As leaders, we're giving out grades in every encounter we have with people. We can choose to give out grades as an expectation to live up to, and then we can reassess them according to performance. Or we can offer grades as a possibility to live into. The second approach is much more powerful.

My job is to awaken possibility in other people.

The major difference between the 'best' and the 'average' is that the 'best' get as much pleasure from practice as performance.

My job [is] to awaken possibility in other people. If their eyes are shining, you know you're doing it. If they're not shining you get to ask this question: "Who am I being that my children's eyes are not shining?"

Imagine Martin Luther King saying, 'I have a dream ... But I don't know if the others will buy it.'

How often do we stand convinced of the truth of our early memories, forgetting that they are assessments made by a child? We can replace the narratives that hold us back by inventing wiser stories, free from childish fears, and, in doing so, disperse long-held psychological stumbling blocks.

I'm so sorry for you; your lives have been so easy. You can't play great music unless your heart's been broken.