“Some have defined their values, but few have programmed their CODE. Your values are what you believe while your CODE is how you live.” -Jared Yellin
A few years ago, I was having a conversation with a super successful entrepreneur about my perspective on him. This was a rather intense dialogue because he wanted me to share the good, the bad, and the ugly and I hate to say this, but there was WAYYYY more ugly than good.
The good was…
-His financial success
The ugly was…
-He did not walk his talk
-He did not make people feel good about themselves
-His children were not proud of him
-He was unhealthy
-He was ego driven
-He was inauthentic
-He only said the right thing, but did not do the right thing
-The list went on and on and on…
Needless to say, my feedback did not land well, but he did reconnect with me about 18 months later and said he appreciated my courage to speak my truth and how he had made some significant changes as a result.
But here’s the most fascinating thing…
This dude was crystal clear on his values…
Value #1 - God
Value #2 - Family
Value #3 - Health
Value #4 - Innovation and Entrepreneurship
Value #5 - Money
Value #6: Teamwork
Value #7: Contribution
Value #8: Honesty
Value #9: Positive Change
Value #10: Walking His Talk
These were his 10 values and he could recite them off at any time of any day under any circumstance. He had them conditioned to memory, but the problem was…
THEY WERE ONLY VALUES!
Values are beliefs…
Values are opinions…
Values are generic…
If you were to search 10 different companies and look at their core values, I am 100% certain that they are nearly identical AND if you were to look beneath the surface, you will be shocked at how little these values are actualized in real life.
You don’t have to agree with me, but this is what I have found...
Listen, having values is better than nothing, but if you were 100% honest with yourself and in the process you realized that you still don’t have what you want in life - what’s missing is your CODE.
Your CODE is defined as the following…
a set of rules or a system of communication, often with randomly assigned numbers and letters given specific meanings.
Here’s what makes your CODE different from your VALUES…
CODE is for YOU...
VALUES are for EVERYONE ELSE...
CODE only needs to make sense to YOU...
VALUES are meant to make sense to EVERYONE ELSE...
CODE can and should be grammatically incorrect...
VALUES are poetic and sound beautiful...
CODE is unique...
VALUES are generic...
CODE is how you live...
VALUES are only your beliefs and opinions…
There Is Only ONE VERSION Of Your CODE - The One You PROGRAM!
I hope you are not the type of person who is thinking to yourself…
“Jared, you are playing with semantics. CODE, values, mission, it’s all the same.”
Cool, if this is how you feel, I have nothing to prove to you nor will I try to convince you, but if you don’t have what you want in life right now - I am 100% certain it's because you have not programmed your CODE.
But that’s for you to decide…
And if you already made up your mind that you NEED to program your CODE, I am going to share the exact steps that I have offered dozens of people over the years and this single exercise made all the difference between having 99% of what you want and 100% of what you desire.
And no - there is zero hype with this statement…
This is what I do, this is what I teach, and this is what I encourage you to step into right here and right now…
Are You Ready?
Just so you know, this is NOT a collaborative exercise.
You should not do this with your life partner, business partner, coach, or anyone else...
This is not a white board session with your team…
This is most certainly not a Facebook Live open-ended question…
And this is definitely not a check-the-box experience…
This could be daunting…
It most likely will be exhausting…
And it will feel like nothing has changed when you completed it - but everything will be changed when you start living it.
EVERYONE has a CODE…
Let me repeat this…
EVERYONE has a CODE…
Most don’t know…
Few will ever find out…
And those that do - just have a better life.
And one more final point…
Your CODE is only for your eyes.
It can be a total mess…
It can make NO sense…
It can be grammatically all over the place…
It can be written in symbols…
It can be difficult to understand…
The only thing that matters is that IT’S YOUR TRUTH and YOU GET IT - like fully GET IT and IMMERSE yourself in it.
So, here we go…
The Five Steps To Program Your CODE
Step 1: What is the single most important thing that people should think about when they think of you?
This question is THE QUESTION that helped me recognize what matters to me most. If I was able to download my CODE into someone else's mind within .00000000001 seconds of meeting me, this is what I would want them to see, feel, and hear as we connected. That’s the coolest part of your CODE - it CAN be downloaded by other people because it’s how you live your life. It’s your essence, your energy, what you speak to, what you act on, and just how you show up.
But you must answer this question…
What is the single most important thing - and you can only choose ONE!
Step 2: Based on step #1 - What does perfection look like and be crazy specific?
I get it - perfection is the death of progress, but not with your CODE.
Computer CODE that is written without perfection accumulates what we call technology debt and technology debt is the single reason why most software can’t scale. It’s foundational breaks that eventually lead to a broken platform, company, solution, etc.
This is why I am asking you to shy away from the cliche “perfection is the death of progress” and to write as much as possible in a chaotic fashion (aka all over your piece of paper) about what perfection looks like with Step #1.
Step 3: Now it’s time to take that chaos and write one run-on sentence that represents your perfection.
Please don’t be romantic about this step and don’t think that Hallmark is going to hire you for their next greeting card because they won’t and no one will see this but you.
The key is to capture your chaos in one sentence and please don't worry about commas, subjunctions, or any other silly grammatically BS.
Just write your freakin CODE - right now - just do it!
Step 4: But you are human - What will you do when you don’t achieve perfection with your CODE?
Here’s my guarantee - you will have a bug in your CODE. Every software program in history has and every person who has done this exercise has as well.
The key is not to worry about preventing the bug, but how quickly can you fix it.
So, what will you do when your CODE has a bug and how quickly will it be resolved…
3 - 2 - 1 WRITE!
Step 5: Get hyper specific into the areas where you expect perfection in your CODE and document your findings.
Once your CODE is written AND you have a plan for the bugs that I promise will arise, the final step is to program where your CODE will show up and how it will show up.
Break down the areas of your life that matter to YOU and don’t worry about being politically or socially correct.
Don’t worry about your parents, teachers, preachers, spouse or anything other than what matters to YOU!
And document, document, document…
YOU FREAKIN DID IT (probably not yet)...
Once you complete these 5 steps - you did it.
I mean it…
This is the single most life-altering exercise you can do…
Because once you PROGRAM YOUR CODE - you will have it forever.
The key - don’t ignore - USE IT - for you and only for you!
I Am Going To Break My Own Rule, But I Know It Will Help You…
I am going to share MY CODE and I guarantee if you know me - you are going to say...HOLY SHIZAAAZZZ because I live this in every which way…
My CODE is…
I walk my talk in every area of life and when I don’t, I acknowledge the breakdown and fix it immediately.
My talk is the following…
-I’m a dad first
-My wife is my priority
-I always make healthy decisions
-I want to be wanted not needed
-I empower my team to step into their greatness
-I only build disruptive companies that make the world a better place
-My success is predicated on my ability to help other people achieve their success
These are NOT my values…
This is my CODE.
I live this…
I don’t talk about…
I am this…
I won’t become it…
This is ME…
And when you do this exercise...your CODE will be YOU!
Make The Choice…
Program Your CODE OR Don’t…
Truthfully, I don’t care for me, but I do for you.
Because if for some reason you read this entire article it’s what I call...MEANT TO BE!
There are about 1,000,000,000,000 other things you could have done with the past 10 minutes of your life, but for some reason - you read this article.
Which would lead me to believe…
You are meant to program your CODE.
So do it - stop thinking about it - and keep the final product to yourself because this is an exercise of self-reflection for YOU and only for YOU!
I Believe In You And I’m Excited For You!
Live With Intention,
JY