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Remember Steve Spurrier? He was the Florida Gators and Washington Redskins coach that never hesitated to run up the score. But for one moment forget about football and think of boxing. Imagine you have slowed down your opponent. You know that the next blow will be the last. You aim, lock, load and hit your target. The opponent starts to go down. Do you hit him again on the chin? What about the back of his head?

Hopefully neither choice is attractive. For one, you should not desire to harm anyone. Second, how would society perceive your actions? Do you want to become the subject of criticism and scorn?

While making it to the top at any cost (satisfying the Id) is attractive, social considerations will force you to pace yourself.

What are some these factors?

The Superego: The Ideal Climb To The Top

Be Unselfish, Generous And Share

You will work hard for your money but what is the point of stashing it under your mattress. Spread the wealth and enjoy the fruits of your labor while you still can.

Two forms of generosity exist. The first one is akin to altruism. This is when you give and expect nothing, except perhaps a sense of personal satisfaction.

The second form of generosity is self-serving. Some may help others to reap benefits such as goodwill, good press and good fortune.

The bottom line though is that either is better than not giving.

Share Your Knowledge

Everything that you know, you have learned from somewhere or someone. You may also hold these sources in high esteem and revisit them to further advance your knowledge. When your time comes, do not be shy to share what you know. Not only will you gain credibility, you will be surprised at how much you learn when you teach.

Joe Satriani ranks among the best guitarists in recording history. Part of his legacy is having taught the great Steve Vai as well as Kirk Hammett of Metallica. Vai returned the favor by introducing his mentor to executives at Relativity Records, which led to a recording contract for Satriani.

Be Humble And Modest

Never let success get to your head. For one, others do not care about your accomplishments as much as you think. Second, no matter how big you think you are, you can (and should) aspire to do more. Third, people support a humble leader. Their approval will serve as wind in your sails. History is not kind to arrogant individuals.

Soon after his professional basketball career began, Philadelphia 76ers guard Allen Iverson signed a lifetime endorsement deal with Reebok. While this could have been viewed as vain, Iverson said that he was trying to be a better human being and a better basketball player. His modest reaction to such a special deal silenced his critics.

None other than Al Pacino demonstrated humility and modesty to Jamie Foxx during the taping of the film Any Given Sunday. The loud and boisterous comedian stated in a Playboy magazine interview that he was impressed by Pacino's professionalism. While other lesser-known (and less successful) actors display a cocky attitude as a result of fame and success, Pacino went about his job with calm dignity. Foxx confided: "That's what I learned - to be modest no matter what the accomplishment. (...) To see him be just a normal cat made me go: Oh it's cool to be normal. You don't have to do all the antics. That's the true talent." Indeed.

Give To Take

The sooner you start to help others, the sooner they will pass you the ball, so to speak. Instead of refusing to involve others and ending up on the bench, control the game even when you do not control the puck. Wayne Gretzky did just that because he anticipated the action on the ice even when the puck was not in his possession. Even if you are in the middle of a heated debate, let the other side speak, it is then that you can catch them off guard and crush their argument.

Respect Everyone

No matter what your age, creed, ethnicity, gender, position, rank, title or IQ, respect everyone and anyone if you want the same in return. This means not taking anyone for granted. One of the original and toughest crime bosses, Joe Bonnanas, avoided a Hollywood-style mafia death and passed away in his sleep at the tender age of 97. When asked how come he lived so long, people had one word: respect. Joe “Bananas” respected everyone and gave no one reason to whack him.

Be Responsible

Whether you do so for political, personal or professional reasons, look beyond the tip of your nose. Everything you do has repercussions that could come back to haunt you if you do not look ahead.

Understand Your Competition

No matter how confident you are, never underestimate your competition. AOL Time Warner is the largest media company in the world. Everyone including Bill Gates underestimated AOL Chairman Steve Case. Legend has it that back in 1993, before most knew what Yahoo!, eBay, MSN and AOL were, Gates met Case, looked him straight in the eye and said: "I can buy 20% of you or I can buy all of you. Or I can go into this business myself and bury you."

Seven years later, AOL bought Time Warner to form a behemoth of a firm, AOL Time Warner. This helped balance AOL's online presence with Microsoft's operating system dominance. Each has a legitimate claim as the leading architect of the New Economy.

Measure The Return, Take Acceptable Risk

It is good to want to win at everything, but sometimes, winning is not necessary. Imagine that you were a sprinter with dreams of attending the Summer Olympic Games and run the 4 by 100 meters sprint. If five athletes show up to the qualifications and only four will make the cut, you need not risk an injury to finish first.

Too Smart For Your Own Good

If ever there was an unexpected explosion, the fate of Long Term Capital Management would come to mind. What is LTCM? Well, what do suppose would happen if a trader at Salomon Brothers decided to start his own fund? If he was none other than star John Meriwhether, wealthy individuals and resourceful institutional investors would ask to whom they should make out the check.

Add to this fund a couple of Nobel Prize winners in Robert H. Merton and Myron S. Scholes (of the Black-Scholes options pricing model). LTCM took unconventional trading strategies that appeared to carry little, if any risk. Given that the lower the risk, the lower the return, the fund would only be profitable if LTCM borrowed money to leverage and amplify returns. If you thought that Archimedes was a fan of leverage, wait until you get to know Meriwhether.

According to different sources, the debt-to-capital ratio of the fund stood anywhere from 25 to 1 or 125 to 1. Either scenario would mean that if the strategy did not go according to plan, the fund would blow up.

And blow up it did after Russia defaulted on debt obligations. While LTCM partners knew what the consequences would be, they never imagined how bad it would get. As a result, they never drew an accurate risk profile for investors.

Give Praise

Your mother always said that unless you could say something nice, you should not say anything at all. Remember the Olympic trials where five tried out but only four made the cut? Well, you were the odd one out. Do you complain and make excuses?

If you want to win in business, avoid saying anything bad at all and take this one step further: even if you cannot say anything nice about someone, try harder and find something decent to say.

If you consider the previous example, what would you do all year as the Olympics approach and you know that you will be watching from the comfort of your living room? Do you hibernate while the chosen four prepare or do you remain positive, congratulate and encourage them throughout them?

You congratulate, you encourage, but most important, you leave the spotlight to them. You will not always get what you want and you should always learn something when you fail.

Learn From Failures

What happens when the Id gets out of control and counters everything that the Superego stands for? Errors in judgment lead to mistakes. In life as in business, mistakes can harm you. Most of the times, mistakes slow you down from realizing your full potential. Try to learn from other people's mistakes so you do not repeat them.

But there is a lesson to be learned from everything. Swedish tennis legend Mats Wilander went on record as saying that young Russian pro Marat Safin would be better served to lose than to win the 2002 Australian Open. His position was that Safin would learn little by winning but a tremendous amount if he were upset in the tournament.

If this is true, then you will learn as well by watching the four finalists go to the Olympics. They won because they recognized the stakes and played their cards accordingly. It was not a direct result of nepotism, nor was it a result of a conflict of interest in judging. They out hustled you when they had to and avoided injury. They visualized the outcome and measured what the immediate return was. As a result, they took on the appropriate level of risk and sacrifice.

If the team goes on to win gold, then at least your anthem will play at the end of the event. And if you had noble goals, whether you stand under that flag on the podium or watch from home should not make a real difference, should it? An oversimplification perhaps, but you should get the point.

Now, what if they do not win the gold? Would a silver or bronze do? Be a champion and a professional and do not under any circumstance question their effort. You owe them that much at least.

Show Class

Classy is an underrated trait. Never in short supply, either in your interaction with people or how you conduct yourself.

It would be easy to give an example of class by someone lauded by the media. To many, Sun Microsystems CEO Scott McNealy is aggressive, arrogant and a bully. To a minority, he is assertive and confident. Opinions vary depending on whom you ask.

When the technology sector was hot, Sun's market capitalization soared to over $200 billion. McNealy’s swagger increased as it rose with the market. When the market cooled and Sun was hit hard, he did not change. Even in conference calls with blood hungry analysts and reporters, McNealy remained true to form, staying optimistic and always poking fun at his archenemy Bill Gates. Was this a lack of class? Was McNealy bitter because Sun's market value cratered to $30 billion in 2002 while Bill Gates kept Microsoft on even footing?

You could argue that McNealy was staying true to himself. The competitive side of him could not allow him to soften his stance. To his credit, he has shown class. When he beat General Electric Chairman Jack Welch at golf, he named the cup the Welch Cup because he acknowledged that golf notwithstanding, Welch was the top executive in the world. Welch beat McNealy the next year. Welch on the other hand bragged to the entire world about beating Greg Norman, even if it was at a charity game.

Demonstrate Etiquette

Social Settings

Be Polite

An obvious point to start with: do not be rude or profane. Do not stoop to the lowest common denominator.

Speak Softly

There are times when a loud booming voice is appropriate but in most social settings, people do not like to be screamed at.

Temper Temper

Depending on the situation, you may be tempted to lose your cool. The chance may increase with alcohol in your system. Remain calm and collected. Perception is everything so if you control your temper, you will gain support.

Let Others Finish

Bite your tongue when tempted to jump in and make your point. If you clamor to gain the last word, people will assume you do not listen. To hear ''I told you so'' is bad enough. Imagine how ''I told you so but you cut me off'' feels?

Never Get A Laugh At Someone Else's Expense

If you need to take a jab at other people to get a laugh, you have a problem, not a sense of humor. Get laughs on your own merit and never try to win an argument by poking fun at someone else.

Letter Etiquette

Message

What is the message of the letter? Be concise and devise an effective outline to guide you. This is crucial for cover letters.

Short And Sweet

No need to ramble on. Procter & Gamble made the 1-page memo a part of corporate lore. As a general rule, your business correspondence should adhere to the same standard.

Mistakes

Make sure that the spelling, grammar and syntax are correct.

Hook

Give your audience a reason to get in touch with you. Close with a powerful sentence or ask a question if you must. Just make sure that they care about the answer.

Phone Etiquette

Do Unto Others What…

Follow the golden rule: do unto others what you wish to be done to you. If you hate to be bothered at weird hours, you are not alone. Look at the time before you pick up the phone and dial. If you hate the sales pitch cold call, well, at least be warm when you reach out and touch someone.

Speak To The Right Person

Chances are that you will have to speak to more than one person before getting through to the right one. Do not bore them with your trivial details.

Short And Sweet

Whatever you need to say, do not ramble. People lose focus fast.

Introduce Yourself

Once on the phone with the right person, make sure to introduce yourself. If someone referred you, mention it.

Refer To Previous Meeting(s)

In the event you have met before, refer to the meeting.

Summarize

At the end of the conversation, recap to ensure that both of you are on the same page.

Message Etiquette

Short And Sweet

If the person is not there, you may be asked to leave a message. You are better off not leaving one most of the time. The best time to leave a message is when a deadline is imminent or if you need to impart information. If calling for employment, chances are that your message will be ignored and you will have to call again.

Hook

Like the hook at the end of your letter, you should leave off with something interesting to make them want to call you back. Give reason for them to be curious.

Email Etiquette

Unless you are firing away dozens of emails with a friend, there are some very important considerations when you send messages via the Web. Email may have replaced the phone and snail mail but not without a considerable downside. While a letter can be shredded and a phone call disputed in real time, your reputation and intelligence serve as permanent attachments when you press send.

Do Not Use Slang

Avoid slang in business email unless the recipient is a personal acquaintance.

Relax There With The Punctuation Cowboy!!!

Nothing is as irritating as receiving an email with a dozen exclamation points and question marks where they have no place. Make your words deliver the punch and leave the exclamation points alone!"/$%?!

Be Careful

You never know who will read it. People can forward your email to others on purpose or by accident.

Include Previous Correspondence

If you are following up on a point, leave the previous exchange or any other relevant correspondence in your message. This will expedite a decision and signal your ability to synthesize information.

Leave Your Signature

If you have one, it is always good to use it. Beware of what you put there though. For example, if you prefer an email reply as opposed to a phone call, then do not leave your number.

Address It To Those That Care

People have way too much email to go through as it is. If A needs to know something and B does not, then only email it to A. Otherwise B will pay less attention when he is the lead recipient.

Use The Bcc: When It Makes Sense

The great thing about email is that you can copy people or send a message out to multiple recipients without divulging private email addresses to everyone.

Beware Of The Bcc:

A Bcc: is like a confidential wiretap. It can help you just as it can backfire and lead to a mistrial. So exercise caution.

To: Versus Cc:

The distinction is relevant in a large firm but universal in importance nonetheless. Think about who the primary recipient is in addition to who is being copied. This has a lot to do with the chain of command and from whom you expect an answer or action.

Subject Matter

With regard to the subject line, make sure that it will help both you and the recipient sort it at a later date. Avoid bland subjects that do not stand out in the Inbox.

Fear

No matter our age, we all fear something or someone. Fear can lie in the subconscious or the conscious level of the mind. Wherever fear may be stored, it impacts our daily life and future development.

As you can imagine, fear is an obstacle to success. While it is not hard to identify, it is quite hard to overcome.

How can you overcome it?

Identify your fear and face it. If it involves a person, find out what it is about their personality that makes you cringe. Study them from a distance and up close, one-on-one and in groups.

Do not forget that a lack of understanding and familiarity are major factors in fear. Once you get to know someone, the fearsome façade is shattered. If anything, you should now see their weakness and beat them at their own game.

In business, computer systems are upgraded often. It is normal to be wary as long as you do not hide from the new technology.

Break up the scenario in small steps. In other words, is it the system? Are the textbooks hard to follow? Could it be that the training officers are inadequate?

Whatever you do, remain positive and do not blame anyone throughout the process, not even yourself. Imagine you are a tutor and there is one chapter that keeps you up at night. Attack it head on and do many problems to improve your aptitude. If you are still not sure, go ask the professor.

While some may be cynical and suggest that you do not grasp the material, you will master it when class starts. The students are your clients and as long as they are satisfied, then you have succeeded.

Kobe Bryant turned heads even before he made it to the National Basketball Association (NBA). In fact, he skipped college and made the transition from high school. From day one, Kobe pushed the envelope and embraced the challenge of playing with older, more experienced players. He said that Babe Ruth hit prodigious home runs but also struck out. Even teammate Shaquille O'Neal said that Kobe took shots that no one else dared take. Kobe stated that he had "no fear and no qualms about shooting for the fences."

Intimidation

When we first looked at Keyshawn Johnson, he was busy keeping the ball away from fellow receiver Wayne Chrebet. Instead of an ally, Johnson saw him as a threat. Johnson would never admit to being intimidated by anyone, but he must have been. Otherwise he would have done his thing when the ball was thrown and let his talent tell the story.

The knock against Keyshawn is that he failed to realize that Chrebet could have created room for him on the field.

Criticism

Accepting, understanding and utilizing criticism is the mark of a champion. Criticism can be positive, harsh, direct or subtle – it comes in many forms but it signals that you could be doing something better.

Even if you are confident that your methodology is beyond reproach, when someone gives you their input, do not disregard it but take it with a grain of salt just the same.

Study The Source

Who is doing the criticizing is critical. If the greatest sommelier in the world criticizes your home made wine, take notes. If Homer Simpson tells you that your beer is flat, toss him an Alka-Seltzer.

Why The Criticism?

Some criticize to put you down while others criticize to improve you. In the professor example, good and even bad teachers often criticize in good faith. Others criticize to boost their own confidence. This is key: you must learn to accept criticism but understand why it is there.

Negative Is Destructive

If you feel that the motive is unfair and stems from jealousy, envy and bitterness, shrug it off but do not erase it from memory. Everything has some element of truth, no matter how minute or beneath the surface it may be.

Positive Is Constructive

An important element in life and in business is understanding your audience. And if someone criticizes you, your message has failed. The key here is to ask yourself whether their reproach offers something tangible for improvement or whether it is needless. After all, a coach can point out an error in mechanics or timing but should offer some hint of a resolution. Otherwise, he is adding to the problem.

Personal

Another important consideration is whether the criticism is a personal attack or whether it is impartial. Not all personal criticism is bad. It can be constructive. If your professor tells you that your inability to work in group settings will hamper your career, he is trying help you address a shortcoming. This can be useful down the road.

Professional

In the same example, imagine your professor tells you that you failed because you did not research the project enough and missed some points. This should be taken as a prompt to improve your ability.

Punishment?

Criticism does not come in words only. Sometimes there are forms of punishment attached. As long as there is no physical component, punishment is fine if it is constructive and helps eradicate the cause and not just the consequence.

Shutting Up The Critics

Perhaps no story better illustrates how someone handled criticism than Mr. Nike, Michael Jordan. Critics bashed MJ when he started his career and said that MJ would never be a good defensive player. Jordan could have been arrogant and said: "If I can play such good offense, why waste my time on defense." But he never said such a thing, at least not on record. What he did do, for the record, was go on to win the 1988 Defensive Player of the Year Award and go down as one, if not the best players in the history of the National Basketball Association (NBA).

Leave The Bitter For The Gin

Be the greater person and do not hold a grudge. Appreciate what others have done for you, no matter how minute. A relevant example is what happened to Ozzy Osbourne years after he was kicked out of Black Sabbath. On his double-live album, Live and Loud, he included live tracks from performances with his old bandmates. The same bandmates that kicked him out. His drunken antics and drug abuse led to his departure but Ozzy was suffocated in Sabbath. Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward were the main songwriters while Ozzy was in the background. When Ozzy went solo, he recruited Randy Rhoads and released one chart-topping album after another. His tours were legendary and served as a launching pad for the careers of Def Leppard and Motley Crue, to name two. But years after the water had passed under the bridge, Ozzy acted like a grown man and invited his original bandmates to join him on stage. They played a handful of songs together, pleasing the fans and showing that they had come full circle.

Maintain Your Credibility

What students seek in the short term is recognition and respect. In time a position of power and prestige can be attained.

In the late 1990s, the heir to Henry Ford, William Clay Ford Jr., succeeded Jacques Nasser as CEO of the Ford motor company. While the two were working side by side, Nasser was involved with the firm's day-to-day operations, product development and sales. Ford took care of government issues, public relations and figurehead responsibilities. Despite his famous last name, Ford did not want to be seen as an “Irrelevant Dilettante.” Ironically, it was Nasser who was axed after a Ford Explorer scandal involving tire manufacturer Bridgestone caused embarrassment, financial losses and lawsuits. After all, the problem was operational and thus fell on the head of Nasser.

Remain Diplomatic

A challenge in life is to balance toughness with diplomacy. We often want to do the right thing, but not at the expense of others.

In the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Games, Canadian figure skaters Jamie Salé and David Pelletier were robbed by Olympic bureaucracy and closed-door politics. In case you were living in a cave, the French judge was to vote for the Russian pair in exchange for a vote in another contest. As media inquiries and fan outrage began to pile up, incoming International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge had the tough decision of setting a precedent and awarding two gold medals in one event to compensate for the scandal. Rogge was courageous enough to do what was right and awarded the Canadians a [second] gold medal. However, he stopped short of reversing the result because it would have been unfair to the Russian skaters. Yes, maybe they did not deserve the gold, but it was because of judge misconduct and not their skating.

In the corporate world, Roberto Goizueta was regarded as a statesman when he was anointed to establish Coca-Cola as a global brand. His successor, Doug Ivester, was far from diplomatic. When consumers got sick in Belgium, it hurt Coca-Cola and sank Ivester. He refused to accept the notion that a company product was to blame for making some consumers sick.

Apologize When You Must

Do apologize, but not too often. It could lose effect fast and when you are sincere, people will think you are crying wolf.

More on Sigmund Freud's Id, Ego and Superego Division of Mind theory.