The Top Ten Laws of Respect: A Personal Guide, by Niyi Taiwo

Law 2 - To respect others, you have to learn first to respect yourself. You respect yourself in three areas: physical aspect, emotional aspect and spiritual aspect.

Law 3 - To respect yourself, you must have a well-rooted value system. If your value system is well established you will value yourself and others properly. There are external forces that shape and reshape your value system, namely: belief system, family tradition, ethnic culture, morality, etiquette and standards.

Law 4 - The way you present yourself, the words you utter, and the actions you engage or display are prerequisite factors to earning respect. When you meet people for the first time they size you up and how you consistently present yourself determines the degree of respect they have for you.

Law 5 - The company you keep is a governing factor in gaining respect. Taiwo writes that the fastest way to tarnish your good name is to associate yourself with the wrong people.

Law 6 - Your situation or condition, past and present, can influence your ability to gain respect, "Invisible aspects" of your life, no matter how insignificant, once known can determine the value and degree of respect other people will have for you.

Law 7 - Your principles are major factors in sustaining respect. They are firmly held beliefs that shape your thinking and guide your conscious decisions. Taiwo lists six universal principles, which are: humility, forgiveness, love, service, faith and respect for life.

Law 8 - It's easy to gain respect when you command it; it's harder to gain respect when you demand it. You can sustain respect the easy way by earning it.

Law 9 - There is an infinite number of ways to lose respect, but a finite number of ways to earn it. Our habits and bad values what Taiwo calls wandering into the "realm of stupidity" account for the infinite number of ways we lose respect.

Law 10 - Mutual respect requires some degree of alignment between two separate value systems. Taiwo shares with us that the more values you share with someone, the more mutual respect you will have for each other.

Taiwo presents down-to-earth stories that give us a better understanding of these top ten laws of respect that he groups into three categories: foundational laws, influential laws, and sustaining laws.