This isn’t a “how-to” book on leadership, life, or success — mostly because there’s no such thing. What you’ll find instead are true stories about what happens when you find yourself standing at life’s crossroads — alone, uncertain, and trying to make sense of the road ahead.
Drawn from over fifty years of teaching, coaching, and learning the hard way, The Road Less Traveled is part memoir, part mirror — a reminder that leadership starts where honesty meets humility. Each short essay, or “mile marker,” can be read in a single sitting, but the reflections may linger long after you put the book down.
Some stories will make you laugh. Some might make you pause. All of them are about finding meaning in the mess, humor in the struggle, and courage in the quiet moments no one else sees.
So take a walk. There’s no map here — just mile markers to help you notice where you’ve been, where you’re going, and who you’re becoming along the way.
Preview of the Road Less Traveled Essays
Mile Marker One: The Hitchhiker
At nineteen, standing alone on a dark country road, a young teacher-in-the-making discovers that risk and solitude often ride side by side. This story invites readers to revisit their own crossroads — those moments when uncertainty tests conviction and reveals who they’re becoming.
Mile Marker Two: Following Footsteps
A six-mile walk from Jerusalem to Bethlehem becomes more than a physical journey—it’s a quiet exploration of faith, history, and what it truly means to follow. As readers walk beside the author through ancient hills and modern tension, they’re invited to consider their own paths of trust, courage, and discipleship.
Mile Marker Three: Legacy
This story honors the quiet courage of students who chose service over spotlight, proving that leadership begins with mindset, not medals. As readers reflect on these young changemakers, they’re invited to consider what legacy their own choices might leave behind.
Mile Marker Four: The Inner Road
Some journeys don’t begin with a suitcase but with a question — the kind that asks who you’re becoming when no one’s watching. This essay invites readers to slow down, look inward, and rediscover the quiet power of reflection as the truest road to purpose and renewal.
Mile Marker Five: ADHD
What some call a disorder, this story calls a different kind of design — a mind wired for motion, imagination, and possibility. Through one teacher’s lifelong journey with ADHD, readers are invited to see how restlessness can become creativity, and how the road we’re given can turn out to be the one we were meant to love all along.
Mile Marker Six: I Was Adopted
In a world quick to define others by their origins, this story explores what happens when identity is shaped not by biology, but by love, silence, and choice. Through humor, humility, and deep gratitude, it invites readers to see adoption not as a label to explain a life—but as one more way to live it fully.
Mile Marker Seven: Real Church
This is a story about redefining what it means to build faith in the next generation—where youth ministry becomes less about programs and more about purpose. It challenges readers to imagine church not as a place teens attend, but as a movement they help lead.
Mile Marker Eight: Work. Study. Sleep. Play.
Sometimes the most profound ideas come dressed as simplicity. This is the story of how four ordinary words—work, study, sleep, play—became a rhythm of purpose, reshaping what it meant to lead, serve, and live with intention.
Mile Marker Nine: Backdoor Travel
Some journeys don’t start with a map but with an open door. This story celebrates the kind of travel that transforms hearts—where learning happens through shared meals, humble homes, and the quiet beauty of human connection.
Mile Marker Ten: Becoming a Student of Leadership
True leadership isn’t about titles or applause — it’s about growth, reflection, and the courage to keep learning. This essay invites readers to trade perfection for progress, to become lifelong students of influence, integrity, and purpose.
The Trilogy of Essays
· The Road Less Traveled: Ten Essays on Purpose, Perspective, and the Path Less Taken.
· Ten Balloons: Ten Essays on Living an Intentional Life
· Lead Now!: Ten Essays for Emerging Teen Leaders