09/12/2025
10 Lessons from the book Rules Of Work
1. Walk Your Talk
Whenever you say something, live by it. Let people know you as a person who does what he says he will do. Always walk your talk.
2. Have A Plan
No matter whats going on, always have a plan in life. Plan for the year. Plan for the next 2 years. Plan for the next 5 years. And plan for the next 20 years. Have a plan.
3. Carve A Niche For Yourself
Create a unique identity with what you do. Make sure you are known for doing something unique. Don’t get involved in what everyone is doing. Do something special.
4. Learn From Others Mistakes
A clever man learns from his own mistakes, but a wise man learns from others’ mistakes. Learn from the mistakes of others. Study how others made errors and commit to avoiding them.
5. Develop The Right Attitude
Be optimistic. Be positive. Share positivity with your colleagues, your friends and your acquaintance. The right attitude will attract you the right people to your life.
6. Cultivate a Smile
Smile when it’s getting tough. Smile when it’s hell. Smile no matter what.
And what sort of smile? Friendly, genuine—make sure it extends to your eyes—sincere, frank, honest, open, happy.
8. Be Cool
At work you should retain your cool at all times and, no matter what, never ever lose your dignity. If there’s an office costume party, you can laugh and joke with everyone else, but let them do the dressing up. You remain apart from all that office nonsense.
8. Speak Well
You can keep your regional accent; that’s not the problem. Look at why we speak—it is to communicate, to convey information—rather than how we speak. Speaking well means getting information across clearly and effectively. It doesn’t matter how you speak, but it does matter that you speak clearly
9. Stay Focused On Your Long Term Goals
You can’t afford to lose sight of your long-term goal for a second. For you there is no time off, no downtime, no loung-ing around time, no slipups, no mistakes, no accidental deviations from the script.
You have to become like a master criminal—they lead incredibly law-abiding lives because they can’t risk breaking a tiny law in case it draws attention to themselves and the really big crimes get revealed—and watch what you say and what you do.
10. Know Yourself—Strengths and Weaknesses
If you are going to be a winner, you have to be incredibly objective about yourself. A lot of people can’t do this; they can’t turn the spotlight on themselves objectively enough or brightly enough to see themselves as others see them. And it’s not just how others see us; it’s also how we see ourselves. We all carry a mental image of ourselves—what we look like and sound like, what makes us tick; how we work—but how realistic is this image?
