Originally published at Brave New Path.

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This week, I reached out to a client who hadn't been engaging with the program. I asked if she's still looking for a job in Germany, offered to get on a call to see how I can help her, and offered to cancel her monthly subscription if this goal is no longer important to her.

She hadn't complained. She hadn't asked. I just noticed she wasn't engaging anymore, and receiving money from her every month felt wrong.

This is how I test whether something is actually a value: would I sacrifice for it? Not in theory. In practice, with real money on the table.

I learned this from my former manager Brian Caouette, Co-Founder and CEO at OnFrontiers. Most company values don't pass this test. "We care about our customers" — sure, but nobody says they don't. "We value honesty" — great, but would you sacrifice for it? If the opposite of your value isn't also a reasonable, legitimate choice that real businesses make every day, it's not a value.

So here are mine. Each one has a real alternative, something I'm choosing not to do, even though it would probably make more money in the short term.

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1. Client success over engagement

The creator economy has a problem: almost nobody measures whether their program actually works. Or more precisely, how reliably it works. Not just "it worked for some people," but: out of everyone who went through this, how many got the result they came for?

We measure signups, completion rates, community activity. We celebrate full cohorts and five-star reviews. But whether the client got the job? That's between them and God.

I think this happens because it's uncomfortable and hard to be accountable to an outcome you can't fully control. I get it. I can't guarantee anyone a job. There are many factors outside my control: the market, the client's background, timing, luck…

But "I can't guarantee it" is not the same as "I'm not responsible for designing toward it."

In tech, we have a principle: non-usage is a design flaw. If users aren't using your product, the product has a problem, not the users. I believe the same about what I'm building. If my clients aren't getting results, I have a design problem.

So when my client  wasn't engaging, I didn't think "she's not doing the work." I thought: what's broken in the system? And then I reached out, offered to figure it out together, and if we can’t find anything, offer to cancel.

Engagement contributes. But we're not here just to learn and have fun.

Sure, that's nice! But we're here to get a job. And that's what I'm designing toward.

To be clear: I'm far from this right now. But it's the north star I'm building toward, you can read more about how I'm doing it in this blog post: Revenue Isn’t Enough: How I’m Building for Client Outcomes, Not Just Sales

2. Radical transparency over selective disclosure

My pricing is transparent on my website. At least, it should be. It's currently buried in the middle of the program page, which is not good enough. What I want is something like Buffer's pricing page (Buffer is the gold standard for transparent businesses), where in one second you know exactly how much it costs.

Most coaches make you book a call first, so they can sell you before you see the number. I understand the logic, I just hate it as a customer. Budget is a real constraint. Don't make me waste my time so you can use influence and persuasion techniques on me before I even know if I can afford it.

It's not only about pricing:

• I'll tell you if I think you're not a fit for my program.
• I'll recommend other resources (including competitors) if they're a better match for where you are. For example, I recently came across a program called FAJIG that looks genuinely good for software developers looking to relocate to Germany. I haven't written about them yet, but I will. If you're a software developer from India, for example, go check them out. Here’s the link.
• I want to build a resource page of genuinely good options — free and paid, including people who do what I do. I already started here: Finding a Job in Germany as a Skilled Immigrant: A Map of Every Type of Support Available

This isn't kindness. It's a long-term bet. Banking on your customers' ignorance (e.g. of who the other options are, of what your program’s real problems are) is not a durable strategy. The moment they find out, and they will, you've lost them and everyone they talk to.

There's a insurance (!) company in the book Extreme Trust that proactively called customers to tell them something like: you're paying too much, you should actually be on a lower plan. I don't remember the exact detail, but the story stuck with me. Nobody was complaining. Nobody was asking. They did it anyway. That's the version of trustworthiness I'm interested in. 

Not reactive honesty when caught, but proactive transparency before anyone notices.

3. Long-term games with long-term people over short-term revenue with anyone

Naval Ravikant has a line I love:

"Play long-term games with long-term people."

This is why, I:

• Would rather lose a sale than start a relationship that's wrong from the beginning.
• Give away my methodology, my frameworks, and my best guidance for free whenever I can — not as a funnel, but because I genuinely believe it comes back.
• Have canceled and refunded clients proactively when, within the first month, I could see I made the wrong call and couldn't actually help them.

This is also why most of what I described in the previous section exists. The transparency — the open pricing, recommending competitors, building a resource page — isn't a separate thing. 

It's all the same bet: I'd rather be someone worth trusting over time than extract maximum value from any single interaction.

4. Agency over sympathy

The hardest one to explain without sounding like I'm victim-blaming.

I work with skilled immigrants in Germany. I know the system is not set up for us. I know there's bias. I know this shit is so much harder for us! I'm not pretending otherwise.

But I'm not interested in building a business around that narrative.

My premise — the thing I believe and the thing I am building Brave New Path on — is this: being an immigrant means embracing the challenge you signed up for. You arrived with great drive, skills, and experiences, but no credibility, no network, no local experience. That's the reality.

Yes, it's not fair. But this is the game we signed up for.

This is not the same as saying it's your fault. It's saying: it may not be your fault, but it is now your responsibility — not to mention your problem 😛

A lot of programs stop at empathy. "I see how hard this is." "It's not fair." "You're doing so well given everything." These things are true and I mean them. But this stuff is not what my clients actually need from me.

What I'm offering is: yes, and now what are we going to do about it?

Let's make the system want you.

5. Systems over intentions

Everyone who starts a program like this intends to get their clients results. Nobody builds something thinking "I hope this doesn't work."

BUT. Intentions are not a mechanism.

I've been obsessed with this since 2019 (if not earlier) when I wrote this post: Product Quality is Downstream of Operations.

It’s about getting my Overseas Employment Certificate from the Philippine government. Each office took their sweet time. Not because they were malicious or lazy. I'm sure everyone had good intentions and was working as hard as they could. But probably because nobody was measuring anything. Not their own output, not the downstream impact. Good intentions, no feedback loop.

At OnFrontiers, where I led client operations, we had a hard rule: deliver an expert to the client within 24 hours. Not 24.5. Not "we tried." 24 hours, yes or no. Because we understood that our output was just one input in our client's process, and delays compound in ways you never see from inside your own step.

This is also why I am not a headhunter or an HR agency, even though it would probably make me more money. In that model, the company is your customer and the candidate is the product. That changes everything: your incentives, your advice, your definition of success.

Charlie Munger has a line:

"Show me the incentive and I'll show you the outcome."

I'm just human. I don't trust myself to always do the right thing based on just the goodness of my heart, so I am building systems and structures that makes my good intentions inevitable.

This is how I think about Brave New Path overall. If I care about client success, I need feedback loops, metrics, and a willingness to redesign until the system reliably produces outcomes. I'm not there yet, but here's exactly how I'm measuring and building toward it here: Revenue Isn’t Enough: How I’m Building for Client Outcomes, Not Just Sales.

Caring is not enough. Measuring it, designing for it, and changing it when it fails… That's the work.

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These five values don't make me a better person than anyone else. They make me a specific kind of business, one that probably isn't right for everyone.

If you read this far and it resonates with you, I'd love to hear from you. No agenda. Just email me: chiara@chiaracokieng.com

Thanks for reading!