On the shelves of any major bookseller you will find dozens of books about success. The ABC's of it, the secret of it, the seven, ten, or twelve steps to it, the loser's guide and the winner's guide to grabbing the brass ring before the ride is over. There are even books that discuss spiritual and religious elements of achieving success. But so far, I have found nothing quite as exciting and practical as Linda Seger's encouraging, intelligent take on the subject. Perhaps it is because for years she has been intimately acquainted with so many successful and unsuccessful, spirit-filled and spiritually-bereft professionals in arguably the most success-driven industry in the world, the entertainment business. It is a world where the stakes are so high, the egos so large, and the consequences so devastating that I have often wondered how anyone can survive show business without a strong spiritual foundation to sustain them. And yet, it's been my experience that most not only achieve success without taking spiritual steps on the road to success, they have survived the trip while actively rejecting a spiritual life.

But is survival enough?

As far as I know, no one has ever been dragged kicking and screaming down the road to success. Success is a choice. You may be pushed onto the road by family pressure, peer pressure, financial or cultural pressure. You may embark on the journey out of a sense of duty or even guilt. But those who travel the road, stay on the road and survive to reach the end of it succeed because they want it. They really want it. Usually more than anything else in life.

Sometimes the desire to succeed is so great that important questions never get answered before we fling ourselves onto the road. Questions such as "Do I really have what it takes?" "What am I willing to sacrifice to get there?" And, of course, the big question at the start of every journey: "How do I get there and what should I pack?"

The road to success is like any other trip: we have to pack for it. And, like most trips, we don't realize what we forgot to bring along until we find ourselves really needing the one thing we left behind because we assumed it would just weigh us down, slow us up, or wouldn't be missed.

I love to pack. From my mother, a frequent flier, I learned how to pack three weeks of clothing and accessories into two carry-on bags. Granted, those bags weighed a hundred pounds, but in a pinch, I never saw my mother lacking for a towel, a hair dryer, a rain hat, an AC adapter or even a portable clothesline. I'll never forget her expression of joyful victory when she once produced a small hot pot and two envelopes of soup from her shoulder bag during an unexpected layover in the Dallas/Ft. Worth airport. She negotiated airports the way generals survey and attack a battle field. With Mother, travel was an art to be perfected. "Always use carry-on, sit on the aisle for quick getaways, keep smiling at the ticket agent, and if your flight is cancelled, don't follow the crowd, go to the nearest phone booth and book your own ticket while the others are waiting in line. Above all, keep moving forward and trust that whatever you might need, you are already carrying with you." Her advice for those cross country trips resulted in not just easier travel, but gave me a tremendous sense of confidence and autonomy as I began exploring the world on my own. While I discovered that much of her practical wisdom - moving forward, packing for the rainy day, etc. - could apply to the pursuit of my dreams as well as to travel, I learned that there is one big difference between a flight across the country and the journey of a lifetime. The difference is what you pack for the longer, more difficult trip to success. Because when you get to the end of that road, you may not be the same person you were when you left home.

Near the end of the movie "Almost Famous" there is a scene, perhaps the definitive cinematic moment in the film, that may also be the definitive illustration of the road to success. Cameron Crowe, a man who knows Hollywood well and the human spirit even better, wrote and produced a story about an aspiring rock and roll critic, a teen-age boy whose dream comes true when he manages to land an assignment from Rolling Stone magazine to go "on the road" with "Stillwater," an up-and-coming rock band on the edge of greatness.

The wide-eyed neophyte follows the lives and loves of the aspiring rock stars as they make the transition from small venues to large, from the middle of the charts to the top, from bus tours to private jets. Finally, with the help of their teen-age chronicler, they capture the ultimate flag of success: "the cover of the Rolling Stone."

Almost immediately, on one of those private jets, everything they've worked for, everything everyone on that plane has dreamed of is nearly lost. In one terrifying moment, their smooth sailing deteriorates into turbulence, lightning strikes, and heart-clutching plunges toward earth as the pilots attempt an emergency landing.

Between screams of terror, the coolest and the hippest shrivel before our eyes into frightened children crying out embarrassing confessions and hurling accusations at one another. In their darkest hour, friendship and loyalties are forgotten, the romance of the road becomes sinister, and the possibility of a mythic Buddy Holly brand of immortality is now far less attractive than a hard, ignominious landing in a farmer's field. Not one calls out to a higher power, not one finds hope or strength in the sex, drugs, and rock and roll that brought them to this moment. In fact, in the two or three minutes when death seems certain, success is not only forgotten, it is useless.

They survive. But the band and the teen-age boy who witnessed the rise and fall of his heroes emerge from the plane very different people, unable to look at each other, soberly lost in thought and in shame. They know now that they could just have easily ended up in the Rolling Stone as an obituary instead of as a cover story and life would have gone on without them. And yet, with some embarrassment, they sense they have been a given a second chance despite the fact that they miserably failed a crucial test of character on the road to success. With all the luggage and baggage they carried from gig to gig, their "spiritual suitcase" never made it on the trip.

"Almost Famous" is fiction and provides a tremendously satisfying ending where the main characters recognize their chance at redemption and take it. On the real life road, though, we don't always get those chances before the credits roll. Or, when we do, sometimes it just seems too far or too late to go back and retrieve the spiritual map we forgot or simply decided not to pack. But with every decision to leave matters of the spirit behind, there are consequences.

Bible readers and non-Bible readers alike are familiar with the scripture "What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul?" Few of us embark on the journey toward success actually believing that this warning might actually apply to US. OTHERS may be tempted to compromise their integrity or their vision, OTHERS may justify the means by exalting the end, but I won't, right?

I would like to think that I avoided compromise and temptation more than most during the successful years of "Touched By An Angel." But truth be told, every day was a struggle for survival professionally and sometimes even literally when my energy and health took a back seat to the demands of keeping a weekly television hit in the Top Ten. I certainly wasn't dragged kicking and screaming onto the road to success, but I was running hard to catch up and frantically packing my spiritual bag as I ran. I am proud of most of my days and decisions on that show. Of some days, particularly the early days when the learning curve was steep and my spiritual resources were shallow, I am not so proud. In some of Linda's observations in this book, I see myself and my mistakes. And yet, in other pages, I recognize my subsequent growth and hard-earned wisdom, achieved not so much by my victories but by my submission and reliance on God's grace. And most importantly, years after the trappings of worldly success have subsided - the awards, the magazine covers, the private planes, the accolades - I see confirmed in Linda's book my own discovery that there is a life after success and a purpose beyond that success which brings a peace even greater than the temporary goal I had originally struggled to reach.

Wisely, kindly, with her gentle sense of Quaker simplicity and fairness, Linda reminds us of the true nature of success and the role that spirituality can play in turning the brass ring into a golden key. If there is a secret to success at all, it is that success is not the end of road, it's a door. It is the entrance to a world where power, money, and sometimes fame are simply tools we've been given to create something beyond ourselves and our accomplishments. True success is not the private plane that takes us away from it all. It is the crash landing that puts us squarely back in the middle of it, packed and ready to make a difference.

It all comes down to what you choose to carry with you and what you decide to leave behind on the trip. As you will find in the pages that follow, it is never too late to re-pack that bag. And whether you are dreaming of success, actively pursuing it, or have already achieved some measure of it, Linda Seger has written the best packing list I have ever read.