I recently read a quote from a book by John Ortberg defining leadership as "... the art of disappointing people at a rate they can stand."   In light of the last several years of my own personal journey, this feels like the most vivid and realistic picture of leadership I have heard yet. After a friendship of many years someone very close to me, both personally and professionally, became disappointed with me.  Disappointment grew to resentment and on to abandonment. The way he left was both painful and public.  I can't recall a time in my life when the voices of failure and disappointment have been so loud or felt more true.