The euphoria of continually going back to the well and finding it full is, in my mind, short-lived and dangerous. No matter what your business, if your dreamy current sales projections are based predominantly -- or entirely -- on what you've produced before, you are in for a rude awakening.

Great employees/team members have to take a make-or-break initiative. One has to upset the apple cart, break a few eggs, shatter a few egos, shift a few paradigms and risk it all. There are no great advances accomplished in perfect harmony. A successful Pain-In-The-Ass is tomorrow's leader.

In the space of a week, 30 years of Cirque du Soleil shine crumbled into rusty tarnish. The lesson this week then was a chilling one, especially to a guy who also runs a worldwide entertainment event 30 years old. Put simply: History is irrelevant. Kill your past. Yesterday is meaningless.

The ominous four-word warning is a familiar one to anybody who ever had a mother. "Don't talk to strangers." But the problem with strangers is not that they are strangers; the problem is if they remain strangers. Sorry, mom.