Rather than the word career, I prefer to discuss how you make a positive I pact on the world. This could mean raising your children, professional activities, non-profit work, or various other actions you take that impact others. I have found that, at all ages, people want to be needed and play a role in impacting the world.

We have all had injustice happen to us. It often shapes our failure narrative. For example, maybe you were fired and not you don't trust colleagues as easily in the future. You may not overcome injustice but you need to be aware of how it affects you today. You can't avoid injustice but that doesn't mean you need to be a prisoner of it.

Vision and priorities should precede actions. Actions should be judged through the prism of how the firm adds value and the key competencies it seeks to build.

There's a step that leaders need to take; they've got to understand themselves.

Personal relationships are often based on affection - professional relationships can have affection but they must have mutual understanding, trust and respect.

Screening out peer pressure and conventional wisdom. It is so powerful, that most of us aren't even aware of how much it is influencing our decisions.

There is usually a clock in our heads regarding decisions we make and the course of our lives. Sometimes this clock is helpful in that it get us to move rather than put off key actions. Other times, it creates us false sense of urgency that can cause us to overreact, lost patience and make poor decisions. In raising this issue in my book, I want people to be aware of the clock in their heads and question whether that clock is helping or hindering the quality of each particular decision.