# Essential Mind Games Every Entrepreneur Must Learn

1. Get a haircut every two weeks.

2. Always arrive 15 minutes early.

3. Stay away from free things.

4. Wait 5 seconds before answering your phone.

5. When angry, wait ten minutes before reacting; don't gossip about absent people; avoid using absolute words like "always" and "never."

6. Never complain about money or time.

7. Walk with proper posture, swing your arms, keep your head up and chest out.

8. To figure someone out, whether good or bad, agree with them first. It won't take long before you see their true nature.

9. To determine if someone is worth your deeper friendship, remember to ignore them first.

10. To gain benefits from others, you must offer them benefits first. Otherwise, your position will be hard to justify.

11. To know if someone is a villain or a hypocrite, sacrifice for them twice and observe how they treat your sacrifices. You'll then clearly know what they are.

12. All security comes from your own effort. The only person you overcome is yourself. The only thing you defeat is your own laziness.

13. Use your free time to develop a side business. Survive in the first eight hours; develop yourself in the remaining eight.

14. With experts, be direct and straightforward.

15. With ordinary people, use hints only, as they can't handle directness.

16. With foolish people, smile, put your hands together respectfully, because they're fragile.

17. With villains, give them benefits but don't take advantage of them. Don't be enemies, but never be friends.

18. If someone doing better than you invites you for drinks, remember to pay the bill.

19. If someone doing worse than you invites you for drinks, remember to claim poverty.

20. If a classmate you rarely contact invites you for drinks, remember to bring others along.

21. When bumping into an acquaintance at a dinner gathering and they invite you to join, don't take it seriously—they're just being polite.

22. If there are people more excellent than you at a dinner, remember to go often! If there are people you want to meet, go often! If there are people you normally don't have access to, go often!

23. Dinners where you're asked to make up the numbers—remember not to go often! Thank-you dinners—don't go often! Dinners where attendees are people you're frequently in contact with—don't go often!

24. As long as interests don't conflict, there's generally no need to contradict what others say.

25. The highest level of interpersonal skills: enthusiasm, generosity, and knowing nothing about three things.

26. Learn to control your emotions, practice compliments, and master silence.