“One day when the Raiders were in Oakland, a reporter visited their locker room to talk to Ken Stabler. Stabler really wasn’t known as an intellectual, but he was a good quarterback. This newspaperman read him some English prose: “I would rather be ashes than dust. I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than that it should be stifled by dry rot. I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy, impermanent planet. The proper function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. I shall use my time.” After reading this to the quarterback, the reporter asked, “What does this mean to you?” Stabler immediately replied, “Throw deep.” Go after it. Go out to win in life.”
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John C. Maxwell
“Have you ever had to communicate someone else’s vision? It’s very difficult to do, isn’t it?”
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John C. Maxwell
“Your attitude is like the minds paintbrush. It can paint everything in bright, vibrant colors-creating a masterspiece.”
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John C. Maxwell
“People must have affirmation and praise in order to maintain a high level of performance. Withholding negative or critical comments is not nearly as important as giving positive input through compliments and praise.”
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John C. Maxwell
“Most careers involve other people. You can have great academic intelligence and still lack social intelligence—the ability to be a good listener, to be sensitive toward others, to give and take criticism well.”
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John C. Maxwell
“Leadership is developed, not discovered. It’s a process.
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John C. Maxwell
“Life lived for tomorrow will always be a day away from being realized.”
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John C. Maxwell
“Write down somewhere in the margins on this page your answer to this question: How have you changed . . . lately? In the last week, let’s say? Or in the last month? The last year? Can you be very specific? Or must your answer be incredibly vague? You say you’re growing. Okay . . . how? “Well,” you say, “In all kinds of ways.” Great! Name one. You see, effective teaching comes only through a changed person. The more you change, the more you become an instrument of change in the lives of others. If you want to become a change agent, you also must change.2 Change the leader—change the organization.”
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John C. Maxwell
“My friend Nancy Dornan says, “The longest distance between two points is a shortcut.” That’s really true. For everything of value in life, you pay a price. As you desire to grow in a particular area, figure out what it will really take, including the price, and then determine to pay it.”
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John C. Maxwell
“People with humility don’t think less of themselves; they just think of themselves less.”
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John C. Maxwell
“You can lead your horse to water, but you can’t manage him to drink.
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John C. Maxwell
“The Constitution guarantees free speech, but it doesn’t guarantee listeners.”
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John C. Maxwell
“Positive thinking does not always change our circumstances, but it will always change us. When we are able to think right about tough situations, then our journeys through life become”
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John C. Maxwell
“Crisis doesn’t necessarily make character, but it certainly does reveal it. Adversity is a crossroads that makes a person choose one of two paths: character or compromise. Every time he chooses character, he becomes stronger, even if that choice brings negative consequences.”
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John C. Maxwell
