My Golden Rule

Leaders Share Secrets to Their Success

Business 2.0 asked 30 business leaders, collectively worth more than $70 billion, what single philosophy was the key to their success in life, business, or both.

Here’s a sampling:

"When People Screw Up, Give Them a Second Chance."

— Richard Branson, founder and chairman, Virgin Group

"Check With the Wife"

— Po Bronson, author, The First $20 Million Is Always the Hardest and What Should I Do With My Life?

"Treat your customers like they own you, because they do."

— Mark Cuban, co-founder, HDNet; owner, Dallas Mavericks

"Learn to Give Back"

— Michael Graves, architect and designer

"Believe in Something Bigger than Yourself"

— Carlos M. Gutierrez, U.S. secretary of commerce; former chairman and CEO, Kellogg

— "Don’t Trust, Just Verify"

— Steven D. Levitt, coauthor, Freakonomics

"Choose Your Mistakes Carefully"

Craig Newmark, founder, Craigslist

"Whatever a Man Soweth, That Shall He Also Reap"

Dick Parsons, chairman and CEO, Time Warner

And here’s one that I chuckled over at first, until I got to thinking about who was saying it:

"Never write when you can talk. Never talk when you can nod. And never put anything in an e-mail."

Eliot Spitzer, New York state attorney general

I think you’ll find the rest of the list equally engaging.

Whether you agree with these philosophical nuggets or not, it’s clear that each person has developed a personal internal guidance system. When you look behind these statements perhaps you can see evidence of each person’s worldview. A worldview is comprised of the most fundamental beliefs a person has about the nature of the world, herself, life, truth, good, evil, purpose in life, and God.

  1. Examine the statements in the list. What would you guess are the fundamental beliefs that shape each “golden rule”?
  2. What is your “golden rule”?
  3. How have your fundamental beliefs about life, God, yourself, the world, right and wrong led you to your golden rule for living?
  4. What would a business life lived by the golden rule in Luke 10:27 (New International Version) look like ?

‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’ and ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’

  • Have you seen such a life? Either way, what do you think that means?

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