06/16/2026
What defines you?
Your life and career are molded by your morals. Your ethics and past experiences have taught you right from wrong. As you go through life, whether you know it or not, you have developed a personal code, and or a business code which you live by.
One hundred and fifty years ago that code would have been harsh. It was a code by which you and your family stayed alive. In today’s harsh business climate your code can also keep your business alive.
1. Take Pride in your work, it shows
2. Always finish what you start
3. Do whatever it takes to get it done
4. Be tough but fair
5. When you make a promise, keep it.
6. Remember that some things are not for sale
7. Know where to draw the line.
Your past experiences have taught you how to deal with situations and people. The hard part is to be consistent with your code. Sometimes it does not follow the popular line, or is acceptable to everyone involved. The hard part is sticking to you guns.
My code is defined by those past experiences. In the Marine Corps you are trained to “Improvise, Adapt, and Overcome”. A strange set of guidelines for an organization built on regimentation and training. Yet you as an individual can accomplish this while being part of a team or a group.
This mantra can be used in your business. Think of all the competitors who have come and gone in our industry. Look at the so-called “Big-Boxes”. What is their most glaring character flaw? THEY CANNOT IMPROVISE. THEY CANNOT ADAPT. Now look at your most obvious attribute, you have the ability to do what they can’t, that is to ADAPT to any situation on the run. Your best asset is their biggest weakness. USE IT! Use your group. Use your manufacturers. Use your wholesaler. By God use something! Do not let yourselves be swept away by “Wall Street Pirates”. You have a Business Code…stand up for it, and you will overcome!
I have lived by another mantra that has defines me. It should work for you.
“I won’t be wronged, I won’t be insulted, I won’t be laid a hand on. I don’t do these things to other people and I require the same from them.”
( John Wayne in his last film, The Shootist (1976) )