Ben and Jerry taught students a lot this past week.

They taught us what makes a successful business and what it takes to be socially involved. But an underlying message The Hawkeye took away was that values are tested over time.

Values are personal beliefs or philosophies that shape us and help guide us in everyday situations.

Implementing those values, at least good ones, into every detail of your life will lead to success and personal value.

Many things in life make staying true to your beliefs hard.  Peer pressure, money and being in a difficult situation are some things that can interfere with your values.

Just remember it’s better to stick to your values and fail than throw your values away in hopes of achieving something.

You might succeed, but the fact that you threw away your values will eat at you. Worse, it can come back to bite you. That leaves you a failure and feeling bad.

Another reason to stick to your values is it can earn you respect. Others respect someone who has a set of beliefs and ideas and follows them.

As many politicians have found out, being inconsistent with your beliefs to gain approval usually backfires.

Values don’t just apply to a person’s life. They can be a prominent part of other things, like businesses.

For example, most car companies base their slogans around some kind of value. Volvo built a reputation of putting safety first, often even at the cost of making flashier cars.

As a result of taking one value and remaining true to it no matter the cost, generally speaking, they have an established identity and set the example when it comes to safety.

Ben and Jerry are big believers in value. They taught us no matter what happens in our life; whether that be business, romantic or socially related…keep a strong hold on your values.