“Recently I had breakfast with Dan Cathy, the president of Chick-fil-A, a fast food chain headquartered in the Atlanta area. I told him that I was working on this book and I asked him if he made thinking time a high priority. Not only did he say yes, but he told me about what he calls his “thinking schedule.” It helps him to fight the hectic pace of life that discourages intentional thinking. Dan says he sets aside time just to think for half a day every two weeks, for one whole day every month, and for two or three full days every year. Dan explains, “This helps me ‘keep the main thing, the main thing,’ since I am so easily distracted.” You may want to do something similar, or you can develop a schedule and method of your own. No matter what you choose to do, go to your thinking place, take paper and pen, and make sure you capture your ideas in writing.”
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John C. Maxwell
“Crisis doesn’t necessarily make character, but it certainly does reveal it. Adversity is a crossroads that makes a person choose one of two paths: character or compromise. Every time he chooses character, he becomes stronger, even if that choice brings negative consequences.”
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John C. Maxwell
“Success on any major scale requires you to accept responsibility . . . In the final analysis, the one quality that all successful people have is the ability to take on responsibility.”
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John C. Maxwell
“Leaders must be close enough to relate to others, but far enough ahead to motivate them.”
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John C. Maxwell
“People who make growth their goal—instead of a title, position, salary, or other external target—always have a future.”
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John C. Maxwell
“there are five nonnegotiable characteristics that every effective leader must have: a sense of calling, an ability to communicate, creativity in problem solving, generosity, and consistency.”
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John C. Maxwell
“The Right Thought plus the Right People in the Right Environment at the Right Time for the Right Reason = the Right Result”
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John C. Maxwell
“El poeta William Arthur Ward sugiere que la clave para el éxito es: Creer cuando otros dudan. Planificar mientras que los demás juegan. Estudiar cuando los demás duermen. Decidir cuando los demás postergan. Prepararse cuando los demás sueñan despiertos. Empezar cuando los demás lo dejan para otro día. Trabajar cuando los demás desean. Ahorrar cuando los demás desperdician. Escuchar cuando los demás hablan. Sonreír cuando los demás fruncen el ceño. Elogiar cuando los demás critican. Persistir cuando los demás se dan por vencidos.”
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John C. Maxwell
“I got to the top the hard way—fighting my own laziness and ignorance every step of the way.”
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John C. Maxwell
“Nobody is a whole team . . . We need each other. You need someone and someone needs you. Isolated islands we’re not. To make this thing called life work, we gotta lean and support. And relate and respond. And give and take. And confess and forgive. And reach out and embrace and rely . . . Since none of us is a whole, independent, self-sufficient, super-capable, all-powerful hotshot, let’s quit acting like we are. Life’s lonely enough without our playing that silly role. The game is over. Let’s link up.”
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John C. Maxwell
“Attitude is the first quality that marks the successful man. If he has a positive attitude and is a positive thinker, who likes challenges and difficult situations, then he has half his success achieved.”
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John C. Maxwell
“Where success is concerned, people are not measured in inches, or pounds, or college degrees, or family background; they are measured by the size of their thinking.”
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John C. Maxwell
“You could use the 80/20 rule. Give 80 percent of your effort to the top 20 percent (most important) activities. Another way is to focus on exceptional opportunities that promise a huge return. It comes down to this: give your attention to the areas that bear fruit.”
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John C. Maxwell
“I feel like one little fellow who knelt at the side of his bed, closed his eyes, and prayed, “God bless Mom. God bless Dad. God bless Grandma.” He said it the same way every time. But one night he added, “And please take care of yourself, God. ’Cause if anything happens to you, we’re all sunk!”
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John C. Maxwell
“Thinking for a Change shares the way that I think on a daily basis. My wife, Margaret, says it has more of my DNA than any of my other books.”
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John C. Maxwell
