When it comes to your success, your advisors can make you or break you. In the 1990s, I made a terrible financial mistake. As a result of my success as a writer and a speaker, I made some significant extra income. I was also holding down a full-time job. I could barely keep up with it all.

The principle of forgiveness has been ingrained in our spiritual life, but as an everyday tool, it seems to have been discarded by leaders as a sign of weakness.

Several years have now gone by since the publication of The Traveler’s Gift. Because of the seven principles revealed in that story, I have increasingly found myself in quiet corners, talking intimately with some of society’s best-known leaders. Yet when they draw me aside, I do not pretend to have the answers some of them seek. (I am woefully ignorant about the details of business and politics!)

Holding a position of authority requires a keen understanding of how to use it effectively. Authority should be used for the good of the team. I worked for a Marriott hotel when I was nineteen-years-old. My job was to check every room service order before it was served to the guest and to help deliver the trays.

It’s never a good idea to criticize your boss in public. It’s an even worse idea to talk about him or her to the media. If you do, don’t be surprised if you get fired. You were asking for it.

If you have never been to a Catalyst Conference, you need to go. I can’t be more direct than that. You will thank me later.

Several years ago, I sat in a meeting and listened to some entrepreneurs discuss their new venture. They talked about all the things they were going to do as soon as they received their funding. They had big plans. My dad would have called them “air castles.”

Several years ago, when I was in business for myself, I had a client who was really “high maintenance.” By that, I mean he was someone who had unreasonable expectations of me and my company. Unfortunately, I didn’t see that on the front end; I was too focused on “the opportunity.”

If you’ve ever led anything you know Plan B is inevitable. Life doesn’t always unfold like we plan, and dreams have the tendency to shatter. As a leader you have to see this as an opportunity.

Even though we’ve lost a great coach and teacher with John Wooden’s death, he left a legacy that that is especially relevant today: his virtuous leadership style.