Where did our 10 Core Values Come From?
When sharing the story of our 10 Core Values it always starts with this, “My life was changed in Las Vegas.”
While in town for a conference my colleagues Josh Cohen and Paul Dryden wanted to go tour a company office tour and asked if I wanted to join. Seemed a bit strange to me at the time, but the company was Zappos. You’ve probably bought shoes from them.
In 2013 their HQ was in Henderson, NV and as we entered the reception area I could already tell this place is “different.” It wasn’t professional really, but it also wasn’t messy, it just kind of felt like someone’s work desk. On the reception desk there were a bunch of gadgets and trophies and a wooden box with a red button on the top. There was a sign above it that read, “Under No Circumstance Do You Ever Press This Button!” Or something of the sort.
All I can say is that the red button called me. My best man said at my wedding, “John sees a sign that reads “NO TRESSPASSING” and understands “Welcome, we’ve been expecting you!” Did I press the button? Of course I did!
The lights immediately turned off. Music turned on. A disco ball lit up and the reception folks stood up and started dancing.
“Wow. I really did come to a ‘different’ place.” I said to myself.
The tour was awesome. The employee tour guide talked about their 10 Core Values and how every team member does an hour of training on EACH core value in the first two weeks of their job start. The tour guide said, and I’ll never forget it, “Las Vegas is a very diverse place. It’s our Core Values that keep us unified and on the same page. We deeply values the same things.”
At that moment I knew that whenever I started my own company, I’d start by creating a set of compelling, deeply true Core Values and seek to keep them vibrant and alive like what I saw and experienced at Zappos.
From 2015 to 2019, I kept a Google Doc of quotes, proverbs, and principles that I felt embodied how people work together at their best and connected to what I believe is deeply important in the work we do, whatever the endeavor, in this life.
Using these bits and pieces, I drafted the first version of our 10 Core Values in late 2018 and shared them with some friends and mentors to get feedback. Then just before we hired our first employee, I finalized the version of our values that we still use today.
If you were to ask me or any of our team members what the secret sauce of Trelity is, 9 out of 10 would probably say our Core Values.
We hire according to them. We train on them. We share stories about them. We live them out better each day.