RichardBALDWIN.com | Core Values

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"Whatever comes our way - Whatever battle we have raging inside us - we always have a choice."

"It’s the choices that make us who we are. And we can always choose to do what’s right."

Scene From: Spider-Man 3 (2007)

* Clip Courtesy Of Sony Pictures

Like the statue of the LION above carved in stone, my CORE VALUES are also carved in stone. They are UNCOMPROMISABLE!

Below, I have listed the core values I live and work by:

Choosing To Be The Best Of Myself & Choosing To Do What's Right!

I must first give credit to my mother for providing me with the core values that make me the person I am today. She was a wonderful woman, and I miss her dearly. My core values can be summed up in seven (7) words . . . LOYALTY, INTEGRITY, SELF-RESPECT, COURAGE, PATIENCE, ACCOUNTABILITY, and LEADERSHIP. I was born with some of these traits. Others, my mother taught me. Even the very name that my mother gave to me at birth embodies some of these values. I will speak to each of these core values below providing a short summary of each. I'll wrap up this webpage by speaking to the ETYMOLOGY of the NAME my mother gave me at birth and how my name even represents the core values I live and work by today.

SUMMARY OF MY CORE VALUES

INHERITING THE HEART OF A LION

My mother had the heart of a LION. I will always be thankful for the values she taught me. Like my mother, I also think of LIONS as MAJESTIC animals exhibiting the traits of LOYALTY, INTEGRITY, SELF-RESPECT, COURAGE, PATIENCE, ACCOUNTABILITY, and LEADERSHIP. If you ever have an opportunity to observe LIONS in the wild, you will see that they dominate their domain from the Sahara's southern fringe to northern South Africa. All other animals and wildlife within that domain respect their presence. LIONS are BOLD and VERY PROTECTIVE OF THEIR PRIDE. LIONS also tend to be SOLITARY creatures – loners in the grand scheme of things enjoying their solitutde, but they are also very LOYAL group members as part of the pride and will defend their pride, even at the cost of their own life sometimes. I identify with all these traits.

I have never subscribed to this line of thought. I feel that names are VERY important. To me, your name is your brand. Both people and companies spend years developing their brand name.

Let's take a look at a few names given to us by history and reflect upon how history remembered them.

What comes to mind when you see these names remembered by history below?

Adolf Hitler (1889-1945), Josef Mengele (1911-1979), Joseph Stalin (1878-1953), Ted Bundy (1946-1989), or Jeffrey Dahmer (1960-1994)

What comes to mind when you see these other names remembered by history below?

Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948), Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968), Nelson Mandela (1918-2013), Mother Teresa (1910-1997), Albert Einstein (1879-1955), or Florence Nightingale (1820-1910)

I think you get my point. The reputation of your name is very important! Some of the individuals cited above destroyed their family name. How would you like to have the LAST NAME of "Hitler" or "Dahmer"? Even having the FIRST NAME of "Adolf" would be challenging.

The phrase is uttered by Juliet as she addresses her love, Romeo. The phrase is basically her reflection on the conflict between her love for Romeo and the fact that he is from the Montague family, which is feuding with her own family, the Capulets. Shakespeare, in using this dialogue between the two, suggests that a name is nothing, but a name . . . AND it is hence a convention with no meaning behind it.

Richard (Brave Leader) + Baldwin (Bold Friend) = "Brave Leader & Bold Friend"

My mother gave me this gift at birth, and I will never allow it to reflect badly on her. Throughout history, you will find people who do not care how their actions reflect on their families, their friends, or their fellow colleagues. They have no respect for themselves (no self-respect) and no respect for others. They feel no accountability for their own actions or how their actions reflect on their friends or other members of their family. They bring shame on the name that their parents gave them and they don't seem to care. Once the good reputation of a name is tarnished, it is extremely difficult to repair it if you can repair it at all.

I cherish the name that my mother gave me, and I will always protect it and safeguard it from reflecting poorly on anyone that associates with me. I have built my reputation around this name all my life, and I never want it to reflect badly on my mother, my family, my friends, or my colleagues. My mother taught me the value of self-respect which I would later bundle with my name as well as my own integrity that I inherited from her. Thank you, mom, for everything you did for me! I love you, mom!

MY CORE VALUES

"CLICK" ONTO ANY OF THE VIRTUES BELOW TO LEARN MORE ABOUT MY WORK ETHIC & STANDARDS

LOYALTY is the number one trait my mother instilled within me. This includes LOYALTY to the TRUTH, loyalty to MYSELF, LOYALTY to my COMMITMENTS, and LOYALTY to my FRIENDS. LOYALTY to FRIENDS is EXTREMELY IMPORTANT to me and a whole other topic that I will discuss in a future post on my site. But suffice it to say, I would have to rank LOYALTY as MY NUMBER ONE VIRTUE. It is the mantra that guides my life, my relationships, and my work ethic.
INTEGRITY is simply doing the right thing. It is synonymous with being “HONORABLE” or serving with honor. Integrity is all that we have in this world when we interact with each other. If we can’t trust each other’s words, then what can we trust? If we make a mistake, we should own up to it and tell the truth. It’s the only way we can move forward. There is a reason why many people cite the phrase “honesty is the best policy” or “the truth will set you free.” Some also say you are either born with INTEGRITY, or you are not. I believe I was born with it and inherited it from my mother at birth. I don’t desire any accolades for it. I am not perfect. I just simply prefer to do the right thing because it makes me feel good to do so. When you do the right thing, good things come from it. It’s that simple.
My mother really believed in respecting one's self, and she exhibited this trait EVERY day in her life. This included even the simplest of things like bathing. She believed in taking care of herself, her appearance, her health. She would go to bed every evening at a decent hour and get quality sleep. Daily hygiene was very important to her. She always dressed nicely at home even if she did not go out. And she routinely took walks in the evening when it was cool to get in some exercise. She loved walking. She basically felt that if you didn’t respect yourself, you didn’t respect others.
A portion of the population today seemingly has no respect for itself. They have adopted an "I don't care what people think" attitude and have rejected "SELF-RESPECT" as a virtue for which to ascribe. They will say they don't care what anyone thinks about them, but then you find them posting personal statements to their facebook page or twitter account demanding some type of attention or acknowledgement via a "like" or an "emoji" from whatever audience for which they are connected. It boggles my mind. I feel that this behavior stems from a sense of low self-esteem.
If you don't care what people think, then why post anything at all? The reality and cold hard truth . . . It does MATTER what people think of you. And if you are a business, it definitly MATTERS what people think of you. If you tarnish the reputation of your name or your business by adopting an "I don't care what people think" attitude, you'll find that no one will want to have anything to do with you or your business. Plus, it will be extrememly difficult and perhaps even impossible for you to get another chance to make a good impression. The impression you make affects how people interact with you. Having an "I don't care what people think" attitude will make it difficult for you to excel at anything in this life. If you are going to live in this world, that is a lesson you will need to learn. DON'T BURN BRIDGES if you don't have to. As for me, I have enough respect for myself and others to put my best foot forward, present my best appearance, and stay away from social media nonsense like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or LinkedIn. Like my mother always said, “If you don’t respect yourself, then you don’t respect others.”
The virtue of COURAGE is synonymous to “BOLDNESS.” And it is also part of my core self. My mother had a boldness about her, and she was never afraid to tell others what she thought. She may not have been the best at expressing her thoughts to others with tact, but she always had the courage to stand up for her convictions. She always told me to believe in myself and to stand up against wrong when it is needed – win, lose, or draw. The phrase “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing” is a paraphrase that has often been attributed to Edmund Burke, including by U.S. President John F. Kennedy in a speech he gave in 1961. Some say that Burke never wrote or spoke those specific words. The phrase, in its earliest form, can possibly be attributed to John Stuart Mill, who said in 1867: “Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing.” REGARDLESS of who said it or how it was phrased earlier, it does not invalidate the core of the overall message. My mother believed in always standing up for what was right, and she instilled that value within me as well.
PATIENCE – Yes, “PATIENCE IS a Virtue” and one that I also ascribe to. My mother prepared me for this virtue early on. I remember her telling me “Good things come to those who wait.” This old English proverb is attributed to British author Violet Fane (Mary M. Singleton) in 1892. Today, we live in a society where technology has conditioned us for instant gratification and PATIENCE for anything is seemingly ignored. IMPATIENCE seems to dominate today. Today’s generation may not remember the Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster that occurred in 1986. The Challenger Engineering Team on the ground became impatient rushing the launch knowing they still had not addressed their doubts regarding some of the componentry on the spacecraft which ultimately proved fatal. Seven (7) astronauts lost their lives due to the impatience of the engineering team. For me, I am honest with my clients and employers about realistic expectations. I prefer to do the job “right” the first time and not have to come back and repair the damage of a rushed project.
ACCOUNTABILITY (RESPONSIBILITY) is perhaps the number one virtue that my mother espoused, and she instilled that value within me as well. As noted earlier, LOYALTY is my most important virtue. However, ACCOUNTABILITY is in my list of virtues as well. My mother said that we should always be accountable and responsible for our own actions. She said we should always think of the consequences before initiating an action. How will our actions affect other people? Especially, if we are connected to other people via birth or marriage. I live by this virtue.
What we do can reflect poorly on others. Our decisions can impact our friends, family, co-workers, and colleagues. I never want anyone to look bad because of my actions. I am very careful in the decisions I make, and always consider their implications for others. Prior to making any decision or taking any action, I first pause and think of how that decision or action might affect other people. Accountability can be defined as simply having respect for other people.
To me, LEADERSHIP cannot be adequately described in just one simple paragraph because it has SO many facets to it. I’ll begin by telling you what it’s not and follow up by telling you what it is from my perspective.
To begin, LEADERSHIP is NOT about giving orders or telling people what to do. And it is NOT about having a FANCY TITLE or managing people. None of those things ever appealed to me.
LEADERSHIP, to me, is having the ability to INSPIRE others to be the BEST they can be. It’s also about SETTING AN EXAMPLE for others to succeed. LEADERS both INSPIRE and MOTIVATE. I also believe that LEADERSHIP is a trait that you are either BORN with or NOT BORN with. NOT everyone can be a leader. Everyone is NOT cut out for it. This is a fact! It’s disingenuous when some authors say that everyone can be a leader. They can’t. That would be like saying everyone can be a NEUROSURGEON, or everyone can a PILOT, or everyone can be a CONCERT PIANIST, and/or . . . yes, a LEADER. It is simply not possible for EVERYONE to have the ability to serve in these roles.
Many people have aspirations to be LEADERS and more importantly . . . many people are content NOT to serve as LEADERS. That being said, I believe that some of those NOT wanting to serve in a leadership role are actually RELUCTANT LEADERS hidden in the crowd. Some of these indivuduals (who have NO ambition to be a leader) actually make the BEST LEADERS. I provide more insight into what I believe is TRUE LEADERSHIP on another page of my website. Refer to the page entitled . . . MY LEADERSHIP STYLE. On that page, I share examples of individuals who were and are TRUE RELUCTANT LEADERS. I also discuss MY OWN EXPERIENCE in LEADERSHIP as well as LEADING BY EXAMPLE.

THE GIFT OF MY NAME

My mother gave me a wonderful name. At birth, my mother assigned the name “Richard” (aka Richie) to me as my first name. I inherited “Baldwin” as my last name. The name “Richard” is of German origin and translates into “brave leader”. The name “Baldwin” is also of German origin and translates as “bold friend.” Thus, my overall first and last name combined symbolize “brave leader & bold friend.”

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The Etymology of My Name

“What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.”

--William Shakespeare

Do you recognize this phrase? It comes from Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet, specifically from Juliet's monologue in Act 2, Scene 2.