What are the most important steps a man can take?

Came here for the coding help, stayed for the SciFi/Fantasy discussions. I'm a bibliophile/cinephile with a good memory for details. I love the literary classics especially, but I take pleasure in well-written SciFi and Fantasy like Card, Sanderson, Tolkien, Rowling and Asimov in no particular order and for wildly different reasons: Card for the imaginative philosophy, Sanderson for the worlds and plot twists, Tolkien for the depth of story, Rowling for the artful language and storytelling, and Asimov for a little of all.