Many years ago, I found myself standing at the top of the stairs leading down to the train platforms in Penn Station.

Rush hour had already begun.

Below me, hundreds of people stood shoulder to shoulder beneath the departure boards, their eyes fixed on the screens above. There was very little conversation. Everyone simply waited for one thing.

Their track number.

Then the board changed.

In an instant, the crowd surged toward a doorway that suddenly seemed much too small. Shoulders bumped. Bags swung. People squeezed past one another with an urgency that felt almost automatic.

I remember staying exactly where I was.

I never even looked for my own train.

I just watched.

What struck me wasn't the rush.

It was the faces.

Very little joy.

Very little energy.

Very little hope.

Most looked as though they were simply getting through another day.

I understood why they were there.

I understood the pressure.

The responsibility.

The need to provide.

I was living that same life.

Still, something about it didn't seem right.

It felt like such a shame that so much of a person's life could be spent this way.

Moving.

Working.

Producing.

Repeating.

While the spark that makes us feel alive slowly faded into the background.

I eventually caught my train.

The crowd disappeared.

The question never did.

Is this really what life is supposed to feel like?

The Reason

That question followed me for years.

Without realizing it, it began shaping the way I led.

People would often ask me the same question.

"How do you get people moving when they don't even work for you?"

My answer: I help them see the reason.

People want a reason.

They want to understand why the work matters.

Why the goal matters.

Why they matter.

The moment people can see the reason, something changes.

They stop feeling like they're completing another task.

They begin feeling like they're part of something worth building.

Looking back now, I realize I wasn't developing a leadership style.

I was trying to answer the question that had followed me home from Penn Station.

I just didn’t know it yet.

Over time, another realization began to take shape.

Leadership may be the most powerful force in a working life.

Because leadership doesn't simply shape results.

It shapes people.

It shapes confidence.

It shapes belief.

It shapes the way someone feels about themselves long after they leave the office.

The leader who makes you larger and the leader who makes you smaller both come home with you.

They sit at your dinner table.

My Reason

As I sit here writing this article with a finished novel on my desk, I find myself asking:

How did I end up here?

Looking at the book sitting there, memories I hadn't thought about in years began finding their way back.

As a little boy, I used to create my own comic books.

I even remembered the name: Street Skaters.

I loved drawing the characters, inventing the stories and bringing them to life.

Years later, one of my college history papers was selected as best in class.

I can still remember the words my professor shared.

She told me she believed people who could express themselves through writing carried an advantage in life.

Then she said something I've never forgotten.

“I can feel your writing.”

I thanked her.

Then I went on with my life.

Throughout my career, people occasionally told me they had saved something I had written.

Usually an email.

Sometimes a message.

A note that somehow said exactly what they had been trying to say.

I appreciated it.

Then I went on with my life.

Only now, with the first printed copy of my novel sitting quietly on my desk, have I been able to step back far enough to see it.

The writing was always there.

The question was always there.

So was the reason.

What I Want for Them

More than anyone else, I hope my children understand this.

I hope they've tolerated enough of my conversations over the years.

Enough reminders that they can do anything.

Enough encouragement to believe in themselves when the easier choice would have been to settle.

Because none of this was ever about becoming “successful”.

It was about becoming alive.

I want them to understand that work has the power to fill a life with meaning...

or quietly take it away.

I want them to search for the thing that challenges them.

The thing that stretches them.

The thing that makes them curious.

The thing that gives them energy.

I want them to live inspired.

I want them to carry a fire that comes from doing work they believe in.

Maybe that's why I had to write Leadership at the Dinner Table.

I wanted to help people feel the true weight of leadership.

To understand that the way we lead reaches far beyond meetings, performance reviews and organizational charts.

It reaches homes.

Relationships.

Children.

Generations.

And maybe, one day, when my own children look back at my life, they won't remember every conversation we had or every piece of advice I gave them.

But they'll remember something much simpler.

That their father believed life was too precious to spend simply enduring it.

That he tried to leave people a little larger than he found them.

And that he spent his life helping others find... a reason.

Leadership at the Dinner Table releases September 15, 2026.

If you'd like to learn more or take a first look, I'd love to welcome you at the book's new website.

With Absolute Sincerity,

Ed Clementi,

Founder & CEO of Inspired Fire, LLC

Make an Impact and Feel an Impact!