Ax.i.oms?

American Heritage Dictionary defines an axiom as: An established rule, principle, or law.

Bill Hybels just released a book titled Ax.i.om. The idea behind the book is that leaders make decisions based on succinct, practical, portable leadership proverbs. Last year at the Leadership Summit Colin Powell shared his, he calls it the Powell Principles.

I'm fascinated by this concept of axioms - principles to live by condensed in a sentence that can be shared with others. I know I have some fundamental principles, I don't know if I've ever put them in to words. It is something I plan to work on, probably on a plane ride to some foreign place when I can't sleep and I've seen all the movies.

An example of an axiom I heard that I liked is a line in the movie The Great Debaters. This was something that Denzel Washington used to tell his children:

"We do what we have to do, so we can do what we want to do."

What are your axioms? What principles do you use in guiding life decisions?