Rule 16: Wield a Spiritual Shield, but Not a Spiritual Sword

Overview

SNAPSHOT

What role does religious or spiritual faith play in your professional life?

Major: 12 percent

Minor: 88 percent

There are top executives and politicians who make a direct appeal to God every day, asking him to help them make the right professional decisions. Attorney General Ashcroft has a prayer meeting every morning at work for those who want to participate. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas also uses his faith to help him guide and plan the important decisions in his career. Football quarter-back Kurt Warner of the Super Bowl-winning Rams weaves his Christian beliefs into nearly any interview he does, and directly attributes his meteoric rise to football greatness to his faith in God.

Others, while not using "religion" per se in their professional lives, believe that their success has a seriously spiritual dimension. Hollywood agent Joel Gotler does not adhere to organized religion, but he discussed the importance of spiritual balance with me at least a dozen times in a ninety-minute interview. Similarly, Sheryl Crow believes that the breaks that she got in reaching the top, while not necessarily inspired by God, were part of some larger plan for her life.