Yesterday, I shared a major obstacle that I faced in my career. At the time, I thought it was insurmountable. I couldn’t see a way out. But then, amazingly, everything turned, and the situation worked to my advantage.

So often, this has been my experience. I could share with you one story after another. You probably could, too. The problem is that we forget that obstacles are a necessary part of achieving our vision.

In my experience, vision consists of five components:

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In August of 2000, I received a big break in my career. However, as is so often the case, it came disguised as a seemingly insurmountable obstacle.

I had just become the publisher of Nelson Books, one of the two trade book imprints at Thomas Nelson at that time. I had inherited a division with a lot of financial problems. Based on almost every metric available, we were dead last compared to the company’s thirteen other publishing groups.

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