Control your cash. Stick to your core business. Know your numbers.
The best advice I ever got was from Lee Iacocca.... It was get into a business where you can be a big fish, not the little fish. Get into a business where you can be a change agent, where you can make a difference.
Money is the by-product, it is not the purpose.
It's a privilege and not a right to own a business.
If you respect people, and you pay them well, they will do anything for you