Rules of Life, The, 4th Edition

RULE 35

Have dignity

I’ve spent years watching successful people, and I don’t just mean successful as in having lots of money or a big-shot career. In fact one of the most successful people I ever met lived incredibly frugally and simply and reclusively and yet had cracked it in a really big way – happiness, peace, contentment. This was a person you couldn’t have wiped the inner smile off even if you had tried.

Almost all successful people have a sense of their own dignity. Now what do I mean by this? Well, they are all pretty solid in themselves; they have worked out who they are and what they are about. They don’t need to show off, brag about what they have, or who they are. They don’t need to draw attention to themselves because they aren’t ...