When I became president and CEO of the Utah Valley Chamber of Commerce in late 2020, one of my first actions was going on a three-month listening tour. I connected with each member of our board of directors as well as the members of our Executive Roundtable.

In total, this involved about 45 meetings, conversations and interviews with individuals working in many sectors of our community ranging from housing to health care, manufacturing, higher education, hospitality, construction, finance and more.

Throughout it all, there was a common thread: a desire to maintain and protect the quality of life we all enjoy as residents of our beautiful valley, even as our population grows by hundreds of thousands of people.

How do we do this in the middle of such enormous change? I believe the best way to fulfill this desire is to remain true to the values that brought us to this point. Our way of life has been built on a foundation made up of certain principles, and only by abiding by these principles in the future can we maintain what we have cherished in the past.

I’ve summed up these principles into 10 statements I call the Principles of Prosperity. They are:

1. Chop wood, carry water. Find fulfillment in the tasks/jobs in front of us, not in the possibility of dreams/desires unrealized. Do the hard work first.

2. Spend less than you earn. Advocate for a greater variety of housing to be constructed in your communities, support the access and expansion of public transportation, and petition to increase affordable access to essential services (i.e., health care and education). Assist in allowing your communities’ wealth to grow at a pace that allows you to maximize your budget.

3. Measure twice, cut once. Be careful and deliberate in your decisions and actions. Implement measurements of success and methods of accountability.

4. Give more than you take.

5. Empowerment, not entitlement.

6. Pay it forward. You may not see the fruits of your labor right away, but that doesn’t make it any less essential/successful. Being dedicated to cultivating the next generation workforce will have a massive ripple effect.

7. Give a hand up, not a handout.

8. Leave it better than you found it. Recognize what makes something great and thoroughly assess what contributions you can make to its betterment. Preserving our natural resources is key to a high quality of life.

9. Welcome everyone. Businesses that emphasize strong unity and belonging practices demonstrate higher levels of employee satisfaction.

10. Being a role model matters. Organizations and institutions reflect their leadership. Words and actions have impact. Love our neighbor.

Living by these simple principles will guide us in securing our quality of life into the future. We have leaned on these values for decades, and we shouldn’t pivot away from them now, even under political pressures and opinions from national and federal levels.

As a chamber, we work to support these values through our involvement in the legislative process; our support of good, effective policies in areas such as housing, transportation and natural resources; and our work to bring the business community together to enhance our economic success.

Together, we can build on our strong, principled foundation, ensuring our quality of life endures for the generations to come.

Curtis Blair is president and CEO of the Utah Valley Chamber of Commerce.

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