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Athletes understand this. Football teams don’t copy each other. Coaches always strive for uniqueness and dominance, in an ever-changing search for a better way of doing things. So should you.

The Inn at Watervale in Michigan is an old lumber camp, carefully and lovingly restored and maintained. In all the years I have vacationed there, it has not changed.

The same bell always calls you to meals, there is silverware and tablecloths in the dining room, there is a porch with a screen door that slams as you leave, and there is the best beach on Lake Michigan that I have ever seen.

The Inn at Watervale cannot be copied because it is unique in so many aspects. It attracts the same people, summer after shimmering summer – all of whom feel privileged to be there, and all of whom would not change a thing. If the Inn started to copy the Ritz-Carlton or Marriott or Four Seasons, I doubt whether the same people would return.

I met the owner when I was a young student, working in the summer camp across the lake. She is now in her 90’s, and lives in a nursing home nearby.

But we have something in common, she and I. The white sands of Lake Michigan, the glitter of waves, the sharp cries of seagulls, and the lightness of being in a lovingly run Inn. I picture her on the porch as I remember her, taking in the sights and sounds of a northern summer, holding the shadows at bay.

Not to change is very costly. The upkeep of the old lumber camp does not come cheap. But here it is our values that are unchangeable. The Inn reflects our values, our purpose, and our deeply held preferences. And THAT is why best practices do not mean much at this sacred place.

Values are our compass in an uncertain world. Everything else will change, as we move into a future we can barely perceive. We may seek safety in standards and best practices, but they are as ephemeral as the mist over Lake Michigan on a chilly August morning.