My Values and Principles

Jun 2023 | Reading time: 3 min

What I care about in my work, the people I’m surrounded by, and the environments I’m in.

• Curiosity: a genuine desire to learn more about the world, how it works, what’s broken about it, what can be made better, how it can be made better, and why it’s the way it is. An inherent sense of wonder about people, physical phenomena, and objects (everything, really) and the ability to go about exploring, discovering, and understanding at a deeper level.
• Kindness, compassion and generosity: to give more than what is taken, when possible. To always give second chances and the benefit of the doubt. To be gracious to others and yourself when mistakes are made (but not make excuses for them), and a little more welcoming of flaws than you usually would. To care about more than just yourself and your well-being. To be helpful. I think the world lacks kind people much more than smart people.
• Humility: an appreciation for the infinite things you can learn from anyone, regardless of where they are in life; gratitude for your initial supporters, especially those that helped you get your foot in the door. And to not forget about your starting point, or take things for granted and get your head stuck in the clouds.
• Openness: always approaching new ideas/people/places with an attitude of humility and welcoming different perspectives/beliefs/arguments. To be highly receptive to being proven wrong. Strong opinions and beliefs, but loosely held.
• Self-awareness (high self-agency, by extension): to not delude yourself, ever. To be (painfully) aware of where your shortcomings are, but also where your strengths lie. To take accountability for yourself, responsibility for your actions and their outcomes, and to be aligned with your own values/etc system.
• Self-drive and resilience: to be sufficiently intrinsically motivated, so that when external circumstances change, your pursuits are not derailed or slowed down. And to not be swayed so easily, even if external pressures are exerted in the opposite direction. Also, to be able to bounce back very quickly. Though, actively soliciting feedback and knowing when it’s time to ask for help is equally important (I am personally terrible at asking for help, so this is something I’m working on).
• Hardworking: no excuses. If something didn’t work out as you would’ve liked, but you didn’t work your a** off trying, then try again. But, also, not blaming yourself if things don’t work out due to factors outside of your control.
• Sincerity and thoughtfulness: to never half-a** conversation, people, work, or anything, really. To show you care, when it matters.
• Intensity: an all-in investment of energy, effort, and time on the things you care about. An unwavering commitment, but also having the willingness and to step back and hold more space for others (and yourself!) when it is needed. Also, knowing when to say no, which I see as the inverse of being all-in.
• High integrity: no BS-ing others, and especially not yourself; so you are respecting others’ and your own time. Not doing things purely for the sake of optics, or at least being honest if that’s the case. Optics is necessary and helpful, but I strongly believe in the sentiment of letting your work speak for itself.
• Honesty: being true to your original intentions, or being frank about why they have changed if they do transform into something else (which will happen with time). Also, to be transparent about your motives. There is no need to trauma dump on others or the internet but I think being candid is mostly helpful.
• Realistic optimism: not veering too heavily into extreme pessimism with a balanced belief in the potential for positive outcomes.

And generally, having fun. While I probably deviate towards type two fun as opposed to type one, I appreciate a good sense of humour and being mostly easygoing. Not everything needs to be 100% serious. Some of my most interesting projects were meme-ed into existence or started from a casual conversation that had absolutely nothing to do with the project itself :)