“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
“I believed that if you have the heart to make a difference, there is always an answer, but if you have a heart of indifference, there is never an answer.”
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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
“When I want to really get to know someone, I ask three questions. People’s answers to these give me great insight into someone’s heart. The questions are: What do you dream about? What do you sing about? What do you cry about?”
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John C. Maxwell
“If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it enough.”
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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
“The first key to greatness,” Socrates reminds us, “is to be in reality what we appear to be.”
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John C. Maxwell
“In the end, people are persuaded not by what we say, but by what they understand.”
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John C. Maxwell
“Learning is defined as a change in behavior. You haven't learned a thing until you can take action and use it.”
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John C. Maxwell
“When it comes to the thing you love to do, the thing you were made to do, aim high. The odds matter little. Whether you fall down along the way matters little.”
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John C. Maxwell
“leaders who are effective are leaders who are disciplined in their daily lives.”
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John C. Maxwell
“People who blame others for their failures never overcome them. They simply move from problem to problem. To reach your potential, you must continually improve yourself, and you can’t do that if you don’t take responsibility for your actions and learn from your mistakes.”
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John C. Maxwell
“St. Francis of Assisi said, “Start doing what is necessary; then do what is possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible.”
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John C. Maxwell
“First, when we are busy, we naturally believe that we are achieving. But busyness does not equal productivity. Activity is not necessarily accomplishment. Second, prioritizing requires leaders to continually think ahead, to know what's important, to know what's next, to see how everything relates to the overall vision. That's hard work. Third, prioritizing causes us to do things that are at the least uncomfortable and sometimes downright painful.”
―
John C. Maxwell
