Today is the official publication date for my friend Andy Andrews’ new book, How Do You Kill 11 Million People?: Why the Truth Matters More Than You Think.

Last February, Gail and I met with Andy and his manager, Robert Smith, here in Nashville. I was the CEO at Thomas Nelson at the time, and Andy wanted to pitch the book concept to me personally because it was so different from anything he had written previously.

Yesterday, Gail and I were traveling to San Antonio, Texas, where I was scheduled to speak. As we sat at the gate waiting to board, the gentleman sitting next to me was engaged in a phone conversation.

Apparently, he had just had a negative exchange with a TSA agent. He bellowed into the phone, “Yea, you pay an idiot ten bucks an hour, pin a badge on his chest, and he thinks he is God.”

Life is not problem-free. As one of my friends says, “You’re either in a crisis, coming out of a crisis, or about to go into a crisis.” The key to maintaining your balance is perspective. Sometimes all it takes is for someone to ask the right question.

Years ago, I went to Sam Moore’s office for my weekly one-on-one meeting. He was the CEO of Thomas Nelson at the time and my boss. As I entered the executive suite, I felt my stomach tighten. I had bad news to report, and I was concerned how he might react.

There comes a point in every story when you are ready to quit. It could be a relationship, a project, or your job. Regardless, you’ve had enough, and you are ready to “throw in the towel.”

My friend, Donald Miller, discusses the temptation to quit in his book, A Million Miles in a Thousand Years. In a chapter called “The Thing About a Crossing,” he describes something called a “story arc” or trajectory. This is the dramatic outline that nearly every great story—including yours—follows.

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!)

Tough times present great opportunities to grow our leadership and shape our legacy. The current recession is no exception. The problem is that many leaders I have spoken with have grown weary of trying to keep things moving forward with fewer resources.

In times like these, it is tempting for us to stay in our offices and become introspective. But we absolutely must not do that. It’s time to suck it up and lead. Our leadership will make a difference—for us, for them, and for our organization’s mission.

In 2003, I was named President of Thomas Nelson. It was an extremely busy time. I made some major changes to my executive team and had two vacant positions. As a result, I essentially had three jobs.

You can’t listen to the news for five minutes without hearing a story about the Swine Flu. It is amazing at how this has taken center stage in just a few weeks. By the sound of things, you would think we are on the edge of a pandemic, not unlike what Stephen King described in his novel, The Stand.

In times like these, it is important to maintain perspective. I did a quick search on Google and found the leading causes of death in the U.S. The most recent data I could find were from 2004. These are the annual numbers:

Andy Andrews is a master story-teller, a modern blend of Will Rogers, Paul Harvey, and Garrison Keillor. He is one of the few people I have ever met who is both a compelling writer and an incredible speaker.

Andy is also a “noticer.” He sees things that others miss and extracts from those observations simple but profound wisdom. This was the secret behind his first book, The Traveler’s Gift, which is the only book I have published in my career that hit all four major New York Times bestseller lists: fiction, non-fiction, advice, and business. The editors at the Times just couldn’t seem to figure out how to categorize Andy’s work.