Look before you leap (in other words, get enough of the correct information before you make a decision, don’t make rash or hasty decisions, and don’t make decisions based purely on emotion).
Don’t eat anything bigger than your head.
Be a kind, generous, thoughtful and compassionate person, even if everyone around you is mean, greedy, thoughtless and selfish.
Do the best you can, but don’t expect anyone to reward you for your efforts. Know that you can only do the best you can. Human beings, even the best ones, have limitations.
Don’t put yourself in dangerous or compromising situations just to make someone love you. If people can’t love you for who you are, don’t waste your efforts on them.
Don’t put up with abuse, from anyone.
Be an advocate for the weak, the disenfranchised and people/animals/other beings, that have a hard time standing up for themselves, or advocating for themselves, or taking care of themselves. All people sometimes need a helping hand. You can not always know the reasons why people need help. Sometimes they are ill, sometimes they lack the intelligence needed to care for or help themselves, sometimes they’ve been beaten down by poverty, sometimes they are elderly and no longer have the strength, endurance or “modern knowledge” needed to care for themselves. Unless you know for a fact that someone has done something bad, or has hurt someone else, try to give them the benefit of the doubt. But use caution in all your dealings.
Don’t be a blowhard or a loudmouth or a know it all. Even if you are the smartest person on earth, those qualities are not attractive or useful to anyone. Those qualities breed animosity and drive away people that might care for you. Learn to be calm, polite and to hold your tongue. Un-fettered anger and rage hurts everyone. Learn to pick your battles, then follow all of the other advice from above.
Listen to @Jeruba and @Barnaclebill. They may not always be right, but they have a lot of wisdom and insight that can help almost anyone to find the right answers.
