Make risk your best friend. If you’re playing it too safe and not courageous enough to challenge the status quo, you’ll soon grow complacent and start relying on the ideas and ideals of others instead of enabling your own entrepreneurial spirit.

Personal branding is no longer an option, it’s a leadership requirement. Defining your personal brand – and then consistently living it every day – is essential for the advancement of your career and your development as a leader. Unfortunately in today’s world, it’s too easy to misuse social media as a substitute for building a personal brand in a desperate attempt to increase one’s relevancy.

Without strategy, change is merely substitution, not evolution. Preparation is the key to evolution and the enabler to avoiding substitution in its stead. As such, preparation is the foundation for success.

When an opportunity is missed, it’s often because you didn’t prepare yourself well enough to be able to see and seize it. Furthermore, when you don’t prepare strategically, you begin to trust the wrong people. Remember this: The wise man forfeits his fortune when he does not trust himself.  

Pay it forward and share the momentum that you are building with others. As you unlock new areas of business, discover the opportunity for new potential within yourself and others. Propel momentum in the right direction by surrounding yourself with those who want your success to continue, and advance yourself by serving others as you help them to focus their efforts with greater purpose and clarity.