All leaders can grow each day with self-discipline and making lifetime learning a commitment. Each one of these 366 daily devotionals or lessons is mutually exclusive but should also be interdependent. You don’t have to have or do all of these to be a great leader. What this project reminded me was there are innumerable qualities, traits, and characteristics that go into the stew of being a great leader. Leadership is as much art as it is science and you need to master your leadership game over your lifetime. Because leadership is about working with people, what worked yesterday with one may not work tomorrow with another. Find what works for you, never relinquish the foundational traits and characteristics no matter what, hold yourself accountable more than you hold others accountable, and continue to move forward. I love the study of leadership, have been doing it for 35 years, and expect to do it my whole life. Leadership fascinates me and the more I study it the more I validate how critical it is to teams, organizations, our nation, and our church. My life’s purpose is to Positively Influence Lives. This is done primarily through leadership. My measure of success with this project is to expose readers to leadership concepts and lessons so they can build upon their own leadership knowledge.

Teams, organizations, and institutions rise and fall on leadership. The simplest definition of leadership, and the one I prefer, is leadership is about influence. Most people think they can define leadership – good and bad leadership – but you definitely know it when you see it. Also, most people can easily tell when leadership is absent. In this study of the leadership lessons inspired by the judges, from the book of Judges and 1 Samuel, I will highlight situations when there was good, bad, or no leadership present. The common theme in the book of Judges starts with apostasy, oppression by a foreign antagonist, Israel’s appeal to God, God’s raising up of a ‘deliverer,’ and the peace that follows, and oftentimes the turn back to apostasy. I love the study of leadership, have been in the midst of it my whole adult life, will study it the rest of my life, and believe it is of highest importance regardless of environment.

A man of destiny, Moses was born to lead a nation through impossible situations, despite not starting his primary mission for eighty years. Leaders and leadership are found everywhere, past and present. There are great examples everywhere you look, if you know what to look for. There are differences as well as commonalities in all leaders that we study. Moses is a phenomenal example to learn from. He is one of the most-mentioned characters in the Old and New Testaments. God held Moses in the highest regard, over all other prophets, and he was the only prophet to speak to God face-to-face. Born in the most inauspicious of environments, under a death warrant by Pharaoh, raised as an Egyptian for his first forty years. Then Moses escaped to the furnace of the Midian wilderness where I believe his leadership, character, and humility were honed for his God-given mission that would last the rest of his lifetime. His final forty years was as unquestioned leader of the Israelites out of Egyptian bondage to the precipice of the promised land. Studying the inspired leadership lessons of a man who lived one hundred and twenty years is as formidable as it is thrilling. This journey will be enlightening, exciting, and energizing.

David is one of the most perfect characters on which to do a study of leadership. We can learn a lot from David’s life. We can learn what to do and what not to do. I think both are important. No one is perfect and learning those tough lessons on someone else’s behalf is as important as learning the more positive ones. David was God’s anointed. He started as a shepherd and through God’s leadership, he became a ruler of a nation and a shepherd over His people. David did not set out to be Israel’s king. He did not set out to ‘be a leader.’ He was thrust into circumstances not of his making. He went through his own crucible time and time again. Through each experience he put more tools in his toolbox so to speak. Although not perfect by any measure, his zeal for God and faith in God became the standard that all future kings of Israel would be measured against. We can learn a lot from current and prior leaders, regardless of where we find them. Like the cook making a stew, you choose which ingredients and how much to use, and learn what works and what doesn’t work for you along the way as you perfect your recipe.

These lessons, these proverbs are the product of nearly four decades of experiences as an adult. Many of these have been forged in the crucible of life. Having a father that’s a Sicilian-American, U.S. Marine, and a Catholic gave me a phenomenal foundation of wisdom. This wisdom was honed, put through the furnace, and forged under great pressure, during a 21+ years career in Special Operations. I have continued on a path toward better wisdom, through trial and error, introspection, and validation in my civilian career, now close to 20 years and counting. With my 17 books (counting this one) I have adjusted, added new ones, deleted ones that no longer apply, and perfected many of these. These lessons, these proverbs, are a peak behind the curtain. The title, The Red Pill on Wisdom, is a metaphor for the choice between the brutal truths, autonomy, and understanding of reality. We may not like it, we may love it, we may not agree with it, or we may embrace it. That’s the point.

I’ve always wanted to write a book for my wife Tammie. I wanted it to be very special and truly capture her essence. She loves God, loves me, loves our daughters, loves her family and loves people. To best capture that essence, I chose to use various Bible verses to articulate real lessons that she espouses. Tammie is not perfect, no one is. However, she has a near perfect heart and tries to be Christ-like in everything she does. These are actual lessons she has taught our daughters or me, or that she has addressed with Meaghan and Sophia in everyday life or while doing devotionals with them. Some of these are how I see Tammie or embody what she stands for or aspires to be. I tried to use the expanse of the Bible for these lessons from both the Old Testament and the New Testament, and you’ll see representation from Psalms and from Proverbs. I also tried to use the great women of the Bible to highlight these lessons including Abigail, Deborah, Elizabeth, Esther, Eve, Hannah, Mary, Mary Magdalene, Miriam, Priscilla, Rachel, Ruth, and Sarah. I recommend reading the chapter or surrounding passages around the verse I use to fully appreciate the context of the lesson. This is not a Bible Commentary, and I do not attempt to give the reader the foundation for a Bible Study. These verses have inspired these lessons, even if the lessons seem secular.

Want to learn about the basics of personal finance in an easy-to-understand manner? In this fable, during some normal days, this family explores many of the financial topics all families, especially children, should understand. It’s written in plain, layman’s terms with a little bit of humor. There doesn’t seem to be anywhere in American society where the basics of personal finance are taught and emphasized over a large part of a person’s life, yet we all deal with some part of personal finance every day. Knowledge and experience in this area seem to come through trial and error and perhaps through some self-study and self-exploration. But there isn’t a place you get it on a consistent or persistent basis. This book was written using the author’s family as protagonists in this “day-in-the-life” fable to first and foremost help teach his kids some basics about personal finance. He has taken personal responsibility to teach his children these insights – for as long and they’ll let him. If you find value in this book, please model it then share it with your family, friends and associates.