Brendon Burchard is a 3-time New York Times bestselling author whose online personal growth videos and online personal development courses have garnered over 300 million views and landed him on the cover of Success Magazine twice. Not bad for a would-be high-school dropout.

The author of High-Performance Habits, The Motivational Manifesto and The Charge credits his high school English teacher Ms. Linda Ballew for encouraging him to stay in school and then championing his penchant for journalism that led him to virtually write his own ticket on the train to financial security.

 As the moderator of the school’s newspaper, Ms. Ballew led Mr. Burchard and his classmates in winning a national Best in Show for their high school newspaper over schools with 10 times the student journalists and 10 times the budget – and even more significantly — rekindled Mr. Burchard’s interest in staying in high school.

 Yes, indeed, teachers make a difference.

 For example, an analysis of 40 years of student test scores in Latin America found that academic performance determined 80 percent of the economic growth in those countries.

And on an even broader scale, teachers make a difference in fueling the lifeblood of our democracy, notes veteran teacher leader Doug Lemov, author of Teach Like a Champion 3.0. “Democracy is predicated upon education. That’s why teachers are the most important people in our society,” Mr. Lemov emphatically states.

So important, that teachers can even “affect eternity” as educational historian Henry Adams so astutely observed.

Just ask Brendon Burchard, now basking in the applause of millions of people as a leader in the game of life instead of struggling as a high school dropout on the sidelines of life.

Thank you Mrs. Ballew for teaching like a leader.

For more examples of teachers as leaders purchase your copy of TEACHING LIKE A LEADER , the 300-page newly published book available on Amazon.com that champions the teaching profession and features 26 exemplary teachers who demonstrate that teaching = leading.

Have a mint — a Leadership Mint –and savor the EnlightenMINT of teachers as leaders.

What is a Leadership Mint?

Consumed like a breath mint –quick and on-the-go – Leadership Mints are bite-sized ideas that refresh your feeling for leading, energize your leadership behaviors and personalize your leadership principles so they are more easily remembered, more readily acted upon, and more fully applied. And like its candy counterpart, Leadership Mints are easily accessed, quickly savored and immediately satisfying.