When somebody tells you he or she is leading something, a fair question is, "What is your vision?"

What is your legacy? Are you intentional about the sort of influence you want to have on the world around you? Being aware of how you want to be remembered gives you a perspective on what is truly important. Leadership is influence, and relationships are the foundation of leadership. Nothing is more predictive of your legacy than the quality of people you surround yourself with.

I have found progress, personal growth, and new and exciting opportunities in my failure. I've grown more comfortable with the fact that in certain circumstances, I'm the person in the room who knows the least about what's going on.

Discipline - Success doesn't just happen. You have to be intentional about it, and that takes discipline.

When your great players are team players, everybody else follows their lead. The best team doesn't always win - it's usually the team that gets along best.

When I was 17, I made the decision to have a good attitude. I was a junior in high school; the coach said I was going to be the captain of my basketball team. I thought – that surprised me because I wasn’t the best player. John Thomas was better than me, and I was probably second or third best player. And I kept thinking, “Why am I going to be the captain?” I think everybody else was thinking that too. And the coach then answered, “The reason John is going to be the captain is he has the best attitude on the team. He encourages others, he believes we can win, he never gives up.”

If you want to reach your potential and become the person you were created to be, you must do much more than just experience life and hope that you learn what you need along the way. You must go out of your way to seize growth opportunities as if your future depended on it. Why? Because it does. Growth doesn't just happen--not for me, not for you, not for anybody. You HAVE TO go after it.