Learning how to navigate the current world to be successful is easy. Moving the world towards a better direction, however, is difficult. The relatively newfound ability to communicate with mass groups of people has, in many cases, created a competitive "me-me-me" world.

It doesn't have to be like that. Let's add leadership, not noise.

Adapted from a “talk” I was asked to give at a 4th of July Gathering.

We can’t forget that this country was founded and built by people that willingly walked away from power, escaped oppression, explored wilderness, industrialized our land, preached the "pursuit of happiness”and to quote the song “more than self their country loved.” That’s our heritage. That’s our legacy.

This life is about people. To borrow a phrase, the happiest way to live is to “love people and use things, not to love things and use people.”

I’m not advocating that society should stop thinking about finances. My wife and I have a financial planning meeting once a week. After our once a week finance meeting, we stop letting thoughts of finance problems creep into the rest of our life. Rather, we focus on living what we planned for that week.

We shouldn’t be afraid to change our lives out of a fear that we’ll somehow miss out. In fact, I feel that we should be afraid not to change, because by not changing we may miss out.

I earnestly look forward to a leader that can unite the country. Someone who instills hope like Franklin Roosevelt and promotes caring conservatism like Ronald Reagan. Someone who cares about the words they say, empowers vulnerable populations, and inspires entrepreneurship.

Putting principles above causes, will unite us. It won’t be easy to do, but it is possible. Leaders – government, business, academic – mustn’t tolerate the violation of principles. We should teach, live, and promote “a guiding sense of the requirements and obligations of right conduct.”