If someone was to tally the number of human hours wasted in business by people trying to accomplish objectives without being given the authority to do so, we would all be appalled.

As a leader, it is vitally important that you keep in touch with your boss on a regular, sacrosanct basis. Chances are your boss can provide an aerial view that will make your path more clear.

Forgetting your mission leads, inevitably, to getting tangled up in details-details that can take you completely off your path.

Sometimes facing opportunity is like staring at the knees of a giraffe.

It takes people some time to appreciate that their greater resources are often the people they know.

Nobody wins until we all do.

A wise person does not fear the edges and fringes, but studies them. Indeed, he or she is often in them, working to make change happen.

A purpose statement is, in essence, a written-down reason for being. Jesus' mission helped him decide how to act, what to do, and even what to say when challenging situations arose. Clarity is power: Once you are clear about what you were put here to do then 'jobs' become only a means toward accomplishing your mission, not an end in themselves.

Belief in oneself is a crucial quality of leadership, because 'a house divided against itself cannot stand.' A leader who fluctuates back and forth sends a very wavery signal. Like the soprano who can shatter glass by finding that high note and holding it, a leader who can hold that high note, without wavering, can shatter walls.

Perhaps the true mark of a leader is that she or he is willing to stand alone.

People who succeed speak well of themselves to themselves.

My father was always there for me when I lost. But, then, I never really lost when my father was there.

If you believe you have a just cause, an important message, or a key contribution to make, you will be just as innovative as a college freshman desperate to see his girlfriend six hundred miles away. You will get there any way you can.

Inertia, when first encountered, appears to be an immovable force. We are creatures who like comfort, patterns, and repetition... Yet change is life's only constant.