I like finding patterns and making mnemonics. I like making acronyms like sidcha, which I use here a lot, and PAID culture, which I use in my book, for concepts I use a lot but that don’t have words for. I create the term doof, which I find life-changing.

I write a lot about values that as far as I know approach universal in human cultures, though I’m not an anthropologist, so please tell me if you know otherwise. The values are expressed in instructions:

• Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
• Live and Let Live.
• Leave it better than you found it.
• Love your neighbor as yourself.

I added the fourth after the first three. I couldn’t think of an acronym or mnemonic for the first three I liked. I referred to them a lot while writing my book, so I could use a shorthand. I got by with “DUOLLLLIB,” using the first letters of the phrases first three words, but it didn’t sing.

“Do Leave Live Love”

Adding the fourth led me to notice the alliteration in the Ls. Instead of an acronym, I came up with the shorthand: “Do Leave Live Love.” I ordered them different than in DUOLLLLIB since Live seems like it should go next to Love and ending on Love felt solid too.

The phrase “Do Leave Live Love” has entered my vocabulary. I’ll see how long it sticks.

Incidentally, I would call the values they represent:

• Reciprocity
• Common decency
• Stewardship
• Community

This post may not be that original, but values are critical to leadership. I like that I treat some so much that this shorthand developed.

As I play around with the sound, I think I may prefer the ordering “Live Love Leave Do.” We’ll see.

• ← Replacing “comfort and convenience” with “the perks of being at the top of a dominance hierarchy” or “the perks of being a tyrant”
• “These are the times that try men’s souls” →