Think about both the big picture and the granular details, and understand the connections between them. Avoid fixating on irrelevant details. You have to determine what’s important and what’s unimportant at each level. For example, imagine you are designing a house. First you need to start with the big picture: Your house will sit on a plot of land, and you have to think through where the water comes from, how the house gets hooked up to the power grid, and so on. Then you need to decide how many rooms it will have, where the doors will go, where you need windows, and so on. When designing the plan, you need to think about all of these things and connect them, but that doesn’t mean that you actually need to go out and pick the hinges for the door yourself. You just need to know that you’ll need a door with hinges and how it fits into the bigger picture of the house.

Have good controls so that you are not exposed to the dishonesty of others. Don’t assume that people are operating in your interest rather than their own. A higher percentage of the population than you might imagine will cheat if given the opportunity. When offered the choice of being fair with you or taking more for themselves, most people will take more for themselves. Even a tiny amount of cheating is intolerable, so your happiness and success will depend on your controls. I have repeatedly learned this lesson the hard way.
