The 10 Commandments of Business
2007, James Skinner, Mark Victor Hansen, and Roice Krueger
The 10 Commandments of Business bring prosperity to those who live them.
Keeping them will move your business and your career forward.
Breaking them will lead to wasted time and mediocrity.
Read this book at least three times, until the commandments are engraved in your heart and mind.
Then give a copy of this book to everybody on your team. It is after all a short book. It is an easy book. It will change your business.
1. Always hire the best person for the job.
2. Don’t ask for trust; earn it.
3. Make your contracts and agreements unambiguous so that everybody knows what has
been agreed upon.
4. Pass out agendas well in advance of every meeting and come prepared. Think through the
likely questions and know your numbers.
5. Use the most direct form of communication that you can. Phone calls before e-mails. Face to face before phone calls. Never let an issue degenerate into e-mail tag. Pick up the phone. Call a meeting. Resolve the issue and move on.
6. Know the standard business practices in your field. Be a student of business as long as you
work.
7. Don’t waste time on low-probability events.
Have shorter conversations with more people, so that you can take lots of time for the truly
important ones.
8. Choose first-class organizations to work with.
9. Focus. Find what you do best, and do it over and over again.
10. And always do the right thing.
