Call Me Old School: Why Timeless Principles Still Matter

Call me old school. I won’t be offended. In fact, I think of it more as a compliment.

Somewhere along the way, qualities like keeping your word, respecting others, working for what you want, saying please and thank you, honoring your commitments, accepting the consequences of your choices, and doing the right thing when nobody is watching became known as “old school.”

I’ve been thinking about that lately because perhaps I’ve mislabeled them. They’re not old school. They’re timeless.

Born in 1965, I came into the world somewhere between the end of the Baby Boomers and the beginning of Generation X. I’ve never completely identified with either generation, but I was fortunate enough to be raised by people who taught me some pretty simple truths. Characteristics like:

Honoring our mother and father

Respecting our elders.

Saying please and thank you.

Opening the door for someone.

Treating people the way you’d want to be treated.

Keeping our word.

Taking responsibility when we screw up.

Understanding that choices have consequences.

Working for what we want.

And when someone extends a hand to help you climb, remember to turn around and extend yours to the person behind you. It really is pretty simple stuff.

Yet the older I become, the more convinced I am that simple doesn’t mean insignificant. I’ve now lived long enough to witness enormous changes in our world. Technology has transformed how we communicate, work, learn, shop, travel, build businesses, and connect with one another. Ideas that once took generations to spread can now travel around the world in seconds. The pace of change is unlike anything humanity has experienced before.

That’s extraordinary—and progress should be celebrated.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not so firmly attached to the past that I can’t recognize when it no longer serves humanity. Not everything from the “good old days” was good. Some traditions needed to change. Some beliefs deserved to be challenged. Some societal norms kept people from discovering their full potential rather than helping them achieve it.

But progress doesn’t require us to abandon principles that never needed changing.

Integrity, character, commitment, sacrifice, perseverance, gratitude, respect, and personal responsibility still matter. Including the fact that there is still no substitute for doing the work.

Though the tools have changed, the principles haven’t.

At sixty years young, I’ve had enough experience with success and failure to recognize what comes and goes and what endures. I’ve watched trends disappear, businesses rise and fall, technologies become obsolete, and once-revolutionary strategies become irrelevant.

I’ve watched people chase shortcuts, secrets, hacks, and the latest formula promising extraordinary results without extraordinary commitment. And through it all, one truth remains: principles endure.

Dr. Stephen Covey understood this beautifully. In his timeless book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, he wrote about aligning our lives with “True North”—universal principles that don’t change simply because our circumstances, preferences, or culture do.

That’s an important distinction for us to consider. As people, our values can differ, and they’re supposed to. That’s what makes us individually unique. What you value most may not be what I value most. You may value achievement while someone else values security. You may value freedom while someone else values stability. You may value wealth, family, recognition, faith, adventure, contribution, or any number of things.

But principles operate differently. You don’t have to believe in gravity for gravity to work. If you jump off of a building…you are going to fall.

And you don’t have to believe in integrity, discipline, responsibility, service, or perseverance for their consequences to eventually reveal themselves in your life because principles don’t require our agreement.

They simply produce outcomes. You’ll either produce results or reasons, and no matter how strongly you feel about your reasons, the world doesn’t care. It only measures you based on your results. To produce results, you must:

Sow before you reap.

Develop competence before mastery.

Build trust before influence.

Give before you receive.

Serve before you lead.

And despite what our world of immediate gratification occasionally suggests, there are still some things that simply cannot be rushed. Character is one of them.

I’ve also learned that working hard doesn’t mean working endlessly. There was a time not long ago when I believed success was largely determined by who could work longer, push harder, sacrifice more, and outlast everyone else.

There’s value in that mentality. It served me extraordinarily well as an athlete and entrepreneur. But wisdom eventually taught me something else.

There is no substitute for doing the work. But wisdom teaches us which work is actually worth doing.

Working hard on the wrong things doesn’t make them right.

Climbing faster doesn’t matter if your ladder is leaning against the wrong wall.

And success isn’t simply about what you accomplish. It’s also about who you become while accomplishing it and who benefits because you were here.

That’s where “old school” and wisdom finally meet.

For more than twenty years, I’ve carried a personal purpose that begins with these words: “To be a man of total integrity, love and excellence in every area of my life…”

Those words mean more to me today than they did when I first wrote them, because I’ve learned that changing the world doesn’t begin with changing the world. It begins with the person staring back at you in the mirror. Me, you, all of us.

Can I keep my word when breaking it would be easier?

Can I treat someone with dignity when we completely disagree?

Can I admit when I’m wrong?

Can I remain humble when I’m right?

Can I work when nobody is watching?

Can I choose character over convenience?

Can I serve without needing recognition?

Can I leave the people I encounter a little better than I found them?

Those questions aren’t generational. They’re part of the human experience and have been since the beginning of time.

So maybe I am old school. If believing that your word should mean something is old school, count me in.

If believing success should be earned rather than expected is old school, I’m guilty.

If believing we should honor our commitments, respect one another, accept responsibility for our choices, work hard for things that matter, love one another, and leave the world better than we found it makes me old school…

Then call me old school.

Fashion, technology, generations, and the world may change, but principles don’t. Perhaps the future doesn’t need us to abandon the wisdom of the past. Maybe it needs us to carry the best of it forward. Until next Friday, ask yourself:

“What principle am I unwilling to compromise, regardless of how much the world around me changes?”

Extraordinary lives aren’t built on what’s popular. They’re built on what’s timeless.

Be Larger Than…