Good Morning Friends! Here are my 5 Things to Consider this week!
Culture – We are what we stand up for. When we made the decision to be a “values-led” company, it didn’t take us long to figure out what our core values were. For a company that’s been around for a while, like ours, those values already existed, we just needed to pluck them out, define them and named them. Our Core Values are essentially a formal definition of our company’s culture. They are the elements of life that we declare as a group, “these are our priorities and we will stand up for and defend them!” One Human Family states that we consider pizza to be the great leveler. Everyone is free to enjoy it and everyone is free to help us make it. We spread our idealism through the medium of the world’s favorite food. Classy AF is all about the experience of working for us or being a customer of ours. Without it, we’re just another bullshit pizza shop. NO Squares says we’re all about having fun and not taking ourselves too seriously. Combined with our VISION of being the best place in the world to go get pizza and booze and our Mission Statement that says, among other awesome things, that we’ll be culturally-led, good partners of our communities and fierce defenders of the things we believe in, we’ve created the guide posts for us to act and make all decisions. At the end of the day, we’ll be judged not so much by the product we sold, but for the things we stood up for and defended. We are the things we stand up for.
Leadership – Treat others the way you’d like to be treated yourself. The old Golden Rule. It’s one of the earliest concepts of civilization. The foundation of decency. One of the earliest lessons were taught. A concept that SHOULD be ingrained in our everyday life so much that there’s no need to bring it up any longer. This pre-bible rule, sometimes called the “ethic of reciprocity” dates back to Confucian times, around 500BC, and is accepted in almost every religion and culture across the globe. For a concept that should be so interracial to our daily lives, why is it rarely brought up anymore? Why isn’t the Golden Rule talked about more in our everyday lives? Why isn’t it a basis of leadership? Why, at some point, did we decide that we no longer need to remind ourselves to treat others the way we’d like to be treated? Probably because more complicated ideas of leadership get in the way. It’s assumed that because the Golden Rule is supposedly so ingrained in us, we can move on to bigger, better and more complicated things. But should we move on? What if started every day, or every hard conversation or every interaction with the thought, “I’m going to treat this person the way I’d like them to treat me.” What if we lead others the way we’d like to be led? What if we talked to others the way we’d like to be talked to? Treating others the way you’d like to be treated should be the foundation of our leadership. The first and last thing we think about during our days and in our shops. It’s simple, powerful, and timeless.
History – Big Black Cups. The idea for the BBC’s came to me one day when Dylan and I were having lunch at a place called Dicky’s BBQ. They have a souvenir cup of the same style called the Big Yellow Cup. For a long time I had wanted to do a special cup of some sort, but until I saw Dicky’s version, I wasn’t sure what it should look like. Sometimes you don’t need to reinvent the wheel. When you see something that works, steal the concept and make it your own. I think our BBC’s are a perfectly on-brand upsell for LNS. The only problem is, but don’t push them enough. Soon though, we’ll be creating a competition between shops to encourage more sales of this awesome cup. Stay tuned!
Motivation – “Hurt not others in ways that you yourself would find harmful. – Buddhism
“Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. – Christianity
“No one of you is a believer until he desires for his brother that which he desires for himself. – Islam
“What is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow man. That is the entire law; all the rest is commentary. – Judaism
The 5th Thing (something I’m reading, watching or inspired by) – I just finished the book Delivering Happiness last Thursday. It was truly an inspiring book. I can’t help but to draw some amazing comparisons between how Tony started Zappo’s and how we started LNS. The last couple chapters were probably my favorite. He diverges from how Zappo’s began and then turns to talk about his philosophies on leadership. Sometime when I read a book that contains such amazing, practical advice, the excitement I feel is almost overwhelming. I can’t wait to talk about and share some of the ideas I just read about!
Baby Update – We’ve been taking William out to a lot of happy hours lately and we’re not ashamed of that at all. Our theory on raising him is pretty simple; we want to add the little guy to our existing lives, not the other way around. We want him to be comfortable in busy, social situations. We want him to be comfortable being held by different people. We want him to be used to a certain level of noise and excitement. Of course there is a line where it’s inappropriate to have an infant out in public and especially in a bar setting. We’re aware of that. We don’t always do the best job of getting him home exactly when he’s ready, but we’re learning what his limits are. We also know this phase has an expiration date and will be changing soon. When he starts crawling and then walking, these will be harder, or at least different. For now though, happy hours with my family and friends have been the happiest hours of my week.
Thanks for reading! Like or hate any part of this? Let me know! I really value your feedback.
Have a great week!
5 Things to Consider Archive 