“I felt the positive energy the second I walked through the door,” Ryan says as I shake his hand to introduce myself. Ryan is a 19-year-old entrepreneur student from New Hampshire. I agreed to allow him to shadow me for a day for college credits. The day started with an introduction and about an hour of conversation. He was asking about the team and the environment. He noticed our values posted on the wall and asked me to talk about them.
How Values Shape Our Environment
I told him that he felt the positive energy when he walked in because we operate based on the values on the wall. “We don’t just post them,” I said. “We live them.” He seemed to really like how our office operated and told me I was doing a great job. It is funny how good it feels to get a compliment from a 19-year-old with no actual experience. What he does have is a lens into several businesses as he was shadowing multiple in the Denver area. As part of his assignment, he needs to do a report for each person he shadowed, so I will get to see my true assessment.
The Influence of Clear Values on Decision-Making
His comments and our conversation about values reminded me of how important values are—not only to businesses but in your personal life as well. Something I have not shared often is that the year before COVID, I was really trying to decide what I wanted out of Pine and my own life. The decision to grow or keep things status quo was on the table. I was in a peer group at the time, and I never had any business issues or goals. The facilitator told me my problem was not knowing what to do; it was that I was not clear on my values. “When values are clear, decisions are easy,” he told me.
He put me through an exercise where I was forced to think about my personal values. This was pretty intense. I had to select my core values and write sentences about what they meant to me. An example of one of my sentences is, “I am responsible for my own success and happiness.” There are three others. I interviewed this moderator, who turned into my personal business coach, for our YouTube channel. You can see that video here.
Personal Growth Through Values
Once I had my four sentences written, I knew exactly what the best decision for me was: Grow Pine. Obviously, we had a bit of a hiccup with COVID out of the gate, but we have turned this on in a big way and have seen tremendous growth, as many of you know. We are not turning back! Without Jerry’s help, I may have gotten stuck in business and personally, and I will tell you it is hard to have success and happiness in a stagnant state.
Just last week, I was working with a personal coach in another area of my life I am improving on. She asked me to do a worksheet. Of course, the focus of the worksheet was my values. Amazing!
Aligning Values Across Different Areas of Life for Success
Values are vital to a thriving culture in business but essential for your personal life as well. To be successful as a real estate investor, a business owner, and as a person, you really do need clear values. These values can and probably will be different for the different areas of your life, so it is important to take time to separate them. Get clear on these, and decisions become easy!