“A young concert violinist was asked the secret of her success. She replied, “Planned neglect.” Then she explained, “When I was in school, there were many things that demanded my time. When I went to my room after breakfast, I made my bed, straightened the room, dusted the floor, and did whatever else came to my attention. Then I hurried to my violin practice. I found I wasn’t progressing as I thought I should, so I reversed things. Until my practice period was completed, I deliberately neglected everything else. That program of planned neglect, I believe, accounts for my success.”
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John C. Maxwell
“POINT OUT A GREAT STRENGTH OF SOMEONE IN YOUR LIFE TODAY.”
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John C. Maxwell
“The difference between average people and achieving people is their perception of and response to failure.”
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John C. Maxwell
“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
“You can't move people to action unless you first move them with emotion.... The heart comes before the head.”
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John C. Maxwell
“One of the greatest problems people have with failure is that they are too quick to judge isolated situations in their lives and label them as failures. Instead, they need to keep the bigger picture in mind.”
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John C. Maxwell
“In my first leadership position, I mistakenly thought that being named the leader meant that I was the leader. Back then I defined leading as a noun—as the position I was appointed to—not a verb—as what I was doing. Though I had been hired as the senior pastor, I quickly discovered the real leader of the church was a down-to-earth farmer named Claude, who had been earning his leadership influence through many positive actions over many years. He later explained it to me, saying, “John, all the letters”
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John C. Maxwell
“Leadership is developed, not discovered. It’s a process.
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John C. Maxwell
“The higher you want to climb, the more you need leadership. The greater the impact you want to make, the greater your influence needs to be.”
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John C. Maxwell
“Small disciplines repeated with consistency every day lead to great achievements gained slowly over time.”
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John C. Maxwell
“Any married man should forget his mistakes—there’s no use in two people remembering the same thing.”
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John C. Maxwell
“Cemetery communication: lots of people are out there, but nobody is listening.”
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John C. Maxwell
