During one of my research binges, I came across 37signals.com and their free online book, Getting Real. It is filled with 80 to 90 short and explicit essays that are easy to digest. The book is allegedly about building good web applications, but it is clear that most of the lessons shown are general business and life lessons. These four especially strike a chord with me:

-Small is lean. Small is flexible.
-Solve one problem at a time, and solve it well.
-No one is happy with a "make everyone happy" solution.
-Honesty is ALWAYS the best policy.

Few software companies exhibit even one of those four. Few companies in general do. No government has been able to maintain any of these four. Does anyone else find that concerning?

I really recommend anyone with a spare minute to glance over any of the essays in Getting Real. I would estimate the whole book takes 2-4hours to read through.
---->http://gettingreal.37signals.com/toc.php