“Make Values Your Legacy.”
I was born a son of farmers and grew up to love, appreciate, and respect fieldwork.
Actually, I was taught to respect any work, but above all, those in which you use your hands to create or produce something.
Farming was at the top of my “Respected Jobs Scale”; what came after didn’t matter, for I never seriously considered other options.
In my early years, I knew that my Kibbutz, like other Kibbutzs, was founded based on values, but I didn’t care or give it much thought; from childhood, I enjoyed working in agriculture, and any spare time out of school, including vacations, I practiced my love.
I had no use or time for the mumble jumble of Values, Vision, Mission, Targets, and Goals; I was working day and night, and so did my fellow farmers, young and old.
Many years later, when I analyzed the roots of the Kibbutz on ongoing success, I realized that we did not need to discuss Values, Vision, Mission, Targets, and Goals because we lived it daily; we were fully immersed in those without realizing it.
You see, when Values, Vision, and Mission are well-rooted and accepted in society, they become part of the culture and the lifestyle.
The Kibbutz Values were so rooted in each of us that there was no way to separate them from our daily life activities; I was born into those, and we practiced the Kibbutz Values because its system and mechanism were pre-designed to include its Values.
WE ARE NOT PHILOSOPHERS
Like young Nimrod, who believed in “Don’t talk, work”, so do other hard-working people whose attitude is, “Let’s not waste time on high words, tell us what needs to be done, and we’ll get it done”.
Jim Collins, the author of numerous best-seller business books, tells the story of his meeting with the founders of DPR Construction, a one-year-old company with less than 20 people and just a handful of projects at the time.
Though the company was only recently founded, its founders had high inspirations; they wanted to build a great company that would defy the conventional construction industry, enraged by what they saw as hierarchical with short-sighted practices.
Jim’s observation of DPR founders was, “These were builders, construction people”.
The first meeting began, and Jim started to talk:
Well, the first thing you need to do is articulate your Core Values. (Silence).
Then, you need to articulate a purpose for being that can guide you like a star on the horizon for decades to centuries. (A cacophony of silence).
(Taking a deep breath) And you need a big hairy goal (BHAGs), a mountain to climb that is almost terrifying in its audacity.
Then Woods, one of the founders, spoke up:
Values?! (pause)
Purpose!? (pause)
What does all that have to do with the practical realities of building a company!?
Jim says: His (Wood’s) message was clear: we are hands-on people, not philosophers; we build stuff, we deal with reality, not academic theory. What the heck are you talking about!?
Jim had nothing to lose, as he countered: Think of what you’re trying to do as founding the United States. And you, the founding team, you are like Jefferson, Franklin, Adams, Washington, and Madison (The US Founding Fathers). What would the United States be without the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution? The founders of the country they didn't just want to win the war for independence; they wanted to build an enduring great nation that would inspire to embody a set of ideals. And remember, it was those very ideals that Lincoln returned to in the Gettysburg Address and that King later invoked in his I Have A Dream speech.
The founding team then held a Constitutional Convention, bringing together most of their staff. They worked for days, not on strategy, but with bigger questions, "Why do we exist? What do we want to stand for? What do we want to achieve?" They came away from this Constitutional Convention with a clearly crafted Vision, Core Values, Purpose, and audacious Goals to become a genuinely great construction company by the year 2000, brought to life with a vivid description composed of a dozen tangible images.
Eight years later, the small DPR Construction Company was already an admired leading US construction company with $1B in revenue. At their 25th anniversary, they had $3B in revenue, 3,000 workers, and offices across the US, and they were still growing fast, living the Values, Vision, and Mission they drafted years earlier.
Keep in mind that at the same time, endless other construction companies, “free” of liabilities to clear Values, Vision, Mission, Targets, and Goals, were founded, only to disappear shortly after.
When I heard Jim’s story, I thought to myself,
“I know how both sides feel and think. I have been there; it happened to me. Twenty years ago, I sat with Biofeed’s team, and we had our modest Constitutional Convention, where we drafted our Vision, Mission, and Goals for the next 20 years.
The Kibbutz movement has had and still does this type of debate from its first days 120 years ago.
Suppose you want to build a great enduring organization (e.g., company, community, or a nation) that succeeds, thrives, leads, and makes a difference in this world. In that case, you must keep the spirit of the Constitutional Convention alive, continuously updating its Vision, Mission, Targets, and Goals.
However, the Core Values remain constant, unchanged, deeply rooted in history and the values of the Founding Fathers.”
Values are not a hurdle but essential in establishing an organization's path to greatness.
ETERNITY GLORY
It doesn’t matter what type or size of organization you want to establish or improve; they all share the need for Core Values as a prerequisite and a basis for sustainable survival and prosperity over decades and centuries.
Note that I relate to communities and nations with the same attitude and requirements for success as businesses.
That is because, at their core, they must first take care to improve the lives of their people - workers/citizens/members before they can serve any other purpose.
We expect that if we aimed to have “A good enough company/organization” that somehow manages to survive, it would be easier than aiming for “A great company/organization”. That is false; it is not so and never was!
In reality, becoming "Great" is a dichotomy; either you go through an orderly process, as presented above, and have a chance to be great, or you don’t; there is no in-between.
There must be a process, as it is not enough that the founder/s have the Core Values in their heads; they must be agreed upon and shared with the entire organization.
NO SHARED CORE VALUES, NO SUCCESS
Five hundred fifty (550) million smallholders suffer poverty, earning less than 1.9 $/day.
Aiming to elevate their income a bit above 1.9 $/day is not the proper goal, and all solutions would be temporal, as reality demonstrates year after year.
Therefore, SDG #1, “No Poverty”, is presented incorrectly and will never be achieved as long as our attitude remains aim low - “less suffering, less poverty, less hunger, etc.”.
The alternative is aiming high for greatness and being the best, which you do by addressing root problems.
You challenge those root problems, starting by agreeing on shared Core Values and continuing by striving to be the best in whatever the organization's Mission and Goals are.
When you aim for greatness, the income elevation comes alone almost as “a side effect”.
Think of all the organizations that you know that were successful and lasted long periods; they all had shared Core Values (almost always committed to doing good) and the belief they were the best or at least aiming to be the best.
For example –
Ø Recent Leaders - The leadership and change led by Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, and Mahatma Gandhi are based on their personal Core Values and the promise of a better tomorrow.
Ø Religion and nation - The Jewish nation, a nation of slaves that fled Egypt, takes a sharp turn in the plot only after God provides them with Core Values, i.e., The Ten Commandments, and afterward promises the Israelites they will always be his #1 and he will lead them.
Ø Nation - The US began with the Declaration of Independence, which reflects the Values of its fathers, and not a day passed without Americans reminding everybody they are the greatest and living according to those values.
Ø Business - DPR Construction Company is not alone in drafting Core Values that led them to greatness; there is no shortage of companies that succeed thanks to nurturing their Core Values. Some famous cases include Apple (the first thing Steve Jobs did on his return to save the company was to work on its Core Values), Disney, Sony, IBM, etc.
Ø Lifestyle - The Kibbutz rural communities, which began from poverty and with numerous pronounced significant disadvantages, are known for their success and Values.
If you want to reach greatness or go through a transformative process, never aim to be “an okay company/organization”.
Instead, start by establishing the right foundations for the high tower you wish to build, reflecting the founders' (one or many) Core Values, and then aim for the stars and reach out to get them.
THE BUSINESSES EXPERTS
If you genuinely care about improving rural communities and developing countries' situation, I urge you to read business books.
That is because while there are a few dozen developing countries, there are hundreds of millions of businesses. Learning and drawing conclusions from millions of cases is easier than from a few dozen.
All you need to do when reading business books is in your head substitute "Business" and "Company" with "Farmers," "Communities," or “Nations”.
Armed with the above state of mind, read the below quotes from BE 2.0 (Beyond Entrepreneurship 2.0): Turning Your Business into an Enduring Great Company by Jim Collins and Bill Lazier.
Those who care about farmers and rural communities will read this title after switching words - BE 2.0 (Beyond Entrepreneurship 2.0): Turning Our Smallholders into Enduring Great Communities.
This book aims to answer one question that the authors asked themselves:
What's the roadmap to create a company that not only survives its infancy but thrives, changing the world for decades to come?
Let us rephrase that question to our needs:
What's the roadmap to create a rural community that not only survives but thrives, setting a model to change the world for decades to come?
Often, business books begin with the most critical messages. Hence, it is interesting that Chapter 1 in BE 2.0 begins not by discussing strategies, sales, macro/micro economy, marketing, business opportunities, AI, finance, etc. No, BE 2.0 begins by thoroughly discussing the importance of CORE VALUES.
QUOTES FROM BE 2.0:
· Start with Values, always Values.
· Values come before goals, before strategy, before tactics, before products, before market choices, before financing, before business plans, and before every decision.
· A company should start not so much from a business plan but from a declaration of Values, "We hold these truths to be self-evident". Values come first, and everything else follows - in business, in career, in life."
· Entrepreneurial success shouldn't be primarily about what you do but about who you are.
· A great company reflects the Core Values of its entrepreneurial leaders.
· If you define success just by money, you always lose. Always!
· The real scorecard in life is how well you build meaningful relationships and how well you lived your Core Values.
· Core Values are not the soft stuff. Leaving the Core Values is the hard stuff. ... Leaving to Core Values is often inconvenient, sometimes costly, and always demanding. It is indeed the hard stuff.
· I always find myself laughing when people say, "We have a soft staff like 'values and culture', and we have the hard staff like financing and strategy." NO, 'finance and strategy' is the easy staff; Values, that's the hard staff.
SETTING CORE VALUES
How do I know the Core Values I should set for my company/organization/community/etc.?
Core Values should reflect your inner self, the part of you that is the essence of yourself and will not change.
People can help you find your Core Values, but only you can dig them out of yourself.
Finding your Core Values requires a high level of self-awareness and maturity; hence, it is not surprising to see mainly mature entrepreneurs, founders, managers, and leaders relating to Core Values.
When I began my journey some thirty years ago, I couldn’t articulate my Core Values; I didn’t even think of Values as something needed to succeed in my activities and life mission.
Young Nimrod couldn’t articulate his Values, but he could connect to his inner self and hence follow his passion, which reflects his unpolished non-articulated Values.
This is my advice to those unsure about their Values: follow your passion. When you are ready and more mature, translate your passion and actions into Values.
MAKE VALUES YOUR LEGACY
Most people work their entire lives to have money but are remembered (if at all) for eternity for their Values.
We remember Moses, Christ, Mohamad, M.L. King, Gandhi, Mandela, Nobel, JFK, and Churchill not for their fortune, science, conquests, or political success but for the Values they had and shared with us.
For the same reason, we remember our family members and loved ones who passed away – by the Values they had, lived by, and shared.
The non-tangible part of us that no one can see or touch is what is left when we are no longer around.
Like the forces that keep the atom parts together, feeling the vast space between its particles and between atoms that make up a molecule, so are Values feeling up the endless space between people and communities.
Your mind and soul create Values that connect people with unseen threads unlimited by the number of people it can reach, time, and space.
Make Values Your Legacy, and it will survive beyond your lifetime, unlimited by time and space.
TURN DREAMS INTO REALITIES
Are you passionate about enhancing the well-being of farmers in rural communities?
Join Dream Valley in championing shared Core Values, advocating for sustainable, spray-free agricultural techniques, boosting yields, transitioning to an export-oriented economy, and fostering a community built on shared values. Reach out at +972-542523425 / nisraely@biofeed.co.il and be part of this transformative journey!
Another great place to learn and practice this attitude is attending the IBMA 2024 conference. The conference theme is “Reshaping Agribusiness Models for Building Prosperous Rural Communities."
TAKEAWAY MESSAGES
Ø GREATNESS BEGINS WITH shared Core Values, a foundation for enduring success in any endeavor.
Ø PRIORITIZE VALUES; they are the secret power uniting successful companies, communities, and nations.
Ø MAKE VALUES YOUR LEGACY; they outlast wealth and shape enduring memories for eternity.
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More on the October 7th genocide in South Israel:
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*** Mental and Economic Freedom Are Interconnected. ***
See you soon,
Nimrod
Dr. Nimrod Israely is the CEO and Founder of Dream Valley and Biofeed companies and the Chairman and Co-founder of the IBMA conference. +972-54-2523425 (WhatsApp), or email nisraely@biofeed.co.il
P.S.
If you missed it, here is a link to last week's blog, “Why Investing In Values Should Be Leaders Top Priority - An Historical Lesson From Israel.”
P.P.S.
Dream Valley is a field-proven disruptive business model based on the successful Israeli model.
To learn more and become a Dream Valley partner, contact me at nisraely@biofeed.co.il, +972-542523425 (WhatsApp/Text)
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Change Begins With A Decision
That The Existing Reality Is A Choice
and Not A Decree of Fate