Rubes’ Maxims

• Goodness Breeds Goodness

  • Before all else, goodness can make an organization; no matter your job, no matter your position, no matter your rank, if you show genuine goodness towards all people, they will go out of their way to help you succeed

• Seek Balance in Life

  • You will not always be in the job you are in; one day you will retire and will need to survive that

  • Strong family life is completely compatible with professional advancement. Find a path on which you can advance in your industry and still grow personally and with your family and friends.

  • Things are temporary; relationships and memories are lasting – learn which is more important

• Truth Doesn’t Change Based on the Rank of the Recipient

  • Just because your report may necessarily lead to action by auditors or even the United States doesn’t mean you shouldn’t report it up your chain

  • If your organization is undermanned, untrained or ill-equipped, reporting it as fully qualified doesn’t make your peoples’ job any easier or make you succeed against competitors

• Focus on the Mission; Bury the Queep or it Will Bury You

  • Never forget what you are sworn and paid to do – your mission; you must take care of the minutiae every morning and then get on with your real work; sometimes it IS your real work

  • You should spend your valuable staff meeting time on mission-related issues only; the colors of your slides, the fonts on your lettering, the templates on your papers is all stuff to be sent out in a note from the boss instead of being discussed in staff meetings

  • There will always be petty taskers and inquiries from above; deal with them and move on

• If You Have to Eat a Frog, Staring at it Won’t Make It Go Down Easier

  • Tackle the tough issues as soon as you can; it gets harder the longer you wait to do the dirty work

  • Bad news doesn’t get better with age, so confront it, fix it and move on

• Iron Sharpens Iron

  • You don’t get better as a leader or as a person by taking the easy road

  • Challenge yourself every day to get better and challenge your peers, subordinates and superiors

  • Nobody likes softness; senior leaders pass quickly by those who make themselves irrelevant; if you are a scoffer, go find something else to do and get out of the way of business success

• Bloom Where You’re Planted

  • Worrying about or looking for your next job takes brain power and energy from the task at hand

  • Make the job you’re in as good or better than the one you want

• They Can’t Say No If You Don’t Ask

  • It is amazing what your boss will allow you to do if you ask the question; think it through, gather your justifications and ask – you’ll be surprised by how often you are told to press forward

• You Can Never Go Back

  • Trying to go back to a great job location or organization for a second time doesn’t generally work. Your situation is totally different in your career now. Your kids are older. The people in the organization are different. Go for the position, but not for the memories of how it once was.