Expectations

Great expectations create great capabilities.

1. Be Honest

We are built on trust — always be honest with your team and with yourself
We do not tolerate dishonesty 
Truth — an accurate understanding of reality — is the essential foundation for producing good outcomes

2. Act with integrity

Practice and demand integrity from your team
Do not let anything stand in the way of integrity, truth, and transparency
Be polite, professional, and respectful, but firm

3. Be radically transparent

Practice and demand extreme candor from others
Lack of candor leads to dysfunctional  environments
Building trust based on honesty and openness are the key to collaborating effectively

4. Listen actively

Seek first to understand, then to be understood

5. Speak up — have the backbone to disagree and commit

Communicate logically with structured and concise precision
You are obligated to respectfully challenge decisions when you disagree, even when  doing so is uncomfortable or exhausting  
We encourage disagreement and dissenting opinions — if you are unhappy with a  decision, speak up

6. Ask thoughtful questions

Ask for help more often than you think, more often than you fear

7. Seek and give feedback

Proactively seek and give feedback
Do not water down constructive  criticism; feedback is a dialogue
Be clear and exact when giving and receiving feedback;

8. Always be prepared

Be actively engaged and ready
Failing to prepare means preparing to fail
Always be prepared to answer: “What are you working on and why?”

9. Exercise common sense

Common sense is not so common
Apply sound judgment to your words and actions

10. Be extremely open-minded to new ideas, opinions, and approaches

No egos allowed
Examine your strongest convictions with humility
But know when to say “No.”

11. Think 3 steps ahead

Analyze critically, meticulously, methodically, and creatively

12. Simplify & prioritize

Work smart by prioritizing your time spent on daily/weekly/monthly tasks
Focus on your most important thing (MIT)
Plan your work, work your plan

13. Be proactive

As much as talent counts, effort counts twice
Take productive action and deliver results

14. Take ownership

Lean forward and turn towards the problems you see
Act on behalf of the entire company — never say “that’s not my job”
Remember that this is your company — your decisions will shape our success

15. Be decisive

Responding to change is more crucial than following a plan
Make informed and calculated decisions, on behalf of the group and lead
Speed matters in business : All else being equal, the fastest company in any market will win
Avoid analysis paralysis
Our choices show who we are more than our abilities

16. Execute to deliver results

Done is better than perfect
Break a big project/goal into its fundamental tasks
A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan next week
Focus on delivering effective results timely with the right quality

17. Learn and improve constantly

Ask yourself: “What could we have done better?”  
Know that you don’t know a lot
Stay hungry. Stay foolish.
To improve is to change; to perfect is to change often
If you aren’t willing to learn, no one can help you. If you are willing to learn, no one can stop you

18. Fail, learn, and move forward

Reflect and be vocally self-critical
Part of the innovation process to learn from mistakes
When you’re wrong, admit it quickly and emphatically
It is OK to make mistakes — but it is unacceptable not to identify/recognize it, admit it, analyze it, and learn from it.

19. Have a clear purpose

Begin with the end in mind; start with why
If you don’t know what you want, you end up with a lot you don’t

20. Learn from disagreements

Evaluate if an issue calls for debate, discussion, or teaching

21. Take calculated risks — do not let fear stop you

Seizing an opportunity requires risk
A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty
Opportunity is missed by most people because it looks like work

22. Start. Don’t stop.

When it comes to being successful, grit and passion matter more than sheer ability
Reality + Dreams + Determination = A Successful Life
Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment

23. Set specific expectations and goals

Set goals that have direct impact, for yourself and the team — and hold yourself and  the team accountable
Ask yourself: what do you expect if you were the customer?  
Think long term — do not sacrifice long-term value for short-term results

24. Bring solutions to the table, not problems

Come to the team with a “Here is what I propose” attitude  
Always have a recommendation — don’t ask for input without having your own  opinion    * Always bring and defend your point of view assertively

25. Understand that people and culture is all the matters

People are the most important asset, then products, then profit
Customer comes first: start with the customer and work backwards. What can you do to earn and keep customer trust?  
Treat each customer as our only customer
Employees come second — we take care of our people  
Investors and shareholders will be taken care of when we focus on the customer  and our team

26. Measure your performance periodically and objectively

Compare your results against your objectives
Ask yourself: “Am I learning and contributing?”, “What do I have offer?”, and “Am I proud of my work?”. If not, do something about it

27. Lead by example

Be effective and efficient
Act how you want others to act
Insist on the highest standards from yourself and our team

28. Make good first impressions

Be prepared to overwhelm others with knowledge, expertise, analysis, and diligence
Make others think they never have to check on you again because this person knows  what he or she is doing and he or she is going to make me look good

29. Adhere to the company mission and preserve our company culture

The company vision guides a start-up, and the culture and the mission drive start-ups  
The hallmark of the best start-ups is mission-driven employees  
Culture is a shared way of doing something with passion — it creates the foundation  for all future innovation. If you break the culture, you break the machine that creates your products. The stronger the culture, the less corporate process a company needs. When the culture is strong, you can trust everyone to do the right thing. People can be independent and autonomous.

30. We are lean, frugal, and cost-conscious

We do not to spend money on things that don’t matter to customers.
Frugality breeds  resourcefulness, self-sufficiency, and invention  
There are no extra points for headcount, budget size, or fixed expense

31. The more you practice, the luckier you get

“Hard work is critical; a good team is essential; brains and determination are invaluable; but luck may determine the outcome.”

32. Have fun

Ask yourself constantly: “Why I showed up to work everyday?”
“It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live”
Your work is going to fill a large part of your life; the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work; the only way to do great work is to love what you do
What we do matters to people other than ourselves
We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give