RULE 1: DON'T MISTAKE YOUR VOCATION
Select the vocation . Follow your natural inclinations, or genius. Unless a man enters upon the vocation intended for him by nature, and best suited to his peculiar genius, he cannot succeed.
RULE 2: SELECT THE RIGHT LOCATION
After securing the right vocation, you must be careful to select the proper location . You might conduct a hotel like clock-work, yet, if you should locate your house in a small village where there is no communication or public travel, the location would be your ruin.
RULE 3: AVOID DEBT
Young men starting in life should avoid running into debt. There is scarcely anything that drags a person down like debt. It is a slavish position to get in, yet we find many a young man, hardly out of his "teens," running in debt.
RULE 4: PERSEVERE
When a man is in the right path, he must persevere . There are some persons who are "born tired;" naturally lazy and possessing no self-reliance and no perseverance.
RULE 5: WHATEVER YOU DO, DO IT WITH ALL YOUR MIGHT
Work at it, if necessary, early and late, in season and out of season, not leaving a stone unturned, and never deferring for a single hour that which can be done just as well now.
RULE 6: USE THE BEST TOOLS
You cannot have too good tools to work with, and there is no tool you should be so particular about as living tools. If you get a good one, it is better to keep him. He learns something every day; and you are benefited by the experience he acquires.
RULE 7: DON'T GET ABOVE YOUR BUSINESS
Young men after they graduate, instead of pursuing their avocation and rising in their business, will often lie about doing nothing. They say; "I will establish myself'"
"Have you capital to start with?" I have a wealthy old aunt."
RULE 8: LEARN SOMETHING USEFUL
Learn some useful trade or profession, so that in these days of changing fortunes of being rich today and poor tomorrow you may have something tangible to fall back upon.
RULE 9: LET HOPE PREDOMINATE, BUT BE NOT TOO VISIONARY
Many persons are always kept poor, because they are too visionary. Every project looks to them like certain success, and therefore they keep changing from one business to another, always in hot water, always "under the harrow."
RULE 10: DO NOT SCATTER YOUR POWERS
Engage in one kind of business only, and stick to it faithfully until you succeed, or until your experience shows that you should abandon it.
RULE 11: BE SYSTEMATIC
A person who does business by rule, having a time and place for everything, doing his work promptly, will accomplish twice as much and with half the trouble of him who does it carelessly and slipshod.
RULE 12: READ THE NEWSPAPERS
Always take a trustworthy newspaper. He who is without a newspaper is cut off from his species. In these days, many important inventions and improvements are being made, and he who don't consult the newspapers will soon find himself and his business left out in the cold.
RULE 13: BEWARE OF "OUTSIDE OPERATIONS"
We sometimes see men who have obtained fortunes, suddenly become poor. In many cases, this arises from intemperance, and often from gaming, and other bad habits.
RULE 14: DON'T INDORSE WITHOUT SECURITY
I hold that no man ought ever to indorse a note or become security, for any man, be it his father or brother, to a greater extent than he can afford to lose and care nothing about, without taking good security.
RULE 15: ADVERTISE YOUR BUSINESS
You may advertise a spurious article, and induce many people to call and buy it once, but they will denounce you as an impostor and swindler, and your business will gradually die out and leave you poor.
RULE 16: "DON'T READ THE OTHER SIDE"
Of course I did, and so did everybody else, and I learned that the man had made all independence by first attracting the public to his business in that way and then using his customers well afterward.
RULE 17: BE POLITE AND KIND TO YOUR CUSTOMERS
Politeness and civility are the best capital ever invested in business. The truth is, the more kind and liberal a man is, the more generous will be the patronage bestowed upon him.
RULE 18: BE CHARITABLE
Of course men should be charitable, it is a duty and a pleasure. But even as a matter of policy, if you possess no higher incentive, you will find that the liberal man will command patronage, while the sordid, uncharitable miser will be avoided.
RULE 19: DON'T BLAB
Say nothing about your profits, your hopes, your expectations, your intentions.
RULE 20: PRESERVE YOUR INTEGRITY
It is more precious than diamonds or rubies.