A Foolproof System for Making Big Professional Decisions
How to stop agonizing over your career choices
As I get older, I get cheesier. Phrases I scoffed at as a Gen-X’er are now words I’ve come to live by.
Take the cliched term “core values.” Up until my forties, I equated those two words with hollow corporate mission statements recited by executives who, inevitably, put earnings above any list of morals allegedly guiding them. “Don’t be evil?” F-you.
But I think there’s something magical in listing your own personal “core values.” For me, it’s made professional strategizing a whole lot simpler. Rather than agonize over which projects to pursue and which to politely decline, I can refer to my Rules to Work By. The list, I find, functions as a kind of decision-making algorithm: I run an offer through the gauntlet of my five values and, if it pops out whole on the other side, I proceed without hesitation.
To get specific, I’ve decided that the work I do must meet these specifications:
One- put a new creative spin on journalism
Two — inform and inspire others
Three — make it possible to compensate my colleagues fairly
Four — be produced with partners who have similar ethics and goals
