“Action is the real measure of intelligence.”– Napoleon Hill

 Axiom # 1:  Follow what you are passionate about and chase your goals relentlessly

Passion gives you the confidence to trust your instincts and drives you to achieve higher goals. However, you also need to know that a goal should be a dream with a deadline. If a deadline is not self-imposed, your dreams may never get accomplished. 

 Axiom #2: Under promise, then over-deliver – the WOW philosophy

Over-deliver on commitments and deadlines. Take the example of Zappos, an online mega shoe store, which started out of a home in 1999, went from a struggling start-up to getting acquired by Amazon in a deal valued at $1.2 billion in 2009. Its success story, well documented, states that customer service is paramount, especially at a time when many companies are scaling back and outsourcing. How did they wow their customers? 

• They promised to deliver shoes within 4-5 business days, and then almost always shipped it overnight. Result: Customers gets blown away and return each time to buy new shoes
  
• They offered over 140,000 styles of shoes, another customer service move. Result: A customer always ended up finding what they were looking for
  
• The longest customer service call undertaken took almost six hours. On another call, the rep helped locate a customer a nearby pizza parlour that would deliver after midnight. Result: A good phone experience encouraged people to talk positive about Zappos in their networking circles.

 
Takeways: Once again, over-deliver on promises, and deadlines. Show up promptly, deliver your product earlier, and provide more than you promised. Rest assured,  you shall be over-paid in the future.

Axiom #3: Have strong personal and business integrity

While most definitions of integrity include “the quality of being honest, righteousness and having strong moral principles”, as an entrepreneur, your personal and business integrity is critical to garnering the support of your team members, vendors, customers or investors.

Always deliver and meet on your promises and commitments, even when it’s not so easy,  or conveniently affordable. Be honest and build a strong and consistent moral code. While you build and maintain trust, treat everyone around you with respect as well. 

Axiom #4: Give more to your staff than just a paycheck

When you show your employees how together you can move forward, it evokes a unified energy, a sense of emotion that binds the company as a family. If your best employees don’t know how much you love and value them, they will leave soon. For example, in Zappos the company built such an incredible culture that they regularly offered $2,000 to quit, “to make sure that employees are here for more than a paycheck. “

Axiom #5: Stick with the right people

In simple words, be a good judge of the right people for your organisation.. In order to keep progressing, you may have to reward your top people while removing others systematically, those who cannot cope with the speed and target of the ride. If you do not fire your worst employees now, then your best customers may disengage with you in the near future.