Best life lived

“What would you do if you had one day to live?” It’s a devious question, implying that what you should do today is the same as if you had only today. A better (and more difficult) question is “What would you do if your life was ~80 years?”  

Would you spend time trying to become rich? Marry? Raise children? Travel? Dedicate hours a day in pursuit of physical health? Build many/few relationships? Work to make others’ lives better (and how)? Use your time in service to art, science, fame, comedy, politics, charity…

We’re a group of people who have this important question to answer, and our answers include that we choose to contribute a meaningful amount of our limited time and energies to the projects we build at Gilded. We never stop asking ourselves “Why does this concept need to exist?” “What value will this bring to the world?”

Also, as an organization with this core value we choose our projects with the eyes wide open knowledge that our time is limited. If we waste it, we don’t get a do-over. Therefore, we try to choose projects that are likely to bring joy and meaning to our team as well as to our users/guests/clients/customers.

Best in the world (BITW)

If we’re going to pour our time, energy, and resources into a project, we want it to be the best in the world (BITW). Arguably: Southwest Airlines and Planet Fitness are BITW for discount flights and workouts, respectively. Starbucks is the BITW chain to find a high-quality cup of coffee nearby. Chik-fil-A and Waffle House might not be Michelin star, but they are BITW at serving their specific customers.

Whether a project’s goal is to entertain, feed, teach, surprise, alleviate pain, save customers money, or whatever, we always ask, “how will this be the best in the world?”