Should you take my advice or care what I have to say? I can’t answer that question for you, but here is what I believe in so you can make your own decision:

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I believe in meritocracies whereby smart people who work hard deserve more than stupid people who are lazy.

I am a capitalist whereby the more money someone makes for a company, the more they should earn.

I believe in level playing fields, whereby everyone has an equal chance of success, but that success is not guaranteed.

I believe that Agile has long since lost its way since its roots and is today doing more harm than good to organizations.

I believe in fair play but recognize and accept that life isn’t fair.

I am a realist firmly grounded in reality, which is a position that is neither pessimistic nor optimistic.

I believe in rapid recovery from failure, as failure is a precursor to success, but that failure should not be celebrated.

I believe in reveling in the successful completion of a mission, as success is very difficult to achieve and won’t happen that often.

I put no stock in titles, as it’s what you can do what matters, not what title an organization has bestowed upon you.

I am agnostic towards startups or enterprises, as project and the people rather than the size or maturity of the company.

I believe in bottom-up learning, whereby you need to know the fundamentals before you can grow your knowledge

I believe in trusting experts rather than pretending everyone has an equal level of skill and competency

I am mission-driven, whereby the successful completion of the mission is all that matters once that mission has been accepted.

I believe that organizational hierarchies are efficient, but that each node should have a competent and capable leader to be effective.

I believe in mastering self-education rather than only relying on classroom learning.

I believe in apprenticeships, whereby the best way to learn a craft is through direct supervision and guidance.

I put no stock in educational degrees, only someone’s ability to perform matters.

I believe in efficient and effective teams consisting of specialists whose strengths and weaknesses are balanced with the other members of the team.

I believe in software design and architecture rather than hacking together code quickly to meet arbitrary and usually ill-advised deadlines.

I believe that tactical execution must support strategic objectives.

I believe that problems should be identified and defined before an attempt is made to solve them.

I believe that every individual is different and has strengths that may be leverage, and weaknesses that should be mitigated.

I believe in knowing all of your options before you make a decision, with the first option always being to do nothing.