In the late 1990s, I was being interviewed on a late-night talk show in Sydney, Australia, and I was asked a question that I pondered quite a bit before responding to the host of the show. Upon returning home, I decided to write a book that would more thoroughly and conscientiously answer what I’d been asked. The host’s question had been something like, “After you have departed this earthly domain, what legacy would you like to leave for your 8 children to remember you by?”

The 10 chapters in the book I titled 10 Secrets for Success and Inner Peace represent the fundamental truths that I attempted to live by in my role as a teacher and parent.

There is a fundamental axiom that both my wife and I practiced in the raising of our children, and it is this: Parents are not for leaning upon, but rather exist to make leaning unnecessary. Each of the 10 chapter titles in my book reflects the idea that we wanted to raise self-reliant children to become successful and peaceful adults. Success was not to be measured by external indices, such as how much money they made, or how far they advanced in an occupation, or how many awards they accumulated, or how they stacked up in comparison to their contemporaries. Rather, we wanted our children to value themselves, to become risk takers, to Don’t Die with Your Music Still in You be self-reliant, to be free from stress and anxiety, to be able to celebrate their present moments, to experience a lifetime of wellness, to fulfill their own spiritual callings, to be creative—and, most significantly, to live with a sense of inner peace, regardless of any and all external circumstances.

I wrote 10 Secrets for Success and Inner Peace so that my children would be able to have a compilation of the paramount ideas that formed the essential nucleus of my life’s teaching in one place. When I gave each of them a copy, I said, “If you ever wanted to know what was most essential to me, these are the ideas that I have attempted to live by, and these are the ideas that I employed in all of my parental interactions with you throughout your life.”

My daughter Serena has now responded to the book I wrote with one of her own. The title she chose is taken from one of the most profound teachings that I have applied in my own life. As I’ve told her very frequently, there would be no greater tragedy than if she came to the end of her life and had the realization that she didn’t fulfill her own destiny. “You came here with music to play,” I told all of my children.

“You don’t want to ultimately realize that you didn’t fulfill your own dharma because you tried to please someone else’s mental picture of what you should be doing—and that includes me as your father as well.”

Throughout her life, Serena has always been perplexed by the frequently asked question, “What was it like to have Wayne Dyer as your father?” With this book, she has done a masterful job of not only answering that question, but of also providing guidelines to readers for living the principles outlined in its pages. At the end of each of Serena’s chapters, I offer my own personal reaction to all that she has written.

I couldn’t be more proud of Serena for taking on this mighty task of writing a book, and doing it with honesty and fearlessness. I know you will find it as informative and inspiring as I have. For more information about Serena J. Dyer and her book, Don’t Die with Your Music Still in You: My Experience Growing Up with Spiritual Parents visit SerenaDyer.com.