If your principles go on sale when the price is right, they were merchandise, not principles.

A rule you keep only while it is free is not a rule, it is a preference in better clothes. You find out which one you have the first time holding the line costs you money, a spot on a team, or a friend. Everyone has a number somewhere. The useful question is whether you have ever bothered to find out where yours sits.

Pick one thing you say you would never do. Imagine the exact offer that would make it tempting, in detail. Settling your answer now, while nothing is on the table, is far cheaper than settling it in the moment.