‘It’s Warm Here by the Moral Fire’

It’s warm here by the moral fire—there’s a community of people there, a culture, a set of values—and when you take a moment together to look at where true north is, the decision-making comes easy. 

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There’s a controversy raging around a company called Uber—we’ve written about it here, along with many other media companies. And on AVC, Fred Wilson wrote a blog post talking about how the values and culture of a company are more important than ever.

Deep in the discussion that ensued, a commenter, Jim Hirshfield, mentioned that there were people at his office uninstalling the Uber app.

Fred Wilson replied: “Hard to keep it off your phone though. I walked to the subway today in 20 degree weather and thought that if I didn’t have so many reasons not to, I’d Uber it in a nanosecond.”

Jim Hirshfield quipped back:  “It’s warm by the moral fire.”

Those words “It’s warm here by the moral fire” resonated with me in a way few statements have. I conjured up an immediate image of a campfire, where people were sitting around talking about….well, all the things we talk about here at The Good Men Project.

That’s always been the goal, you know? To build a business, a community, a campfire-like atmosphere where people would feel welcome enough to come and talk. So we could solve the problems of the day, together, because it’s cold and lonely when you solve them alone.

I answered back on the comment thread with this reason why those words, especially as an entrepreneur, resonated so much with me:

It’s warm by the moral fire because we’re building something—we’re out in the woods or deep in the weeds or, when lucky, up there with the 60,000 foot view and it’s exhilarating and exhausting and we need a place to rest. It’s warm by the moral fire because we want to make “good” decisions—good for the business, good for the world, good for our customers, good for our employees—and talking about what is good infuses energy in everything we do. It’s warm here by the moral fire because, yes, it’s easy to take shortcuts—but why would you want to do so with decisions that are immoral, unethical or potentially illegal? Why would you risk everything you have so carefully built? Sit down by the fire, take a minute, understand the consequences. The problem of how to beat your competitors or how to deal with the press are problems that can be solved. Gracefully, ethically, legally. And if you’re lucky, you can solve them for good. It’s warm here by the moral fire—there’s a community of people here, a culture, a set of values—and when you take a moment together to look at where true north is, the decision-making comes easy. You can rest for a minute and then continue to operate at lightening speed. You can then go back out and kill it.

It’s warm here by the moral fire because when you create a community of strong, intelligent, like-minded people, you create a spark, a flame, a fire so bright it is yet unimagined.

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Photo: Monik Markus / flickr