Our preferred fund manager, Dimensional Fund Advisors, has a short and valuable set of slides on how you can maximize success in investing. There are no guarantees, but these slides describe the best approach we have seen. The summary:

1. Accept the market's pricing. It represents the collective view of trillions of dollars.
2. Don't try to out-guess the market.
3. Don't "chase" recent trends. There is no evidence they will hold in the future.
4. Take advantage of the market. It has produced attractive returns over the past 100 years.
5. Use academic research to understand how to invest.
6. Diversify broadly.
7. Don't try to time the market.
8. Manage your emotions.
9. Ignore the media.
10. Focus on what you can control. That includes risk, fees and tax.

You can find the slides at Dimensional's website, here.