First Principle: Act with Purpose – Pursue Your Journey with Purposeful Action
Nothing happens without action, in personal or corporate life. In the metaphor of the Brook, action is represented by the boat of the navigator, and is the means by which change come about. Without the flow of water there is no brook, and without the flow of actions, there is no life, whether it be personal life of the life of an organization. An action is purposeful when it serves others than those performing the action. In other words, purposeful actions provide value to others and serve others as opposed to serving self.
Actions are driven or motivated by the desires of individuals or organizations, which in turn are driven by individuals. You might argue that organizations drive the individuals who work for it, but then who determines what the organization stands for? Desires are expressed through the beliefs or values of the individual, and these values in turn determine the ethical balance of the individual or the organization. The value system of an organization generally is expressed in terms of a set of ethical guidelines, which sometimes are documented as a code of conduct or operating guidelines. The degree to which these guidelines are applied when making decisions to act, determines the ethical course of the individual or organization–or whether it is purposeful or not.