Something happened in July 2009 and ended, at least for now, in late December, 2009. During these months, I wrote and wrote, and what you have read here is what I produced. My shared concerns and thoughts about our business school world and the human issues which present every day. It was, during these months, like my life was filled with the sound of music… something wonderful happened, by accident, came in on one of those 90 degree angles that Buckminster Fuller talks about.

It was like a wind at my back, when I used to skate on lakes. It was like a wind under my wings to write, to stay up late and put down my thoughts for others. That “wind” was a creative force that made me feel like writing. I guess the artist feels the same escape when he or she goes to canvas to paint in passion…

It was a good time to write about things in 2009. Lots was happening. There was lots to write about. Wall Street had almost crashed, and Main Street was bleeding. We who lead business schools needed to speak out and challenge each other.

Some amazing things happened with our business school, the California International Business University (CIBU) during this period. We grew and encountered some of the most human issues we ever faced. There were losses of dear ones, there were new additions, new places, new faces, and some serendipity that confounded us. I tried to capture some of the agony and ecstasy in these moments in these essays.

During this time, I discovered I needed to set forth my own personal mission statement. Dr. Jeffrey Bennett, came into our community and provided inspiration to do this. We were challenged. We rose to this challenge. My own first attempt at a life purpose statement is contained in these essays. Others are still working on theirs.

I lost two mentors this year. It gave me the chance to reflect and write about what mentors really are and what they should be. It was not easy.

I never met some of the heroes I wrote about. The war widow. The Wall Street mavericks who are working against the creeping “gaming of America” by the clever Wall Street brains who would run off with our assets. I never expect to see these people, but I know they are out there in our larger family of friends.

There are moments in the lives of all of us, I am convinced, that are crossroads… choices to go away or to stay, choices to run or to stand and fight… choices to love or let go… or to love and let go, maybe one of the toughest.

We never know what our choices will bring, and we do still make mistakes… big ones. Just about when we may think we get the cultural context, understand the cultural differences, we are reminded by events that we were 180 degrees off from how we were actually received by those we wanted to have as friends. We are forever students, even though some of us are put in the role of “teacher”, we must learn what we missed and hope we do not miss it again.

But we do learn that when we run away, nothing good ever happens.. We must face our problems, even when there is pain. Somehow, we live on faith that better days will come.

That brings me full circle. I loved those days and especially late nights when I just had to write. I loved the sound of music in my inner world when I was sharing and pouring forth. The next book on life’s four great flashes is coming and will be roaring forward when it starts…

I guess I am convinced that one of the strongest gifts we are given are those who we love and who love us. Friends and friendship. It is the true Ship of Friends that sails on forever…

This book will go out to the world through the magic of e-publishing… it will be available to the world, have an ISBN number and even find its way to the Library of Congress. It will be read by people who do not even know me or the people I write about. Some of the essays have already been seen by strangers around the world who now are friends. Yet if it touches just a few lives to make more of their friendships and understand who their truest friends are, that is the “biggest” audience I could hope for… I am proud of the openness I was able to muster. I deeply treasure the people whose lives touched mine during this past year. I cherish the source of this inspiration and need it in my life again. Some of the best friends in my life were actors in this drama… some are still here with me, some have left. I still have hope that none were truly lost.

But my purpose was accomplished, here in these pages, however I got it done… the young presidents of the global business world… their lives and loves were touched… they are the ones who this was for. My job, after all, and my purpose, is to be the Father Lion of my pride, to watch for predators, to protect my community, to set the strong, fast example. But, this is the moment in time that I am the Lion in winter… it is a tough season at the end of this year… but the Father Lion in me needs to bring his strength and be human and go onward and upward…

I need the sound of music in the late nights when I write… it is the wind at my back, beneath my wings… Old acquaintances will not be forgot… they can never be forgotten. They were not meant to be lost. They were meant to be our friends forever. True friends can never be lost. Happy New Year. Cherish what you do have, and never believe that a true friend has been lost…