“The way President Abraham Lincoln is said to have handled a person who had a know-it-all attitude. Lincoln asked, “How many legs will a sheep have if you call a tail a leg?”
“Five,” the man answered.
“No,” replied Lincoln, “he’ll still have four, because calling a tail a leg doesn’t make it one.”
―
John C. Maxwell
“I remember looking at myself in the mirror one morning and thinking, I am not a handsome guy. What am I going to do with a face like this? Then I smiled. And I thought, That helps.”
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John C. Maxwell
“If you wait until you can do everything for everybody, instead of something for somebody, you’ll end up not doing anything for anybody.”
―
John C. Maxwell
“In my first leadership position, I mistakenly thought that being named the leader meant that I was the leader. Back then I defined leading as a noun—as the position I was appointed to—not a verb—as what I was doing. Though I had been hired as the senior pastor, I quickly discovered the real leader of the church was a down-to-earth farmer named Claude, who had been earning his leadership influence through many positive actions over many years. He later explained it to me, saying, “John, all the letters”
―
John C. Maxwell
“If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it enough.”
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John C. Maxwell
“What’s true for a teammate is also true for the leader: If you don’t grow, you gotta go.”
―
John C. Maxwell
“growth compounds and accelerates if you remain intentional about it.”
―
John C. Maxwell
“I got to the top the hard way—fighting my own laziness and ignorance every step of the way.”
―
John C. Maxwell
“Your attitude colors every aspect of your life. It is like the mind's paintbrush.”
―
John C. Maxwell
“When people follow a leader because they have to, they will do only what they have to. People don’t give their best to leaders they like least. They give reluctant compliance, not commitment. They may give their hands but certainly not their heads or hearts.”
―
John C. Maxwell
“If you know who you are, make the changes you must in order to learn and grow, and then give everything you've got to your dreams, you can achieve anything your heart desires.”
―
John C. Maxwell
“Starting a business is like jumping out of an airplane without a parachute. In mid air, the entrepreneur begins building a parachute and hopes it opens before hitting the ground.”
―
John C. Maxwell
“One of the great ironies of life is that if you give up your life, you gain it. If you help others, you benefit. If you lose yourself, you find yourself.”
―
John C. Maxwell
