“Leaders are effective because of who they are on the inside—in the qualities that make them up as people. And to go to the highest level of leadership, people have to develop these traits from the inside out.”

“Why worry about things you can't control when you can keep yourself busy controlling the things that depend on you?”

“Think “tomorrow.” Make today’s efforts pay off tomorrow. Free the imagination. You are capable of more than you can imagine—so imagine the ultimate. Strive for lasting quality. “Good enough” never is. Have “stick-to-it-ivity.” Never, never, never give up. Have fun. You’re never truly a success until you enjoy what you are doing.”

“Do you know the difference between leaders, followers, and losers? Leaders stretch with challenges. Followers struggle with challenges. Losers shrink from challenges.”

“Position is a poor substitute for influence.”

“Don’t worry about making friends; don’t worry about making enemies. Worry about winning, because if you win, your enemies can’t hurt you, and if you lose, your friends can’t stand you.”

“If I wanted to make a difference… Wishing for things to change wouldn’t make them change. Hoping for improvements wouldn’t bring them. Dreaming wouldn’t provide all the answers I needed. Vision wouldn’t be enough to bring transformation to me or others. Only by managing my thinking and shifting my thoughts from desire to deeds would I be able to bring about positive change. I needed to go from wanting to doing.”

“they all share the ability to connect visually, intellectually, emotionally, and verbally.”

“Ninety percent of all those who fail are not actually defeated. They simply quit.”

“People don’t remember what we think is important; they remember what they think is important.”

“Porque un líder afirmado que es humilde está dispuesto a aceptar un nuevo desafío, aunque eso signifique tomar riesgos, entregar el poder y perder un grado de autonomía.”

“Several years ago Dr. Maxwell Maltz’s book, Psycho-Cybernetics, was one of the most popular books on the market. Dr. Maltz was a plastic surgeon who often took disfigured faces and made them more attractive. He observed that in every case, the patient’s self-image rose with his and her physical improvement. In addition to being a successful surgeon, Dr. Maltz was a great psychologist who understood human nature. A wealthy woman was greatly concerned about her son, and she came to Dr. Maltz for advice. She had hoped that the son would assume the family business following her husband’s death, but when the son came of age, he refused to assume that responsibility and chose to enter an entirely different field. She thought Dr. Maltz could help convince the boy that he was making a grave error. The doctor agreed to see him, and he probed into the reasons for the young man’s decision. The son explained, “I would have loved to take over the family business, but you don’t understand the relationship I had with my father. He was a driven man who came up the hard way. His objective was to teach me self-reliance, but he made a drastic mistake. He tried to teach me that principle in a negative way. He thought the best way to teach me self-reliance was to never encourage or praise me. He wanted me to be tough and independent. Every day we played catch in the yard. The object was for me to catch the ball ten straight times. I would catch that ball eight or nine times, but always on that tenth throw he would do everything possible to make me miss it. He would throw it on the ground or over my head but always so I had no chance of catching it.” The young man paused for a moment and then said, “He never let me catch the tenth ball—never! And I guess that’s why I have to get away from his business; I want to catch that tenth ball!”

“The reality is that you will never get much done unless you go ahead and do it before you are ready.”

“An infant is born with a clenched fist; a man dies with an open hand. Life has a way of prying free the things we think are so important.”

“The more seriously you take your growth, the more seriously your people will take you.”