Be unselfish. That is the first and final commandment for those who would be useful and happy in their usefulness. If you think of yourself only, you cannot develop because you are choking the source of development, which is spiritual expansion through thought for others.
I used to say I never talk about my successor, neither about my predecessor.
Old-fashioned ways which no longer apply to changed conditions are a snare in which the feet of women have always become readily entangled.