Never underestimate the power of temptation to disarm your better senses. Throughout the ages good people surrendered their honor for the empty promise that wealth or power would bring fulfillment and their dignity, good name and self-esteem for the passing pleasures of sex and drugs.

It's actually easier to truly become a person of good character than to persuade others we are what we are not.

We all have three characters: the one we really have, the one we try to convince the world we have, and the one we think we have.

Good intentions are simply not enough. Our character is defined and our lives are determined not by what we want, say or think, but by what we do.

Using the phrase business ethics might imply that the ethical rules and expectations are somehow different in business than in other contexts. There really is no such thing as business ethics. There is just ethics and the challenge for people in business and every other walk in life to acknowledge and live up to basic moral principles like honesty, respect, responsibility, fairness and caring.

The key to success is effort. The bigger the goal, the greater the effort.

Whether we want them or not, the New Year will bring new challenges; whether we seize them or not, the New year will bring new opportunities.