0"Challenges in our personal and professional lives are inevitable. Lead with Endurance provides the necessary tools to endure the discomforts of life and leadership. Greg's book will leave you with a mindset and drive to succeed, learning and growing from each milestone along the way."
- Jon Gordon, author of The Power of Positive Leadership and The Energy Bus

Do you lead others? Whether you're a parent leading your family or children, serving as a volunteer coach on your child's youth club sport team, owner of a small company, leading a church, managing a department or region, a teacher in a classroom, a coach of a middle school or high school team, leading a school or district as an educational leader, serving on a board of trustees, or hired as CEO, I am convinced, if applied, the 26.2 Leadership/Life Milestones will provide you insight and tools to learn, grow, and ultimately become a better leader to those you serve.

As leaders, one of our greatest challenges is leading ourselves, facing milestones and enduring the obstacles that confront us, personally and professionally. How might we expect to take others farther than we have pushed or challenged ourselves? We must endure within before we can lead, influence, and impact those we serve. It is known that numerous high performing leaders have surrendered far short of their potential because they were not able to endure the pain and suffering. Too often, highly skilled leaders seek the glory and fulfillment of crossing a finish line in leadership only to discover that it's the journey of enduring that completed the race of leadership. There are no shortcuts to the finish line. Ultimately, it's each milestone between the start and finishes that give us the glory, a glory in knowing we have the character, mindset, and drive to not only accept challenges but welcome the fear of questioning whether or not we will endure.

Lead with Endurance is divided into two parts:

Part I: The Hurdles...Everyone faces hurdles in life. At multiple times in our lives, we are hit with tragedies or events that are unexpected and difficult to manage. These hurdles help mold us and create the heart of a leader. My hurdles are divided into three chapters. A Lifetime of Managing Tourette's Syndrome, Conquering a Brain Tumor and Rising Above the Loss of a Highly Public Position.

Part II: The Milestones...Why 26.2 milestones? Lead with Endurance is a mindset; a will, a drive to succeed, a mission to finish the "race," learning and growing from each milestone along the way. Rather than chapters, I have organized LwE into milestones with the mindset of not only reaching a certain level but like runners when training, coming back to certain milestones again and again. A marathon is 26.2 miles and I experienced the pain, suffering, and joy of completing the Chicago Marathon in October of 2001.

Perseverance is the key to life and leadership. My career has been built on leadership, serving public education for 25 years as a middle school teacher, high school coach, middle school assistant principal, elementary principal, middle school principal, assistant superintendent, and superintendent. Every position I have served has presented a variety of rewards and challenges. As with any career, position, or job, pain and struggling are inevitable. We suffer because we care, and persevering through times of suffering is what separates mediocrity from greatness. Learning how to endure through life and leadership is one of my motivating factors in writing this book. Leadership is not a title. It's a behavior and action that anyone can live. Whether you're an executive for a Fortune 500 company or a volunteer coach on your child's youth soccer team, we all have opportunities to lead. Whether or not we choose to lead, we all live, and it's how we live, and how we endure that can bring pure joy, knowing we reach one milestone after the next, always moving forward!