In our ongoing series about key business mistakes to avoid, we’ll take on the questions of “How much should I depend on others?” and “What’s the right time to outsource and delegate work?”

Moe, you started out more than 50 years ago in the business world — What’s one of the biggest mistakes that people make when it comes to people? Can you maybe highlight your lessons learned?

I think one of the most frequent mistakes in business is depending too much on other individuals to do for you what maybe you should be doing for yourself.

It’s important not to take too much for granted, you got to be on top of everything.

Some of the mistakes I made, I look back on it now and I realize: Well, I put a little too much faith into somebody and allowed the business venture to drift without really taking the responsibility myself.

So that is something you have to be aware of right from the outset… yes, make sure you know how to run everything in your business, and then — and only then — delegate it to others.