All of us have watched successful sports teams and many of us have worked as a part of a successful business team. However, not all of us have taken the time to consider what values contribute to building that success. My observations convince me that the leaders within these successful teams consistently leverage simple but critical core values. Core values that inspire individuals and build highly successful teams. Over time, I realized that I learned most of these simple, successful values while I was a cadet at Texas A&M University. Without fully comprehending why I held strong convictions about leading using these values, I built a successful career in corporate America that led me to several key executive roles. Late in my career, I began to piece together the origins of these values. Most successful leaders build and leverage these values as they progress in their career. Often times these lessons come with setbacks. My buddies in the Corps were exposed to all of the lessons in four short years. I would like to share these experiences with you and the lessons we learned so you can compress your learning curve and build your leadership value library without exposing yourself to some of the consequences that come with new knowledge.