The First Person to Get Angry, Loses
When you get angry, you start to react. You don’t think things through, and are therefore at a disadvantage to someone who still has their wits about them. A classy man doesn’t get offended, he doesn’t get mad. He is always in control.
The Best Investment You Can Make is in Your Self
I can’t stress this one enough. This world is full of prejudice, and people will judge you on the way you present yourself. You have to be in shape, hygienic, and dressed well in order to succeed… in anything. Can you succeed otherwise? Yes, but it will be 10 times more difficult then it is to hit the gym, and buy a new suit.
People often say, “Dress for the job you want”. I will say to take that one step further and say dress for the idealized version of the job you want.
Another saying I have heard is “Always leave the house dressed as if you are going to meet the woman of your dreams”. I believe what both of these sayings are trying to convey is that you should always dress to impress. That leads me to my next point…
Know Basic Design Theory
This goes beyond fashion tips here. (Although it does fit in there also.) Design is an aesthetic that creates consistency. From accessorizing your clothing to decorating your house, knowing what design style to stick with holds everything together and makes it easy to stay classy. Finding a style and sticking with it will give you amazing results.
(Of course, this doesn’t always work if you have bad design, and ignorant choices. You can build the perfect Post Modern home furnished in exquisite Bauhaus furniture and décor, but if your home stretches from one side of the property line to the next, it just shows you are to dumb to buy enough land)
Personal Responsibility
This one is a bit of a pet peeve of mine. Far to often I have seen people try to channel blame. They spend more time trying to find someone to blame for a problem then they do fixing the problem. A classy man realizes that everyone makes mistakes, and the real sign of success is in how you fix a mistake, not who you blame for it.
Surround Yourself with the Best
This used to be a given. Always make sure your team is made up of the best and brightest you can find at what they do. Your teams actions, accomplishments, and failures reflect on you. When they succeed, it make you look good.
These days, to many people surround themselves with the inept. Sometimes they are helping out a friend, sometimes they are scarred that if the pick the right person for the job, that person will steal their job. Either way, in the end it just makes you look incompetent.