A few days ago, Eric Zorn of the Chicago Tribune published his list of 50 Things he has learned in his 50 years.

Some of my favorites:

2. Promptness shows respect.

3. You can’t avoid offending people from time to time. When you don’t mean it, apologize. When you do mean it, accept the consequences.

6. The most valuable thing to have is a good reputation, and it’s neither hard nor expensive to acquire one: Be fair. Be honest. Be trustworthy. Be generous. Respect others.

8. Don’t be bothered when people don’t share your tastes in music, sports, literature, food and fashion. Be glad. You’d never get tickets to anything otherwise.

14. It’s not “political correctness” that dictates that we try not to insult others’ beliefs and identities. It’s common decency.

35. Candor is overrated. It’s hard to unsay what you’ve said in anger and almost impossible to take back what you’ve written.

49. Whatever your passion, pursue it as though your days were numbered. Because they are.

 His entire list is worth reading. I encourage you to check it out.