No one is useless in this world who lightens the burden of it for someone else. —BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

Winning teams have players who put the good of the team ahead of themselves. They want to play in their area of strength, but they're willing to do what it takes to take care of the team. They are willing to sacrifice their role for the greater goal.

The problems around us are not as crucial as the people.

The key to developing charisma: Be more concerned about making others feel good about themselves than you are in making them feel good about you.

Ambassador and poet Henry Van Dyke observed, "There is a loftier ambition than merely to stand high in the world. It is to stoop down and lift mankind a little higher.

Leaders gain credibility when they suffer with those they lead.

Nurture, love, and motivate hurting people. But pour yourself into the people who will grow and make a difference.

The common experiences you share with others don't have to be that dramatic (although adversity definitely brings people together). Anything you experience together that creates a common history helps to connect you to others.

Author and conference speaker Richard Exley explained his idea of friendship this way: "A true friend is one who hears and understands when you share your deepest feelings. He supports you when you are struggling; he corrects you, gently and with love, when you err; and he forgives you when you fail. A true friend prods you to personal growth, stretches you to your full potential. And most amazing of all, he celebrates your successes as if they were his own.

My friend Dan Reiland says, "A genuine friend encourages and challenges us to live out our best thoughts, honor our purest motives, and achieve our most significant dreams." That's what we need to do with the important people in our lives.

5. Anybody who helps somebody influences a lot of bodies. What you give to one person overflows into the lives of all the people that person impacts. The nature of influence is to multiply.

But empowering others by giving them your authority has the same effect as sharing information: You haven't lost anything. You have increased the ability of others without decreasing yourself.