“If you really want to be an uncommon leader, you’re going to have to find a way to get much of your vision seen, implemented, and added to by others.”

“A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops.”

“If you do the things you need to do when you need to do them, then someday you can do the things you want do when you want to do them.”

“there is no future in any job. The future lies in the man who holds the job.”

“There is a great deal of difference between knowing and understanding. You can know a lot about something and not really understand it.”

“The whole idea of motivation is a trap. Forget motivation. Just do it. Exercise, lose weight, test your blood sugar, or whatever. Do it without motivation. And then, guess what? After you start doing the thing, that's when the motivation comes and makes it easy for you to keep on doing it.”

“what gets rewarded gets done. If you praise and honor the people who epitomize the values of the team, those values get embraced and upheld by other members of the team. There is no better reinforcement.”

“When you realize that people treat you according to how they see themselves rather than how you really are, you are less likely to be affected by their behavior.”

“Winning teams have players who make things happen.”

“Vision isn’t enough—it must be combined with venture. It is not enough to stare up the steps; we must step up the stairs.”

“Saying you believe in yourself will not guarantee your success, but saying you don't believe in yourself will guarantee your failure.”

“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!”

“Dreams don’t work unless you do”

“The longest distance between two points is a shortcut.” That’s really true. For everything of value in life, you pay a price.”

“Most good leaders want the perspective of people they trust.”