John C. Maxwell quotes:

Inability to make decisions is one of the principal reasons executives fail. Deficiency in decision-making ranks much higher than lack of specific knowledge or technical know-how as an indicator of leadership failure.

There are two kinds of pride, both good and bad. 'Good pride' represents our dignity and self-respect. 'Bad pride' is the deadly sin of superiority that reeks of conceit and arrogance.

Teamwork makes the dream work, but a vision becomes a nightmare when the leader has a big dream and a bad team.

Talent grips us. We are overtaken by the beauty of Michelangelo's sculpture, riveted by Mariah Carey's angelic voice, doubled over in laughter by the comedy of Robin Williams, and captivated by the on screen performances of Denzel Washington.

Failed plans should not be interpreted as a failed vision. Visions don't change, they are only refined. Plans rarely stay the same, and are scrapped or adjusted as needed. Be stubborn about the vision, but flexible with your plan.

Exceptionally hard decisions can deplete your energy to the point at which you finally cave in. If you mentally crumble and degenerate into negative thinking, you'll magnify the problem to the point where it can haunt you.

People who add value to others do so intentionally. I say that because to add value, leaders must give of themselves, and that rarely occurs by accident.

The greatest day in your life and mine is when we take total responsibility for our attitudes. That's the day we truly grow up.

I vividly remember a conversation I had many years ago in 1974, which marked a turning point in my leadership journey. I was sitting at a Holiday Inn with my friend, Kurt Campmeyer, when he asked me if I had a personal growth plan. I didn't. In fact, I didn't even know you were supposed to have one.

Self-centered leaders manipulate when they move people for personal benefit. Mature leaders motivate by moving people for mutual benefit.

Good leaders must communicate vision clearly, creatively, and continually. However, the vision doesn't come alive until the leader models it.

If you are a leader, you should never forget that everyone needs encouragement. And everyone who receives it - young or old, successful or less-than-successful, unknown or famous - is changed by it.

Time management is an oxymoron. Time is beyond our control, and the clock keeps ticking regardless of how we lead our lives. Priority management is the answer to maximizing the time we have.

Growth demands a temporary surrender of security. It may mean giving up familiar but limiting patterns, safe but unrewarding work, values no longer believed in, and relationships that have lost their meaning.

Family and friendships are two of the greatest facilitators of happiness.

The unsuccessful person is burdened by learning, and prefers to walk down familiar paths. Their distaste for learning stunts their growth and limits their influence.

A word of encouragement from a teacher to a child can change a life. A word of encouragement from a spouse can save a marriage. A word of encouragement from a leader can inspire a person to reach her potential.

Ranking among the greatest Christmas movie classics, 'It's a Wonderful Life' tells a beautiful story about the priceless value of relationships.

One of the roles of the Presidency is to lead a political party. Having a President in office is usually a huge advantage to a party because it gives the party a mouthpiece and an advocate at the highest level.

The best way a mentor can prepare another leader is to expose him or her to other great people.

For more than a decade, I led an organization that put on an elaborate Christmas program each December. It was a big production, with over 250 people participating in more than 20 performances. By the end of the season, everyone who participated was exhausted.

To add value to others, one must first value others.

Children astound me with their inquisitive minds. The world is wide and mysterious to them, and as they piece together the puzzle of life, they ask 'Why?' ceaselessly.

The dreams and passions stored within hearts are powerful keys which can unlock a wealth of potential.

Most people don't like change. They revolt against it unless they can clearly see the advantage it brings. For that reason, when good leaders prepare to take action or make changes, they take people through a process to get them ready for it.

Leadership is influence.

If you are a parent, you have probably already realized that your children are always watching what you do. And just as children watch their parents and emulate their behavior, so do employees who are watching their bosses.

Keeping score is for games, not friendships.

Everything rises and falls on leadership.

The experience of pain or loss can be a formidably motivating force.

People who use time wisely spend it on activities that advance their overall purpose in life.

We choose what attitudes we have right now. And it's a continuing choice.

You will never fulfill your destiny doing work you despise.

Whenever a high-profile leader dies, people immediately attempt to summarize that person's life in a sentence. Often, critics and commentators get caught up looking at the leader's style, or which political or philosophical camp they represented.

The best leaders are readers of people. They have the intuitive ability to understand others by discerning how they feel and recognizing what they sense.

As you get older, time speeds up but life slows down.

Success is due to our stretching to the challenges of life. Failure comes when we shrink from them.

How do leaders serve their people? They may pay good wages and treat employees with respect.

The greatest mistake we make is living in constant fear that we will make one.

Leaders must be close enough to relate to others, but far enough ahead to motivate them.

Look at our society. Everyone wants to be thin, but nobody wants to diet. Everyone wants to live long, but few will exercise. Everybody wants money, yet seldom will anyone budget or control their spending.

Your attitude towards failure determines your altitude after failure.

All good leaders are connectors. They relate well and make people feel confident about themselves and their leader.

Positional leaders ignore the fact that every person has hopes, dreams, desires, and goals of his own. And leaders must bring their vision and the aspirations of the people they lead together in a way that benefits everyone.

People buy into the leader before they buy into the vision.

As a leader, the first person I need to lead is me. The first person that I should try to change is me.

When your dream is bigger than you are, you only have two choices: give up or get help.

It seems the older you get, the more life comes into focus.

Policies are many, Principles are few, Policies will change, Principles never do.

Dividers seek to make themselves look or feel better by making others feel worse. They damage relationships, fracture teams and organizations, and create havoc in people's lives.

To collaborative team members, completing one another is more important than competing with one another.

Nobody wanders his or her way to a dream, and nobody achieves a dream by accident. Don't shortcut the process and risk cheating yourself out of your dream!"

There was a very cautious manWho never laughed or playedHe never risked, he never tried,He never sang or prayed.And when he on day passed away,His insurance was denied,For since he never really lived,They claimed he never really died.(Anonymous poem)"

Transmit your vision emotionally by gaining credibility, demonstrating passion, establishing relationships and communicating a felt need. Transmit it logically by confronting reality, formulating strategy, accepting responsibility, celebrating victory and learning from defeat.

One is too small a number to achieve greatness.

For the person trying to do everything alone, the game really is over. If you want to do something big, you must link up with others. One is too small a number to achieve greatness. That's the Law of Significance.

No one achieves greatness by becoming a generalist. You don't hone a skill by diluting your attention to its development. The only way to get to the next level is focus.

To achieve your dreams, you must embrace adversity and make failure a regular part of your life. If you're not failing, you're probably not really moving forward.

Be generous, be humble, and be grateful when achieving your dreams.

Little did I realize that my desire to add value to others would be the thing that added value to me!

A lot of people believe they are successful because they have everything they want. They have added value to themselves. But I believe significance comes when you add value to others and you can't have true success without significance.

If you lack initiative, recognize that the problem comes from the inside, not from others. Determine why you hesitate to take action. Does risk scare you? Are you discouraged by past failures? Do you not see the potential that opportunity offers? Find the source of your hesitation, and address it. You won't be able to move forward on the outside until you can move forward on the inside.

The secret of your success is determined by your daily agenda.

Maya Angelou observed you cant use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have. Sadly,too often creativity is smothered rather than nurtured. There has to be climate in which new ways of thinking,perceiving, questioning are encouraged.

Good attitudes among players do not guarantee a team's success, but bad attitudes guarantee it's failure.

A man must be big enough to admit his mistakes, smart enough to profit from them, and strong enough to correct them.

Nothing of significance was ever achieved by an individual acting alone. Look below the surface and you will find that all seemingly solo acts are really team efforts.

We tend to become what the most important person in our life thinks we will become. Think the best, believe the best, and express the best in others. Your affirmation will not only make you more attractive to them, but you will help play an important part in their personal development.

Teamwork gives you the best opportunity to turn vision into reality.

The best relationships are win-win. Why don't more people go into relationships with that attitude?

Be better tomorrow than you are today.

If you think you are the entire picture, you will never see the big picture.

You don't overcome challenges by making them smaller but by making yourself bigger.

A dream worth pursuing is a picture and blueprint of a person's purpose and potential

The bookends of success are starting and finishing. Decisions help us start; discipline helps us finish.

Remember, man does not live on bread alone: sometimes he needs a little buttering up.

Brokenness involves removing inappropriate pride and self-reliance and building healthy God-reliance.

Integrity is important in building relationships. And is the foundation upon which many other qualities for success are built, such as respect, dignity, and trust.

To move forward today, you must learn to say good-bye to yesterday's hurts, tragedies and baggage. You can't build a monument to past problems and fail forward.

In my experience, followers always ask leaders 3 questions: 1) Do you care 4 me? 2) Can you help me? 3) Can I trust you?

Never open a can of worms unless you plan to go fishing.

Insecure leaders think everything is about them, and as a result, every action, every piece of information, every decision is put through their filter of self-centeredness.

One way to overcome our natural self-centeredness is to try to see things from other people's perspectives.

Others are ahead of me. I am continually challenged. My focus is forward. The atmosphere is affirming. I am often out of my comfort zone. I wake up excited. Failure is not my enemy. Others are growing. People desire change. Growth is modeled and expected.

Change is inevitable. Growth is optional.

You will never change your life until you change something you do daily. The secret of your success is found in your daily routine.

Nobody wanders his or her way to a dream, and nobody achieves a dream by accident. Don't shortcut the process and risk cheating yourself out of your dream!

42% of college graduates never read a book after college.

If we're growing, we're always going to be out of our comfort zone.

If we are growing we are always going to be outside our comfort zone.

Big-picture thinkers broaden their outlook by striving to learn from every experience. They don't rest on their successes, they learn from them.

Coming together is a beginning, and staying together is progress, but only when teams sweat together do they find success.

One person seeking glory doesn't accomplish much. Success is the result of people pulling together to meet common goals.

You can't avoid fear. No magic potion will take it away. And you can't wait for motivation to get you going. To conquer fear, you have to feel the fear and take action anyway.

The law of the [Cub Scout] pack guides the boys to move in the direction of being helpful, friendly, courteous, trustworthy and promote qualities which parents and the community are looking for. The whole purpose of scouting is to help the children grow up making good decisions in life.

It's easy to have a great attitude when things are going our way...It's when difficult challenges rise before us...that attitude becomes the difference maker.

A difficult time can be more readily endured if we retain the conviction that our existence holds a purpose - a cause to pursue, a person to love, a goal to achieve.

Question for God every morning: What is the main event today? What do you want me to focus on today?

Successful people do what is right no matter how they feel, and by doing right, they feel good.

Doing the right thing daily, compounds over time.

Every person has seeds of greatness within, even though they may currently be dormant.

Educators take something simple and make it complicated. Communicators take something complicated and make it simple.

The depth of your mythology is the extent of your effectiveness.

Leading well is not about enriching yourself - it's about empowering others

Everyone has the potential to become an encourager. You don't have to be rich. You don't have to be a genius. You don't have to have it all together. All you have to do is care about people and initiate.

You cannot enjoy others until you enjoy yourself because you cannot give to others what you do not have.

A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.

Most People have a desire to look for the exception instead of the desire to become exceptional.

Take the emotional temperature of those listening to you. Facial expressions, voice inflection and posture give clues to a person's mood and attitude.

The $50 note trick - ask who wants it even after stomping on it - moral is, no matter what we do to it it is still worth $50. We as human beings never lose our value either despite feeling down, flat or worthless at times.

You can't grow and learn if your focus is on finding someone else to blame instead of looking at your own shortcomings.

The Visalus Founders are the finest and sharpest young leaders that I have ever met.

Diligent follow-up and follow-through will set you apart from the crowd and communicate excellence.

Every sailor knows that you can't sail a ship that isn't moving forward, strong leaders understand that to change direction, you first have to create forward progress.

If you desire to become a more generous person, don't wait for your income to change. Change your heart.

People do not give from the top of their purses but from the bottom of their hearts. If you desire to become a more generous person do not change your income. Change your heart.

People's purpose in life is always connected to their giftedness.

Whenever I mentor people and help them discover their purpose, I always encourage them to start the process by discovering their strengths, not exploring their shortcomings. Why? Because people's purpose in life is always connected to their giftedness. It always works that way. You are not called to do something that you have no talent for. You will discover your purpose by finding and remaining in your strength zone.

Leaders should get out of their comfort zone but stay in their strength zone. When their work lies within their natural gifting and strengths, leaders experience the greatest return in productivity and contentment. Life is too short to live in the comfort zone, where growing and accomplishing and achieving your potential takes a back seat. I suggest you refocus if the comfort zone is your leadership priority.

We must focus on prayer as the main thrust to accomplish God's will and purpose on earth. The forces against us have never been greater, and this is the only way we can release God's power to become victorious