Importance of "Principle"

As I began working on an ethics page to add to the Principle Insurance website, I realized that with all the hustle and bustle I had forgotten one of the most important pieces in my entrepreneurship journey- I did not make an announcement to say how "Principle Insurance" came to be!  Which led me here...where I can share my story!

For quite some time I've had a fascination with philosophy, ethics, and how they work in our daily lives.  I credit this interest to the wide variety of experiences I've had- not only closely witnessing many walks of life, but I've walked in many shoes myself.  Over time, a person naturally begins to put together the pieces of this thing called "life" and develops a personal moral code. 

I realize now that I've always had this drive and curiosity, it just took a traumatic and near death experience to do something with it.  Just like me, to learn things the hard way!

In the weeks following my infamous boat accident in 2011, I had a lot of time to think (photos here and I'll share the story with those who haven't heard).   It wasn't until I was so close to losing my life that I truly realized the importance of every single moment I have. Not one should be taken for granted and every one should be lived to it's fullest and with integrity.  It was through that thought process and reflection which I found myself taking huge turns in my personal and professional life.

I believe that a large part of these changes also involved the new perspective that not only had I taken myself for granted, but others had too.  It was then that my self-worth sky rocketed, leaving me with a new-found confidence, despite my fresh physical and mental scars.  Much to my surprise, not only did this new found self-worth contribute to a speedy recovery, it also unleashed a new psychological beast.

Throughout this awakening, I found that I was living my life based on everyone else's moral compass.  I had taken what I was taught when I was raised, combined it with all of the nonsense I'd been exposed to in my early to mid-20s, and turned it all into a super-confused mush of a philosophy I thought was my own.  This is when I decided to start from the basics and re-build from there.

It took months and months of studying philosophers (on my own, not at school), reading their work, and taking lessons from my life and those around me.  I can tell you that it is not an easy task to reverse most of what was instilled in you and re-program your mind, but it can be done. Through those studies and my curiosity about the way our moral compass develops, I slowly built what I now consider my philosophy and a list of my own moral principles;

Rationality, Accountability, Honesty, and Respect- I may or may not have made them spell "RAHR" on purpose (pronounced 'Rawr!' of course).

Years later, when faced with the decision to go into business for myself or to continue working for others at my expense, I was faced with two important questions:

1. What will my company stand for?
2. What name will properly represent what my company stands for?

It only made sense to choose a name which would be a constant reminder to myself, my future employees, and my clients of the principles I live by each and every day and would carry over into my business. My goal is to exude these core principles in my agency as I do in my personal life and provide the utmost moral and ethical service to my clients. 

I chose to name my agency "Principle Insurance" to serve as that constant reminder...and now it's time to share it with the world!