“There are really only three kinds of people. Those who don’t succeed, those who achieve success temporarily, and those who become and remain successful. Character is the only way to sustain success.”

“How does a person become productive? Find your strength and then find someone who needs your strength.”

“Henry David Thoreau wrote, “One is not born into the world to do everything, but to do something.”

“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!”

“One of the greatest problems people have with failure is that they are too quick to judge isolated situations in their lives and label them as failures. Instead, they need to keep the bigger picture in mind.”

People buy into the leader before they buy into the plan.”

“Tend to the people, and they will tend to the business.”

“Just as personal values influence and guide an individual’s behavior, organizational values influence and guide the team’s behavior.”

“When you give of yourself, it benefits you, the organization, and the receiver.”

“You can’t change where you started, but you can change the direction you are going. It’s not what you are going to do, but it’s what you are doing now that counts.”

“The ability to connect with others begins with understanding the value of people.”

“Followers tell you what you want to hear. Leaders tell you what you need to hear.”

“Don’t settle for poor performers. Keep in mind that one great person will always out-produce and out-perform two mediocre people.”

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

“we often place too much emphasis on making decisions and too little on managing the decisions we've already made.”