Leadership is not about doing what’s easy each day. It’s about doing what’s right. And a lot of times you’re going to make a decision as a leader, people won’t like it. People will question you. And what I’d offer to you on that point is simply this, part of the job of being a leader sometimes involves being unpopular. It makes me think of what my friend Nido Qubein, a great speaker once said, the price of discipline is always less than the pain of regret. I’m going to say that again for you because it’s such a key point, the price of discipline is always less than the pain of regret.
I’d rather be disciplined right now and yes it’s not always easy. But I’d rather reach into myself and be disciplined and get up early and hold myself to a world-class standard and articulate my goals and live my days with a rare sense of passion and focus and joy and celebrate people and take the time to nurture my mind and develop my character than get to the end of my life and be laying on my deathbed and ask myself, “What could I have been? What could I have done and why didn’t I do it?” I don’t think anything so breaks the human heart than getting to the end and realizing you’ve only used a small fraction of the potential that you had.