I Almost Got Fired Over Core Values

I remember in 1993, I was sitting at the head office of College Pro Painters because I worked in Toronto, and one of the vice presidents made a very disrespectful remark to one of the women in our office, and I called him on it. And I was like, Kevin, respect the individual. And he went, don't call me on the core values in front of the team. And he walked out of the room. I'm like, oh fuck, I'm totally getting fired. And then about 10 minutes later, he called me into his office, and the rest of the team was like, dude, you are totally getting fired. And I walked into his office and he said, "Don't call me on the core values in front of the employees." And I don't know where it came from, but my instant response was, "Don't break them." And he thought about it for a minute and he was like, "Fuck." And Kevin and I, 30-odd years later, are still very good friends, probably because of that moment. 'Cause I knew that he didn't mean it, but for him to see me care about the core values so much meant that I would go through brick walls for the company, he had to go through brick walls for me.