And from how he’s translated Maslow’s hierarchy of needs into a hierarchy of hospitality, to his deep understanding of Joseph Campbell’s revolutionary approach to storytelling, I knew his knowledge would be invaluable.

I was no longer the ‘sage on the stage’ but was instead transitioning into the ‘guide on the side.’ More than anything, in those first few months, I just listened and watched intently with as little judgment or ego as possible.

...he’s tapping into his ability to provide wise counsel to inspire others as they scale new peaks and remake themselves. He summarizes his approach to change in this simple phrase (inspired by Aristotle’s “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”): ‘We are what we practice and we’re always practicing something. Thus, to make changes we need to practice something new and different.

And, more important, he’s starting to think that it’s not about finding the perfect job, it’s about making the job he has “perfect.

And he insisted with every tool of his personality that they see the situation as he saw it, that they feel as he felt or as he convinced himself he did. As he worked on them, they began to tentatively sense – not as with James, that they were led by a man of admirable vision and ability – but that they were in this together, and that they wanted themselves to succeed.