, opportunities, and reasons to make exceptions. Don’t trade the things that made you successful just because the business got bigger. Growth is good. But don’t let growth change who you are or what you stand for. Don’t outgrow your values.
🎓 MASTER Rule No. 46 —Don’t outgrow your values.
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October 2026
This Master Class is in development.
Help us build each of the 50 Master Classes, by adding your insights and sharing your entrepreneurial stories.
Class begins Monday, January 4, 2027, with each Rule being built out as we go. Each will contain the study sections listed above and will continue to evolve through your contributions. As business leaders continue to challenge these ideas, the Institute becomes more and more valuable, not because it’s finished, but because it never will be.