“Recently I took my daughter Elizabeth out to a restaurant for lunch. The waitress, whose job it was to take care of people, made us feel that we were really inconveniencing her. She was grumpy, negative, and unhelpful. All of her customers were aware of the fact that she was having a bad day. Elizabeth looked up at me and said, “Dad, she’s a grump, isn’t she?” I could only agree with a look of disdain. Halfway through our experience I tried to change this woman’s negative attitude. Pulling out a $10 bill, I said, “Could you do me a favor? I’d like some change for this $10 bill because I want to give you a good tip today.” She looked at me, did a double take, and then ran to the cash register. After changing the money, she spent the next fifteen minutes hovering over us. I thanked her for her service, told her how important and helpful she was, and left a good tip. As we left, Elizabeth said, “Daddy, did you see how that lady changed?” Seizing this golden opportunity, I said, “Elizabeth, if you want people to act right toward you, you act right toward them. And many times you’ll change them.”
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John C. Maxwell
“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.”
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John C. Maxwell
“Henry David Thoreau wrote, “One is not born into the world to do everything, but to do something.”
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John C. Maxwell
“Know the reasons you and your listener want to communicate and build a bridge between those reasons.”
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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
“The road to the next level is always uphill, and if a team isn’t intentionally fighting to move up, then it inevitably slides down.”
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John C. Maxwell
“Leadership is developed, not discovered. It’s a process.
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John C. Maxwell
“Paul the Apostle exhorted, “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.” 74 Make a mental and emotional commitment to look out for the interests of others.”
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John C. Maxwell
“The bottom line is that indifference is really a form of selfishness.”
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John C. Maxwell
“No one can understand that mysterious thing we call influence . . . yet . . . everyone of us continually exerts influence, either to heal, to bless, to leave marks of beauty; or to wound, to hurt, to poison, to stain other lives.”
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John C. Maxwell
“Your mission is to become better today than you were yesterday.”
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John C. Maxwell
“next time you feel ready to conform to popular thinking on an issue, stop and think.”
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John C. Maxwell
“Before you attempt to set things right, make sure you see things right.”
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John C. Maxwell
“Action is what converts human dreams into significance.”
―
John C. Maxwell
