“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.”
―
John C. Maxwell
“Helen Keller, author, speaker, and advocate for disabled persons, asserted,"Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.”
―
John C. Maxwell
“you must be able to take the new thing you’ve learned today and build upon what you learned yesterday to keep growing.”
―
John C. Maxwell
“There is a great deal of difference between knowing and understanding. You can know a lot about something and not really understand it.”
―
John C. Maxwell
“The leader’s Attitude is like a thermostat for the place she works. If her attitude is good, the atmosphere is pleasant, and the environment is easy to work in. But if her attitude is bad, the temperature is insufferable.”
―
John C. Maxwell
“You cannot change your life until you change something you do every day.”
―
John C. Maxwell
“Risk must be evaluated not by the fear it generates in you or the probability of your success, but by the value of the goal.”
―
John C. Maxwell
“People who make growth their goal—instead of a title, position, salary, or other external target—always have a future.”
―
John C. Maxwell
“Successful people think differently than unsuccessful people.”
―
John C. Maxwell
“Why worry about things you can't control when you can keep yourself busy controlling the things that depend on you?”
―
John C. Maxwell
“Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.
―
John C. Maxwell
“When we’re more interested in telling people what to do than in listening to what they are presently doing, we are off balance.”
―
John C. Maxwell
“What’s the key to relating to others? It’s putting yourself in someone else’s place instead of putting them in their place.”
―
John C. Maxwell
“Success is peace of mind, which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you did your best to become the best that you are capable of becoming.”
―
John C. Maxwell
