“The effectiveness of your work will never rise above your ability to lead and influence others. You cannot produce consistently on a level higher than your leadership. In other words, your leadership skills determine the level of your success-and the success of those who work around you.”

“When you know your purpose and priorities and you have ordered your day, week, or year according to them, you have a clarity of thought that strengthens everything you do.”

“The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance. It is the illusion of knowledge.”

“If you want to be productive, you should try to learn to get joy from what gives the greatest return and discipline yourself to do those things.”

“Maturity is the ability to see and act on behalf of others

“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!”

“deal positively with your weaknesses.”

“The first key to greatness,” Socrates reminds us, “is to be in reality what we appear to be.”

“People can be in the same place sharing the same experience at the same time, but they can walk away from it having seen very different things.”

“The closest to perfection people ever come is when they write their resumes .”

“When you develop confidence, those around you—friends, family, and associates—will increase in their own confidence levels. Confidence breeds confidence.”

“El que piensa que dirige y no tiene a nadie siguiéndole, sólo está dando un paseo.”

“The problem with the rat race is that even if you win, you’re still a rat.” 

“It’s a simple thing to offer encouragement, but it can have a tremendous effect on someone’s life.”

“Reward only finished work: It’s good to praise effort, but you should never reward it.