There is no such thing as work-life balance — plan your life with a complete integration of all activities. Your "job" should be part of an overall life strategy, aligned with your spouse, children, health, and recreation — not something you clock in and out of.

A key is being structured, disciplined, and candid. My family always has dinner together on Mondays with a family meeting to discuss goals, schedules, and challenges. I treat it with the same commitment as a customer meeting.

During the early days of my career, I sacrificed Friday nights and weekends to work on things that could grow my skills. The harder I worked then would allow more freedom to enjoy life later. Balance is what you define it to be — not a fairy tale of equal investment in all areas.

My personal energy is driven from being aligned to my purpose. When I'm investing every precious minute towards having a positive impact on business and life, I am happy and rejuvenated.

I enjoy the power of successful business enterprises in positively affecting customers, team members, and communities. These transformations have very long-term and exponential impacts on the lives of those around you.

I have little tolerance for ignorance and laziness. You become the average of the people you spend time with — so I work to always be averaging up by intentionally associating with those stronger than me in areas I wish to improve.

Poor planning, mismanagement of resources, and waste. As a CEO, I documented and reviewed my current "energy drains" every morning — usually a person in the wrong role.

I challenged myself to remove an energy drain from the list within a few days. I would meet with the person directly, let them know they were on my energy drain list, and that WE needed to figure out the cause and resolve it quickly. This candid conversation was almost always effective.

I'm not a big fan of typical charitable approaches — the business of the charity often gets in the way of its mission. I work more on teaching a man to fish.

My primary areas: setting life goals, being accountable, and being willing to invest more today than you're being paid for. I give a copy of Napoleon Hill's Think and Grow Rich and Tommy Newberry's Success is Not an Accident and offer to discuss their progress.

I also practice "entrepreneurial altruism" — investing time with young business CEOs to help clear the clutter of their business path. I apply candor, logic, and accountability to drive them forward. If you don't have the courage to make the hard decisions, no one can help you succeed.

A strong work ethic and the willingness to work harder and smarter. I've never been a 9-5 person — I focus on accomplishments, not time of day.

As John McEnroe put it: I hate to lose more than I love to win. This drives major sacrifices to prevent losing, with a personality that doesn't linger on victories — always thinking about the next goal.

I was raised poor, which drove me to prove I was just as capable as anyone from a fancy private school. When I was peers with MIT engineers, I simply worked harder and studied more. Intelligence is only one key to success — equally important is the attitude to apply it wisely.

And I hate waste. This has cultivated a strong sense of detail and pursuit of excellence. Most companies grow to a level and stall — refusing to understand that doing what worked yesterday only allows an organization of yesterday to exist.