Book excerpt: Effective instruction begins with effective relationships, and this is particularly true in respect to educators who work with students coming from different cultural backgrounds. While there are a great number of programs that will instruct you on how to effectively teach, few share good ways to connect, motivate, and inspire students to succeed regardless of the various personal and societal challenges that they might face. This book will introduce a series of ways to open the doors of dialogue and connection, which is the basis from which students begin to believe in others and then in themselves. You will discover that many students, in order to be inspired by you, have to believe and trust in you first. Once they feel that you can be trusted as their leader, they will empower you to become an effective leader. In return, you can empower them to believe in themselves by creating an environment that trains the mind to be constructive and optimistic. For you, success must be a mindset, because the mind is the tool that each student will have to exercise to engineer and navigate his or her life. Your role must be that of an architect, in which you help each student design a blueprint of success. This process can be a considerably lengthy journey and a formidable task. This is, however, what leading educators will face if they are committed to positively affecting the lives of children and indirectly, the community and the world, one student at a time! Make no mistake about it, one person can make a difference, and as an educator you are in the unique position to become a great person of influence. Are you ready?