As Jeff Haden says: “Some business principles come and go. Fortunately, there are some business principles you can use forever.”

Here are Haden’s eight enduring business principles:

1. “Look past the messenger and focus on the message. When people speak from a position of position of power or authority or fame, it’s tempting to place greater emphasis on their input, advice, and ideas. That approach works to a point. Never discount the message because you discount the messenger. Good advice is good advice — regardless of the source.”

2. “Focus on collecting knowledge. Continually striving to gain more experience, more experience, and more knowledge is the second-best way to succeed.”

3. “Focus on collecting knowledgeable people. You can’t know everything. But you can know enough smart people that together you know almost everything.”

4. “Give before receiving. When we network, we want something. But, especially at first, never ask for what you want. Forget about what you want and focus on what you can give. Giving is the only way to establish a real relationship and a lasting connection.”

5. “Always work on next. No matter how successful you are today, always have a next in your pipeline.”
   

6. “Eat as many of your words as you can. Own every mistake, every miscue, and every failure. Say you made a mistake. Say you messed up. Say it to other people, but more importantly, look in the mirror and say it to yourself. Then commit to making sure that next time things will turn out very differently.”

7. “Turn ideas into actions. The word ‘idea’ should be a verb, not a noun, because no idea is real until you turn that inspiration into action.”

8. “Occasionally we all need to lighten up.”
   

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