When you need to make a choice

“The Core Credo has definitely changed my way of thinking whenever we create a new program.”

Of all the ideas I’ve written about in the book, the Core Credo is the one that gets quoted back to me the most.

Someone sent me a picture of a sticky note with their credo on it. Another one told me about how it shows up in their team’s daily conversations. Someone even called it the heartbeat of their meetings.

And that’s the whole point.

Because if you look at how most companies handle their mission statements, it’s almost the opposite. They fight over them. They polish them. They put them through twelve rounds of approval until every single objection is included.

Then they frame them for the lobby wall and put it on their website.

But.

They almost never get spoken aloud. Not in the hallway. Not in the meeting. Not when a tough decision is on the table.

Because a sentence that survived twelve rounds of approval usually is too careful to be powerful and too abstract to be useful.

It’s there, but no one cares.

Now, compare that to what I call a Core Credo.

A Core Credo is not designed to survive the boardroom.
It’s designed to survive the hallway.

It’s built for life.

It’s the phrase that can go through a hundred rounds of the telephone game and still come out intact.

It’s the sentence people shout across the floor when they need to make a call. The line that shows up in arguments because it actually makes the choice obvious. The words that get used when the pressure is on and there’s no time to check the manual.

And that’s precisely why people cite it. Not because it’s pretty, but because it’s useful. And present.

That’s the test.

Not whether it pleases twelve executives. But whether it guides a hundred employees when the leader isn’t in the room.

And when you see that happening, it’s magical. You hear the words echoed back, repeated in conversations you’re not part of, shaping choices you never touched.

That’s when you know you’ve hit on something alive.

The question is, do you want a statement that looks good in a frame?

Or a credo that moves through your people like fire,
spreading from one to the next,
impossible to contain?

Because only one of them will be there when it really matters.

Tomorrow, to celebrate the book’s anniversary, I’ll publish a new guide to help you find your Core Credo.

Stay tuned. It’s got tons of brilliant examples and tools to make yours actually useful.

Keep lighting the path,
Michael