The Top 10 Business Maxims of Benjamin Franklin

1. Your first ambition should be the acquisition of knowledge, pertaining to your business.

2. During business attend to nothing but business, but be prompt in responding to all communications, and never suffer a letter to remain without an answer.

3. Never fail to met a business engagement, however irksome it may be at that moment.

4. Never run down a neighbor's property or goods and praise up your own. It is a mark of low breeding and will gain you nothing.

5. Never misrepresent, falsify, or deceive; have one rule of moral life, never swerve from it, whatever may be the acts or opinions of others.

6. Be affable, polite and obliging to everybody. Avoid discussions, anger, and pettishness, interfere with no disputes the creation of others.

7. Endeavor to be perfect in the calling in which you are engaged.

8. Make no investments without a full acquaintance with their nature and condition; and select such investments as have intrinsic value.

9. Never form the habit of talking about your neighbors, or repeating things that you hear others say. You will avoid much unpleasantness, and sometimes serious difficulties.

10. Be economical; a gain usually requires expense; what is saved is clear.