Lessons Learned from Seth Godin

Lessons Learned from Seth Godin

25 APRIL 2010 137 COMMENTS

“Busy does not equal important. Measured doesn’t mean mattered.” – Seth Godin

There’s a hidden message in this post – it’s your free prize inside.  Whether you find the free prize or not, this post will make you think.  About your life.  About work.  About just about everything.  Why?  Because it’s a distillation of lessons from a man named Seth.  Seth Godin is an author, an agent of change, a meaning maker, and an Idea Merchant.

I have to say, this was my most challenging “greatness distilled” post to date.  Seth is a fountain of insight, and I wanted to do more than show the tip of the iceberg.  At the same time, I wanted to take the balcony view, look across his forest of ideas, and make a map of the most meaningful insights.  I won’t claim victory, but I smile inside as I think in the spirit of Seth, I won’t let perfect get in the way of the good.  I’m hoping people will share their lessons from Seth with me, and the map will go beyond my sketch and take a life of its own.  For now, this is my “Seth on a page.”

As you explore Seth’s work, find what you can use for the business of life, or the game of work.  If you walk away with the goal of finding 3 ah-has, you’ll change your frame … and a key to life is that if you change your frame, you change your game.

25 Lessons Learned from Seth Godin
Seth is full of lessons and insights.  Here are 25 lessons to chew on:

1. Have a bunch of good runs before the sun sets. Seth says — “Life is like skiing.  Just like skiing, the goal is not to get to the bottom of the hill. It’s to have a bunch of good runs before the sun sets.”
2. Be remarkable.  Boring is invisible.  Remarkable products and remarkable people get talked about.  Seth on remarkable — “How can you squander even one more day not taking advantage of the greatest shifts of our generation? How dare you settle for less when the world has made it so easy for you to be remarkable?”
3. Success is a skill.  Seth’s philosophy on success is — “it’s possible to enjoy your job, to do the right thing, to be transparent, to give more than you get and to be successful, all at the same time.”  It takes work.   Surround yourself with people who are succeeding.   You become who you hang with.  By surrounding yourself with people who are succeeding, you’ll learn what’s working and what’s not.  You can model their success and open doors that you might otherwise not see.  Seth on successful people – “”Successful people rarely confuse a can-do attitude with a smart plan. But they realize that one without the other is unlikely to get you very far.”
4. Being the best is the best place to be.  It’s better to be the best.   People pick the market leaders and they narrow their choices to the top.  Seth says, “Being the best in the world is seriously underrated.”   According to Seth, best in the world is relative – “It’s best for them, right now based on what they believe and in their world, the one they have access to.”  In the Dip, Seth shares 7 reasons why you might fail to become the best in the world:  1.) You run out of time, 2.) you run out of money, 3.) you get scared, 4.) you’re not serious about it, 5.) you lose interest or enthusiasm and settle for being mediocre, 6.) you focus on the short term instead of the long, 7.) you pick the wrong thing at which to be the best in the world.
5. Be missed.  Seth on how to be missed — “Connect, create meaning, make a difference, matter, be missed.”
6. Everybody is an expert about something.  You’re an expert at something.  Make meaning.  A SQUIDOO lens is a way to make meaning for others.  Seth on lenses – “A lens gives context. When it succeeds, it delivers meaning.”
7. Success is a hierarchy.   Seth teaches us the hierarchy of success: 1.) Attitude, 2.) Approach 3.) Goals 4.) Strategy 5.) Tactics 6.) Execution
8. Don’t do A as a calculated tactic to get B.  Do A because you believe in it.  Seth on success – “If we define success as the ability to make a living doing what I do, I’d say the following: 1.) No ulterior motive. I rarely do A as a calculated tactic to get B. I do A because I believe in A, or it excites me or it’s the right thing to do. That’s it. No secret agendas, 2.) I don’t think my audience owes me anything. It’s always their turn, 3.) I’m in a hurry to make mistakes and get feedback and get that next idea out there. I’m not in a hurry, at all, to finish the “bigger” project, to get to the finish line, 4.) I do things where I actually think I’m right, as opposed to where I think succeeding will make me successful. When you think you’re right, it’s more fun and your passion shows through, 5.) I’ve tried to pare down my day so that the stuff I actually do is pretty well leveraged. That and I show up. Showing up is underrated.”
9. Be in it for the long haul.  Things rarely come easy.  Make the journey worth it.  Chip away at success.  Seth says — “Listen instead to your real customers, to your vision and make something for the long haul. Because that’s how long it’s going to take, guys.”
10. Quit the right things and lean into the right Dips.  Winners quit the right things all the time.  Recognize when you’re in a Dip.  Pick the right Dips.  In the Dip, Seth teaches us 3 curves: 1) the Dip, 2) the Cul-De-Sac, and 3) the Cliff.  The Dip is the long slog between starting and mastery.  The Dip is where success happens.  Stick it out, only if you’re going to get the benefits of being the best in the world.  The Cul-De-Sac is where you work and work and work, but nothing much changes.  These are dead-end jobs.  The Cliff is a situation where you can’t quit until you fall off.  If you’re in a Cul-De-Sac or Cliff, you need to quit.  You need to quit these so you can refocus on something with promise.
11. Decide if you’re a freelancer or entrepreneur.  In the Bootstrapper’s Bible, Seth teaches us that a freelancer sells their talents.  While they may have a few employees, they’re doing a job without a boss, but not running a business.  There’s no exit strategy or pot of gold, but they make their own hours and be their own boss.  Examples include layout artists, writers, consultants, film editors, landscapers, architects, translators, and musicians.  Seth writes that an entrepreneur is trying to build something bigger than themselves.  They take calculated risk and focus on growth.  An entrepreneur is willing to receive little pay, work long hours, and take on great risk in exchange for the freedom to make something big, something that has real market value.
12. It’s like walking through a maze.   Seth on building a business from scratch — “Learn as you go.  Change as you go.  Building a business from scratch is like walking through a maze with many, many doors.  Once you open one, 100 new doors present themselves.  As you move your way through the maze, you need to stop and check your location.  Look at a map.  If you’re in the wrong place move.  But if you’ve discovered a new place, there’s nothing wrong with exploiting it.”
13. Everyone is not your customer.  Seth teaches us the key to failure – “the key to failure is trying to please everyone.”  Listen to your real customers.  It’s not the media, the investors, or the early adopters.  Seth on everyone is not your customer – “The media wants overnight successes (so they have someone to tear down). Ignore them. Ignore the early adopter critics that never have enough to play with. Ignore your investors that want proven tactics and predictable instant results. Listen instead to your real customers …”  Seth on figuring out what your customers really want — “Most people have no clue what they want, and if you ask them, you’ll get a lame answer. Most people don’t know they want Pretty Woman or Slumdog Millionaire. They don’t know they want Purple Cow or one of your killer articles. So if you want to have an impact, all you can do is lead. You can’t ask.”
14. Feed, grow, and satisfy the tribe.  Build your tribe.  According to Seth, “You can lead a tribe of people, connect them, commit to them and create a movement.”  Seth on building your tribe – “It adds to that the fact that what people really want is the ability to connect to each other, not to companies. So the permission is used to build a tribe, to build people who want to hear from the company because it helps them connect, it helps them find each other, it gives them a story to tell and something to talk about. Everything the organization does is to feed and grow and satisfy the tribe.”
15. Small is the new big.  Focus on relevant, specialized, and unique.  It’s the difference that makes the difference.   According to Seth, small helps you be remarkable – “Small means that you will outsource the boring, low-impact stuff like manufacturing and shipping and billing and packing to others, while you keep the power because you invent the remarkable and tell stories to people who want to hear them.”
16. Find the new scarce.  Where there’s scarcity, there’s value.
17. It’s the FREE PRIZE INSIDE.  Seth teaches us how to create a remarkable product – “The thing that makes something remarkable isn’t usually directly related to the original purpose of the product or service. It’s the FREE PRIZE INSIDE, the extra stuff, the stylish bonus, the design or the remarkable service or pricing that makes people talk about it and spread the word.”
18. The third century is about ideas.  We went from farms to factories to ideas.  Seth on the third century – “Fact is, the first 100 years of our country’s history were about who could build the biggest, most efficient farm. And the second century focused on the race to build factories. Welcome to the third century, folks.”
19. Spread your ideas. Be an idea merchant.  Spread your ideas.  Seth on being an idea merchant — “If you can get people to accept and embrace and adore and cherish your ideas, you win. You win financially, you gain power and you change the world in which we live.”   According to Seth, spreading is a formula of 8 variables: Sneezers, Hive, Velocity, Vector, Medium, Smoothness, Persistence and Amplifier.
20. Don’t wait for perfect. Test your ideas.  Learn and respond.  Don’t wait for perfect to land in your lap, and don’t let it get in the way of sharing a good idea.  Seth on testing ideas – “I’m in a hurry to make mistakes and get feedback and get that next idea out there.”  Seth on perfect — “Waiting for perfect is never as smart as making progress.”  Seth on doing it well now, is better than perfect later — “The minute you start walking down a path toward a yak shaving party, it’s worth making a compromise. Doing it well now is much better than doing it perfectly later.”
21. Don’t get paid to alter your behavior.  Be authentic.  There are two types of sneezers – the promiscuous sneezers and the powerful sneezers.  Promiscuous sneezers can be motivated by money and rewards to sell ideas to a hive.  Powerful sneezers have authority by setting a trend and can’t be bought.  A powerful sneezer can be worth many more times a promiscuous sneezer. Seth on staying a powerful sneezer — “After I left Yahoo!, I had many opportunities to serve on boards and do endorsements. I  chose not to. Why? Because I didn’t want to squander the powerful sneezing points I’d earned by writing my last book. … In every case, you’re getting paid to alter your behavior. That makes you more promiscuous and less powerful.”
22. The goal of reading is to choose what to change.  Find 3 take aways when you read a business book.   Seth on how to read a business book – “Decide, before you start, that you’re going to change three things about what you do all day at work.  Then, as you’re reading, find the three things and do it. The goal of the reading, then, isn’t to persuade you to change, it’s to help you choose what to change.”
23. The world changes whether you like it or not.   The world’s getting bigger and smaller.  Seth on how the world is changing – “The world’s getting bigger because you can look everywhere, but it’s also getting smaller because categories are getting specialized.”
24. The game of marketing has changed.  It’s not price – it’s relevancy, difference, and value.  Marketing is now tribal leadership.  Small is the new big.  Fire customers that aren’t right for your business.  Attention is an asset.  Permission marketing works better than spam – “Selling to people who actually want to hear from you is more effective than interrupting strangers who don’t.”  You take word-of-mouth marketing to the next level with IdeaViruses.  Tell the stories people want to believe.  Products that are remarkable get talked about.     Be authentic.  You can’t fool people.  According to Seth — “You can’t fool all the people, not even most of the time.  And people, once unfooled, talk about the experience.”  Marketing is an investment.  Seth says, “If you are marketing from a fairly static annual budget, you’re viewing marketing as an expense.  Good marketers realize that it is an investment.”
25. Feed, grow, and satisfy your business.   Plan for the money.   If there’s no money, you’re out of the game.  In the Bootstrapper’s Bible, Seth shares 9 rules to take care of your business: 1.) find people who care about cash less than you do, 2.) survival is success, 3.) success leads to more success 4.) redo the mission statement and the business plan every three months, 5.) associate with winners, 6.) beware of shared ownership, 7.) advertise, 8.) get mentored, and 9.) observe those little birds that clean the teeth of very big hippos.

Top 10 Seth Godin QuotesHere are my top 10 favorite quotes by Seth:

1. “Expectations are the engines of our perceptions.”
2. “Ideas in secret die. They need light and air or they starve to death.”
3. “Go ahead, do something impossible. “
4. “You can’t shrink your way to greatness! “
5. “Don’t try to please everyone. There are countless people who don’t want one, haven’t heard of one or actively hate it. So what?”
6. “Instead of wondering when your next vacation is, you ought to set up a life you don’t need to escape from.”
7. “Why waste a sentence saying nothing? “
8. “If you could do tomorrow over again, would you?”
9. “Change is not a threat, it’s an opportunity. Survival is not the goal, transformative success is.”
10. “Are you a serial idea-starting person? The goal is to be an idea-shipping person.”

Quotes Organized by Category
I’ve included some of my favorite Seth Godin quotes below.  For simple scanning, I’ve organized them using the following categories: General, Business, Change, Greatness, Ideas, Leadership/ Management, Marketing, Mediocrity / Status Quo, Strategy.

Category	Quotes
General	“A long walk and calm conversation are an incredible combination if you want to build a bridge.” “Be with the ones you love (and the ones that love you.) Ignore everyone else.” “If religion comprises rules you follow, faith is demonstrated by the actions you take.” “If there was ever a moment to follow your passion and do work that matters, this is it.” “If there’s time for an emergency, why isn’t there time for brilliance, generosity or learning? “ “If you could do tomorrow over again, would you? “ “If you have no wish, how can it possibly come true? “ “If you’re not proud of where you work, go work somewhere else. “ “Just saying yes because you can’t bear the short-term pain of saying no is not going to help you do the work.” “Knowing what to do is very, very different than actually doing it.” “Positive thinking is hard. Worth it, though.” “Put aside your need for a step-by-step manual and instead realize that analogies are your best friend. “ “Saying no to loud people gives you the resources to say yes to important opportunities. “ “We notice what we choose to notice.” “Who gets to decide what you want?” “Why waste a sentence saying nothing? “ “You are not your resume, you are your work. “ “You can be right or you can have empathy. You can’t do both.”
Business	“As an organization grows and succeeds, it sows the seeds of its own demise by getting boring.” “Choose your customers, choose your future.” “Choose your customers. Fire the ones that hurt your ability to deliver the right story to the others.” “Developing expertise or assets that are not easily copied is essential; otherwise you’re just a middleman. “ “Don’t try to be the ‘next’. Instead, try to be the other, the changer, the new. “ “Everyone is not your customer. “ “Fire the committee. No great website in history has been conceived of by more than three people. Not one. This is a deal breaker.” “Give up control and give it away … The more you give your idea away, the more your company is going to be worth. “ “If your organization requires success before commitment, it will never have either. “ “In a world of free, everyone can play.” “It’s better to make a decision, even the wrong one, than to be in limbo.” “Lack of resources (payroll), time and competing priorities are why so many nonprofits haven’t done well. It’s that simple.” “Make a decision. It doesn’t have to be a wise decision or a perfect one. Just make one.” “Once you have permission to talk to someone, finding new products or services for them is a smart way to grow.” “One way to think about running a successful business is to figure out what the least you can do is, and do that. “ “Playing safe is very risky. “ “The application process changes the list of who applies. Your applicants reflect your methods.” “The best time to do great customer service is when a customer is upset.” “The market and the consumer and idea trump the system.” “Your best customers are worth far more than your average customers.”
Change	“Change almost never fails because it’s too early. It almost always fails because it’s too late.” “Change is not a threat, it’s an opportunity. Survival is not the goal, transformative success is.” “If you want to dig a big hole, you need to stay in one place.” “Little changes cost you. Big changes benefit you by changing the game, but only if you go first.” “No, everything is not going to be okay. It never is. It isn’t okay now. Change, by definition, changes things” “Sometimes we spend more time than we should defending the old thing, instead of working to take advantage of the new thing.”
Greatness	“Art is what we’re doing when we do our best work.” “Be personal. Be relevant. Be specific.” “Becoming a superstar takes about 10,000 hours of hard work.” “Doing justice to the work is your task, not setting a world record. “ “Go ahead, do something impossible.” “If there isn’t a good reason, go home. If there is, then do something … loud, now, and memorable.” “Tribes makes our lives better, and leading a tribe is the best life of all. “ “When kids grow up wanting to be you, you matter.” “When the legacy you leave behind lasts for hours, days or a lifetime, you matter.” “When the room brightens when you walk in, you matter.” “When you see the world as it is, but insist on making it more like it could be, you matter.” “You can’t shrink your way to greatness! “
Ideas	“Are you a serial idea-starting person? The goal is to be an idea-shipping person. “ “Big ideas are little ideas that no-one killed too soon. “ “Ideas in secret die. They need light and air or they starve to death. “ “No organization ever created an innovation. People innovate, not companies.” “There’s no correlation between how good your idea is and how likely your organization will be to embrace it. “ “You can’t have good ideas unless you’re willing to generate a lot of bad ones.”
Leadership / Management	“Are you a serial idea-starting person? The goal is to be an idea-shipping person. “ “If you’re not uncomfortable in your work as a leader, it’s almost certain you’re not reaching your potential as a leader. “ “Leadership is scarce because few people are willing to go through the discomfort required to lead.” “Leadership on the other hand, is about creating change you believe in.” “’Teamwork’ is the word that bosses use when they actually mean ‘Do what I say’” “The easiest thing is to react. The second easiest thing is to respond. But the hardest thing is to initiate. – When people ask you to tell them what to do, resist.”
Marketing	“Advertising is just a symptom, a tactic. Marketing is about far more than that.” “Bullhorns are overrated: having ten times as many Twitter followers generates approximately zero times as much value. “ “But this is a remarkable egg, an egg worth talking about, an egg worth crossing the street for, an egg worth writing about. “ “Good marketers measure. “ “Good marketers tell stories. “ “If you can’t make money from attention, you should do something else for a living. “ “If you can’t sell to 1 in 1000, why market to a million? “ “If you’re a marketer who doesn’t know how to invent, design, influence, adapt, and ultimately discard products, then you’re no longer a marketer. You’re deadwood.“ “Low price is a great way to sell a commodity. That’s not marketing though, that’s efficiency.” “Market-driven design builds the success of the product’s marketing into the product itself.” “Marketing is the way your people answer the phone, the typesetting on your bills and your return policy.” “Marketing management is now tribal leadership. “ “Most of the time, creative entrepreneurs lose interest long before their marketing message loses its power. “ “People don’t believe what you tell them. They rarely believe what you show them. They often believe what their friends tell them. They always believe what they tell themselves. “ “People rarely buy what they need. They buy what they want.” “Perhaps marketing is about to transition to a new kind of profession, one that requires insight, dedication and smarts. “ “Relying too much on proof distracts you from the real mission–which is emotional connection.” “Selling to people who actually want to hear from you is more effective than interrupting strangers who don’t. “ “The best marketing strategy is to destroy your industry before your competition does. “ “The reason it seems that price is all your customers care about is that you haven’t given them anything else to care about. “ “You can win with consistent benefits, delivered over time. You win by incrementally earning share, attention and trust.”
Mediocrity / Status Quo	“’Good enough’ stopped being good enough a long time ago. so why not be great? “ “If you make a difference, people will gravitate to you. They want to engage, to interact and to get you more involved.” “It’s uncomfortable to challenge the status quo.” “It’s uncomfortable to resist the urge to settle.” “In our desire to please everyone, it’s very easy to end up being invisible or mediocre.” “Once you free yourself from the need for perfect acceptance, it’s a lot easier to launch work that matters.” “Successful people are the ones who are breaking the rules. “ “The reason they want you to fit in… is that once you do, then they can ignore you. “The status quo is leaving the building, and quickly.” “You can raise the bar or you can wait for others to raise it, but it’s getting raised regardless. “ “You don’t have to settle. It’s a choice you get to make every day.”
Strategy	“Don’t have any meetings about your web strategy. Just do stuff. First you have to fail, then you can improve. “ “The scalable, profitable strategy is to change the game, not to become the most average.”

Catalog of Seth’s Resources (Sites, Books, Videos)Seth has a wide range of resources, from blog posts to books.  For simple scanning, I organized Seth’s collection of resources into the following buckets: sites, books, eBooks, videos, and popular posts.

Category	Items
Key Links	Seth’s Blog Seth Godin.com Seth Godin (Wikipedia) SQUIDOO Lenses Seth Goden Small is the New Big the Dip
Books	All Marketers Tell Stories Free Prize Inside Linchpin: Are You Indispensable? Meatball Sundae: Is Your Marketing out of Sync? Permission Marketing Poke the Box Purple Cow Small Is the New Big Survival Is Not Enough: Why Smart Companies Abandon Worry and Embrace Change The Big Red Fez: How To Make Any Web Site Better The Big Moo: Stop Trying to Be Perfect and Start Being Remarkable The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit (and When to Stick) Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us Unleashing the Ideavirus We are All Weird
e-Books	Everyone’s an Expert (about something) Flipping the Funnel Knock Knock Money for nothing, traffic ebook The Bootstrapper’s Bible The Tribes Casebook Tribes Q&A Unleashing the IdeaVirus Who’s There
Videos	Seth Godin at Gel 2006 Seth Godin on Standing Out (Ted Talk) Seth Godin on All Marketers are Liars (Google Author Series) The Mindset of a Winner (Selling Power)
Popular Posts	Top 3 The Hierarchy of Success The Spirit of the Game The Web Doesn’t Care More … Beware the CEO Blog Building an Albatross Can’t vs. Won’t Different Kinds of Traffic Do You Deserve It? Don’t Shave That Yak How to Get Traffic for Your Blog How to Make Money Using the Internet Make Something Happen Malcolm is Wrong Memo to the Very Small One, a Few, Most, or All Scarcity Seven Tips to Build for Meaning Small is the New Big The Forces of Mediocrity The Intangibles The Long Tail and the Dip The New Digital Divide Tribe Management Two Kinds of Writing Understanding the Funnel What do You Know What Makes an Idea Viral You Should Write an eBook

http://sourcesofinsight.com/lessons-learned-from-seth-godin/

John C. Maxwell’s book There’s no such thing as business ethics.

john said:

Want to know about BUSINESS ETHICS – read this (then read John C. Maxwell’s book There’s no such thing as business ethics.

I came to this web site looking for information about John C. Maxwell ; I just finished reading his book “There is No Such Thing as Business Ethics (There is only one rule for making decision)“. In a world where superlatives are overused “ad nausium” I remain inclined to state that this book is the best one on business ethics I’ve ever read. It’s not only to the point, it puts ethical considerations clearly into focus in simple and memorable ways. Maxwell’s elaboration on the principle he champions (that the “Golden Rule” should be one’s guide – in business too) is outstanding.

It’s widely accepted that ethics is an important topic in business. America’s business schools focus on it (at both the undergraduate and the MBA level) as part of the standard business curriculum. However as many people who have experience in business know actual practices employed by managers and executives can be another matter entirely, whether or not they understand business ethics. Maxwell makes the point that that no one claims to be unethical; but it’s what one DOES that counts, not what one SAYS – is extremely well taken.

Can you imagine a student in an MBA class discussing ethics standing up and saying openly something like … “When I get there (in a business position) I’m going to screw all the customers and torque more money out of them to fatten our bottom line”, or “My plan for promotion includes identifying my chief competitors within our company and finding ways to discredit them and run their careers”? Of course not. Maxwell’s point is clear – no student in his or her right mind would say anything like that – in the classroom in front of the professor and other students. Such a student would be immediately chastised, and he or she knows it. But it doesn’t matter at that time anyway. Maxwell says it’s what they DO later on that matters. And in so saying he puts his finger on the crux of the problem.

What does matter is what those same people do years later when they are actually in business jobs, have positions of authority and are subject to the “pull” of unethical behavior. Maxwell does a really good job of showing WHY people succumb to ethical failure. There are real, and powerful reasons for this. Consequently it takes a lot more than just having “good intentions” to resist. It takes strength of moral conviction and a good understanding of the circumstances involved to stand up for doing what is right when the time comes and when circumstances conspire against it.

So why then have we seen ethical transgressions such as at former “Big 6″ accounting firm Arthur Anderson (which subsequently drove the company out of business and destroying 100% of shareholder value)? And what about the reactions from the business school community that took place at that time. The Wharton School of Business (Univ. of Pennsylvania) stepped up its focus on business ethics right after the Arthur Anderson scandal (of falsifying financial audits). But ethics had been a regular part of the educational fare at all business schools, including at Wharton – for years. Would Wharton’s extra emphasis on it “fix the problem”?

All the teaching about ethics that takes place in the classroom will do no good whatsoever if business school graduates don’t carry out ethical principles once they are “out in the profession” (and far removed from their well meaning professors and classmates from college). Only belief that good ethics and success go hand in hand will accomplish this. Maxwell does an outstanding job of showing that exemplary ethical behavior in fact paves the road for business success. It’s not a “luxury one can afford” if you are successful. That implies that it’s a drain on profits (aka – and therefore bad). In fact Maxwell shows how good ethics can be the cornerstone upon which business success is built, and that it maximizes everything from employee productivity to customer value, and hence profitability.

Of course the path a business takes is what it is. There is no way in business to run a “controlled test”, a shadow business run in a different manner with which to compare outcomes. The lack of empirical evidence from a controlled test leads business managers to assume and to claim that their choices were the best. Consequently it’s important that people understand how ethical practices organically lead to best business practices. Maxwell provides not only examples from real businesses, but also scenarios that are intuitively comprehensible that show how ethical actions lay the foundation for growth. This stands in opposition to unethical practices which merely “take from others” resulting in a zero sum game. As any business analyst can tell you, only growth leads to the pinnacle of success.

But since recall of why “doing the right thing” (when decision times come) can be problematic, Maxwell has a good approach to ethics for business by focusing its essence as the embodiment of the Golden Rule. And his treatment of the subject (which is easy to digest in a small 120 page book) makes it easy to get up to speed on as well. Since “remembering ethics” in the future seems to be the problem “hanging ones hat” on the widely known, and easy to remember Golden Rule seems like a good idea. Since we already know the Golden Rule it’s easy to remember – which should also make it hard to forget. And that (forgetting at opportune times) is the problem with business ethic. Remembering, therefore, is central to how this shortcoming can be fixed.

http://sourcesofinsight.com/lessons-learned-from-john-maxwell/

Lessons Learned from John Maxwell

Lessons Learned from John Maxwell

25 MAY 2010 27 COMMENTS

“Success is not a destination thing, it’s a daily thing.”– John Maxwell

When I think of leaders and leadership, I think of John Maxwell.  He is a speaker and author, and leadership is his super skill.  He leads by example but more importantly, he’s created an amazing knowledge base of leadership patterns and practices through his books and speaking engagements.

He takes up multiple shelves at the bookstore.  In fact, he’s written more than 50 books.   The beauty of his books is that he talks with you, not at at you, while at the same time challenging you to become a better version of yourself.   His books equip you with a wide range of ideas and language to help you frame out and master key areas of your life including your attitude, relationships, leadership skills, and success.  Along the way, he shares stories to bring the ideas to life and to share how he learned these lessons from the school of hard knocks and from multiple mentors.

From failing forward, to going on your success journey, to building a positive attitude, to winning with people, Maxwell covers a variety of  personal development and leadership skills that you can use in work and life.

I hope you enjoy these lessons as much as I’ve enjoyed putting them together …

25 Lessons Learned from John Maxwell
Here are 25 key lessons that capture and distill what I think are some of the most important insights from John Maxwell:

1. Leadership is influence.   Maxwell defines leadership as influence.  It’s simple, effective, and precise.  In The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, Maxwell says, “True leadership cannot be awarded, appointed, or assigned.  It comes only from influence, and that can’t be mandated.  It must be earned.  The only thing a title can buy is a little time – either to increase your level of influence with others or to erase it.”
2. Leadership isn’t a position, it’s a process.   Leadership starts right where you are, from the inside out.  Maxwell says,  “Most people who want to get ahead do it backward. They think, ‘I’ll get a bigger job, then I’ll learn how to be a leader.’ But showing leadership skill is how you get the bigger job in the first place. Leadership isn’t a position, it’s a process.”
3. Just do it.  Forget motivation and just do it.  Maxwell says, “The whole idea of motivation is a trap. Forget motivation.   Just do it. Exercise, lose weight, test your blood sugar, or whatever. Do it without motivation. And then, guess what?  After you start doing the thing, that’s when the motivation comes and makes it easy for you to keep on doing it.”
4. Your attitude towards life is still under construction.  According to Maxwell, your attitude towards life is constantly being shaped by the following factors:  personality (who are you), environment (what’s around you), word expression (what you hear), adult acceptance/affirmation (what you feel), self-image(how you see yourself), exposure to new experiences, association with peers (who influences you), physical appearance (how you look to others), and marriage, family, and job (your security and status.)  Maxwell believes that your environment shapes you more than your personality or other inherited traits, and that your outward actions are a direct reflection of your self-image (we tend to act consistently with how we see ourselves.)  In Attitude 101, Maxwell says, “Whether you are eleven, forty-two, or sixty-five, your attitude toward life is still under construction.  It’s never too late for a person to change his attitude.”
5. Use principles to guide you.   Drive from durable principles instead of a bunch of rules and policies.  According to Maxwell, “policies are many, principles are few, policies will change, principles never do.”
6. Leadership is a collection of skills.  Leadership is something you can learn and improve at.  Maxwell says, “Although it is true that some people are born with greater natural gifts than others, the ability to lead is really a collection of skills, nearly all of which can be learned and improved.”
7. Build trust through competence, connection, and character.  You won’t follow somebody you don’t trust.  As a leader, you have to build trust.  Maxwell says, “There are three qualities a leader must exemplify to build trust: competence, connection, and character.”
8. Success is a journey, not a destination.   Don’t think of success as a place.  Think of it as a path.   Success is a journey you can enjoy a day at a time.  Take the right people with you on your success journey.   In Your Road Map for Success, Maxwell identifies 10 things to look for when figuring out who to invest in or who to bring with you: 1) make things happen, 2) see and seize opportunities, 3) influence others, 4) add value, 5) attract other leaders, 6) equip others, 7) provide inspiring ideas, 8.) possess uncommonly positive attitudes, 9) live up to their commitments, and 10) have loyalty.
9. Success is a daily thing.  You can be successful one day or one decision at a time.   Maxwell says, “If you can handle today correctly, tomorrow will take care of itself.”
10. Success is a decision at a time.   Maxwell says, “You don’t become a success when you get your diploma.  You became a success when you decided to go to college.  When you get your diploma you get the rewards of success.”
11. 7 Steps for success.  In Success One Day at a Time, Maxwell shares 7 steps for success:  1) make a commitment to grow daily, 2) value the process more than events, 3) don’t wait for inspiration, 4) be willing to sacrifice pleasure for opportunity, 5) dream big, 6) plan your priorities, and 7) give up to go up.
12. Look for the landmarks of success.  The highest levels of success require a series of significant trade-offs.   Maxwell identifies the following trade-offs that serve as landmarks: 1) achievement over affirmation, 2) excellence over acceptability, 3) personal growth over immediate pleasure, 4) future potential over financial gain, 5) a narrow focus over scattered interests, and significant over security.
13. Leadership is a visual thing.  The greatest leadership is by example.  Maxwell says, “A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.”
14. Everybody needs encouragement.  No matter who you are, you still need encouragement.  Maxwell says, “Remember, man does not live on bread alone: sometimes he needs a little buttering up.”
15. Don’t take yourself too seriously.  In Your Roadmap for Success, Maxwell says we need to be able to laugh at ourselves, “… success depends more on your attitude than it does on how important you think you are.  Life should be fun.  Even if your job is important and should be taken seriously, that doesn’t mean you should take yourself seriously.  You’ll go farther in life and have a better time doing it if you maintain a sense of humor, especially when it comes to yourself.”
16. Use failure as a springboard.  Unsuccessful people avoid taking any risks to try and avoid failure.  Successful people turn failure into feedback.  They don’t dwell on mistakes or the negative consequences of failures.  Instead, they focus on the rewards of success and on learning from their mistakes.  In Your Road Map for Success, Maxwell shares 10 ways to fail forward effectively: 1) appreciate the value of failure, 2) don’t take failure personally, 3) let failure redirect you, 4) keep a sense of humor, 5) ask why, not who, 6.) make failure a learning experience, 7) don’t let failure keep you down, 8.) use failure as a gauge for growth, 9) see the big picture, 10) don’t give up.
17. Win with people.   Growing people is the key to growing your success.  Maxwell says, “The growth and development of people is the highest calling of leadership” and “true success comes only when every generation continues to develop the next generation.”  In 360 Degree Leader, Maxwell says, “Great leaders don’t use people so they can win.  They lead people so they can all lead together.  If that is truly your motivation, you can become the kind of person that people want to follow – whether they are beside, above, or below you in the organizational hierarchy.”  Maxwell makes people development a priority.  To avoid spreading himself too thin, he focuses 80 percent of his time developing only the top 20 percent of the people around him.  Maxwell says, “your time is limited, and it makes more sense to help a few learn how to fly and reach their potential rather than show a big group only enough to whet their appetite.”
18. Let people fly with you for a while.  In Maxwell’s experience, the most effective way to mentor and ramp people up is the same way craftspeople have done for years: 1) do it, 2) I do it — and you watch, 3) you do it – and I watch, 4) you do it.
19. 10 principles for personal growth.  In Your Road Map for Success, Maxwell shares 10 principles for improving your personal growth: 1) choose a life of growth, 2) start growing today, 3) be teachable, 4) focus on self-development, not self-fulfillment, 5) never stay satisfied with current accomplishments, 6) be a continual learner, 7) concentrate on a few major themes, 8.) develop a plan for growth, 9) pay the price, 10) find a way to apply what you learn.
20. Don’t make happiness your measure of success.  Happiness is fleeting while success is a stable path.  In Your Road Map for Success, Maxwell writes, “The continual search for happiness is a primary reason that so many people are miserable.  If you make happiness your goal, you are almost certainly destined to fail.  You will be on a continual roller coaster, changing from successful to unsuccessful with every mood change.  Life is uncertain, and emotions aren’t stable.  Happiness simply cannot be relied upon as a measure of success.”
21. Achievement over affirmation.   Focus on achievement rather than worry about fitting in.  Maxwell says, “Affirmation from others is fickle and fleeting.  If you want to make an impact during your lifetime, you have to trade the praise you could receive from others for the things of value that you can accomplish.  You can’t be ‘one of the boys’ and follow your destiny at the same time.”
22. 4 kinds of people when it comes to relationships.  In Success 101, Maxwell says there are 4 kinds of people when it comes to relationships: 1) some people add something to life (we enjoy them), 2) some people subtract something from life (we tolerate them), 3) some people multiply something in life (we value them), 4) some people divide something in life (we avoid them.)
23. Lead yourself exceptionally well.  Leadership starts from the inside out.  Lead yourself first.  In Success 101, Maxwell identifies 7 areas that successful people must self-manage: 1) you emotions, 2) your time, 3) your priorities, 4) your energy, 5) your thinking, 6) your words, and 7) your personal life.
24. Treat people like a “10.” Who gets your better effort? … a leader who treats you as a “2” or a leader who treats you as a “10”?  Maxwell says that in his experience, people usually rise to the leader’s expectations – if they like the leader.   Treat people like a 10 if you want their best.  Maxwell says one way to do this is to focus on a skill or strength that somebody has that is a “10.”  If you can’t find a “10” in terms of skill, then rather than write somebody off, look to a non-skill area where the person can grow into a “10”, independent of skill, such as attitude, desire, discipline, and perseverance.
25. Focus on production over politics.   In the 360 Degree Leader, Maxwell says there are two ways to get ahead: production and politics.  Maxwell says avoid office politics and instead focus on production.  Maxwell says that people who rely on production: depend on how they grow, focus on what they do, become better than they appear, provide substance, do what’s necessary, work to control their own destiny, grow into the next level, base decisions on principles.  On the other hand, people who rely on politics: depend on who they know, focus on what they say, appear better than they are, take shortcuts, do what’s popular, let others control their destiny, hope to be given the next level, base decisions on opinions.  Maxwell shares 6 ways to avoid politics: 1) avoid gossip, 2) stay away from petty arguments, 3) stand up for what’s right, not just for what’s popular, 4) look at all sides of the issue, 5) don’t protect your turf, and 6) say what you mean, and mean what you say.

Success Defined
Maxwell defines success in a very simple, but elegant way that’s empowering:

“Success is … knowing your purpose in life, growing to reach your maximum potential, and sowing seeds that benefit others.”

The 21 Irrefutable Laws of LeadershipOne of Maxwell’s greatest contributions to the leadership body of knowledge is the identification of 21 laws of leadership:

1. THE LAW OF THE LID — Leadership Ability Determines a Person’s Level of Effectiveness.
2. THE LAW OF INFLUENCE — The True Measure of Leadership is Influence — Nothing More, Nothing Less.
3. THE LAW OF PROCESS — Leadership Develops Daily, Not in a Day.
4. THE LAW OF NAVIGATION — Anyone Can Steer the Ship, But It Takes a Leader to Chart the Course..
5. THE LAW OF ADDITION — Leaders Add Value by Serving Others.
6. THE LAW OF SOLID GROUND — Truth is the Foundation of Leadership.
7. THE LAW OF RESPECT — People Naturally Follow Leaders Stronger Than Themselves.
8. THE LAW OF INTUITION — Leaders Evaluate Everything with a Leadership Bias.
9. THE LAW OF MAGNETISM – Who You Are is Who You Attract.
10. THE LAW OF CONNECTION. – Leaders Touch a Heart Before They Ask for a Hand.
11. THE LAW OF THE INNER CIRCLE – A Leader’s Potential is Determined by Those Closest to Him.
12. THE LAW OF EMPOWERMENT – Only Secure Leaders Give Power to Others.
13. THE LAW OF THE PICTURE – People Do What People See.
14. THE LAW OF BUY-IN – People Buy into the Leader, Then the Vision.
15. THE LAW OF VICTORY – Leaders Find a Way for the Team to Win.
16. THE LAW OF THE BIG MO – Momentum is a Leader’s Best Friend.
17. THE LAW OF PRIORITIES – Leaders Understand that Activity is Not Necessarily Accomplishment.
18. THE LAW OF SACRIFICE – A Leader Must Give Up to Go Up.
19. THE LAW OF TIMING – When to Lead is As Important as What to Do and Where to Go.
20. THE LAW OF EXPLOSIVE GROWTH – To Add Growth, Lead Followers – To Multiply, Lead Leaders.
21. THE LAW OF LEGACY – A Leader’s Lasting Value is Measured by Succession.

If you’re familiar with the original 21 laws, you’ll note the following changes:

• Law 5 – THE LAW OF E.F. HUTTON -> THE LAW OF ADDITION.
• Law 13 – THE LAW OF REPRODUCTION  -> THE LAW OF THE PICTURE
• Law 16 – THE LAW OF MOMENTUM -> THE LAW OF THE BIG MO

You can explore the 21 laws in depth in Maxwell’s book, The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership: Follow Them and People Will Follow You .

The 21 Indispensible Qualities of a Leader
Maxwell identified 21 qualities of a leader:

1. CHARACTER: Be a Piece of the Rock
2. CHARISMA: The First Impression Can Seal the Deal.
3. COMMITMENT: It Separates Doers from Dreamers.
4. COMMUNICATION: Without It You Travel Alone.
5. COMPETENCE: If You Build It, They Will Come.
6. COURAGE: One Person with Courage Is a Majority.
7. DISCERNMENT: Put an End to Unsolved Mysteries.
8. FOCUS: The Sharper It Is, the Sharper You Are.
9. GENEROSITY: Your Candle Loses Nothing When It Lights Another.
10. INITIATIVE: You Won’t Leave Home Without It.
11. LISTENING: To Connect with Their Hearts, Use Your Ears.
12. PASSION: Take This Life and Love It.
13. POSITIVE ATTITUDE: If You Believe You Can, You Can.
14. PROBLEM SOLVING: You Can’t Let Your Problems Be a Problem.
15. RELATIONSHIPS: If You Get Along, They’ll Go Along.
16. RESPONSIBILITY: If You Won’t Carry the Ball, You Can’t Lead the Team.
17. SECURITY: Competence Never Compensates for Insecurity.
18. SELF-DISCIPLINE: The First Person You Lead Is You.
19. SERVANTHOOD: To Get Ahead, Put Others First.
20. TEACHABILITY: To Keep Leading, Keep Learning.
21. VISION: You Can Seize Only What You Can.

You can explore the 21 qualities in depth in Maxwell’s book, The 21 Indispensable Qualities of a Leader : Becoming the Person Others Will Want to Follow .

Top 10 Quotes
Here are my top 10 favorite quotes by John Maxwell:

1. “Change is inevitable. Growth is optional.”
2. “Do not take the agenda that someone else has mapped out for your life.”
3. “Growth inside fuels growth outside. “
4. “Learn to say ‘no’ to the good so you can say ‘yes’ to the best.”
5. “Life is 10% of what happens to me and 90% of how I react to it.”
6. “People do not care how much you know until they know how much you care.”
7. “The pessimist complains about the wind. The optimist expects it to change. The leader adjusts the sails.”
8. “We all stand on the shoulders of the past generation.”
9. “We cannot lead anyone farther than we have been ourselves.”
10. “You must manage your thought life daily and then you can manage your life.”

More Quotes by John MaxwellI’ve included some of my favorite John Maxwell quotes below.  For simple scanning, I’ve organized them using the following categories: Choice and decisions, Communication, Daily Impact, Growth, Leaders and Leadership.

Category	Quotes
Choice and Decisions	“Everything begins with a decision. Then, we have to manage that decision for the rest of your life.” “If you don’t change the direction you are going, then you’re likely to end up where you’re heading…” “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.” “There are two paths people can take. They can either play now and pay later, or pay now and play later. Regardless of the choice, one thing is certain. Life will demand a payment.” “We choose what attitudes we have right now. And it’s a continuing choice.” “You cannot overestimate the unimportance of practically everything.”
Communication	“A good leader is a person who takes a little more than his share of the blame and a little less than his share of the credit.” Educators take something simple and make it complicated. Communicators take something complicated and make it simple. “Leaders must be close enough to relate to others, but far enough ahead to motivate them.” “People buy into the leader before they buy into the vision.” “Relational skills are the most important abilities in leadership.” “Remember, man does not live on bread alone: sometimes he needs a little buttering up.” “Talk to People, Not Above Them.”
Daily Impact	“As you begin changing your thinking, start immediately to change your behavior. Begin to act the part of the person you would like to become. Take action on your behavior. Too many people want to feel, then take action. This never works.” “Doing the right thing daily, compounds over time.” “Doing the wrong thing daily, compounds over time.” “It is truly one day at a time.” “Stay focused instead of getting offended or off track by others.” “The law of process says — leaders develop daily, not in a day.” “The secret of your success is found in your daily routine. – John C. Maxwell “Today matters.” “What is the main event today? What do you want me to focus on today?” “What you are going to be tomorrow, you are becoming today.” “Where there is no hope in the future, there is no power in the present.”
Growth	“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. “A man must be big enough to admit his mistakes, smart enough to profit from them, and strong enough to correct them.” “Good character is more to be praised than outstanding talent.” “If we’re growing, we’re always going to be out of our comfort zone.” “Image is what people think we are; integrity is what we really are.” “The depth of your mythology is the extent of your effectiveness.” “Life doesn’t do anything to you. It only reveals your spirit.” “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.” “The greatest mistake we make is living in constant fear that we will make one.” “You must do right before you feel good.”
Leaders and Leadership	“A great leader’s courage to fulfill his vision comes from passion, not position.” “A leader is great, not because of his or her power, but because of his or her ability to empower others.” “A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.” “A leader who produces other leaders multiples their influences.” “Believing in people before they have proved themselves is the key to motivating people to reach their potential.” “Encourage the many; mentor the few.” “Everyone is a leader because everyone influences someone.” “Leadership is developed daily, not in a day.” “Leadership is influence.” “Leaders must live by higher standards than their followers.” “Most People have a desire to look for the exception instead of the desire to become exceptional. “ “Not everyone will become a great leader, but everyone can become a better leader.” “One is too small a number to achieve greatness.” “The first step to leadership is servant hood.” “The law of process says leaders develop daily, not in a day.” “The more credible you are, the more confidence people place in you, thereby allowing you the privilege of influencing their lives.” “There are three qualities a leader must exemplify to build trust: competence, connection, and character.” “What is the main event today? What do you want me to focus on today?” “You can’t become a leader in one conference.”
Success	“Happiness simply cannot be relied upon as a measure of success.” “If you start today to do the right thing, you are already a success even if it doesn’t show yet.” “Once our minds are ‘tattooed’ with negative thinking, our chances for long-term success diminish.” “Successful leaders have the courage to take action while others hesitate.” “Successful people are willing to do things unsuccessful people will not do.” “To collaborative team members, completing one another is more important than competing with one another.” “True success comes only when every generation continues to develop the next generation.” “We all stand on the shoulders of the past generation” “You don’t become a success when you get your diploma, you became a success when you decided to go to college when you get your diploma you get the rewards of success.” “You have to sow excellent seeds to have an excellent life. You must start with sowing excellent thoughts.”

Books
John Maxwell has so many books that I organized them into categories.   I organized them by the following categories: 101 Series, Power Series, Workbooks, Attitude, Leadership, Relationships, and Success.

Category	Books
101 Series	Attitude 101: What Every Leader Needs to Know (101 Series) Equipping 101 (Maxwell, John C.) Ethics 101: What Every Leader Needs To Know (101 Series) Leadership 101: What Every Leader Needs to Know Mentoring 101 Relationships 101 (Maxwell, John C.) Self-Improvement 101: What Every Leader Needs to Know (101 (Thomas Nelson)) Success 101 Teamwork 101: What Every Leader Needs to Know (101 (Thomas Nelson))
Power Series	The Power of Attitude The Power Of Influence (Power Series) The Power of Leadership The Power of Thinking Big
Workbooks	Developing the Leader Within You Workbook The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership Workbook: Revised & Updated The 360 Degree Leader Workbook: Developing Your Influence from Anywhere in the Organization
Attitude	Be All You Can Be: A Challenge to Stretch Your God-Given Potential Failing Forward: Turning Mistakes into Stepping Stones for Success How Successful People Think: Change Your Thinking, Change Your Life Living At The Next Level Insight For Reaching Your Dreams The Difference Maker: Making Your Attitude Your Greatest Asset The Winning Attitude Your Key To Personal Success Think on These Things: Meditations for Leaders: 30th Anniversary Edition Thinking for a Change: 11 Ways Highly Successful People Approach Life andWork Your Bridge to a Better Future
Leadership	Developing the Leader Within You Developing the Leaders Around You: How to Help Others Reach Their Full Potential Leadership Gold: Lessons I’ve Learned from a Lifetime of Leading Leadership Promises for Every Day Leading From The Lockers – Guided Journal Maxwell Leadership Bible, Revised and Updated Running with the Giants: What the Old Testament Heroes Want You to Know About Life and Leadership The 17 Essential Qualities of a Team Player: Becoming the Kind of Person Every Team Wants The 17 Indisputable Laws of Teamwork: Embrace Them and Empower Your Team The 21 Indispensable Qualities of a Leader : Becoming the Person Others Will Want to Follow The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership: Follow Them and People Will Follow You The 21 Most Powerful Minutes in a Leader’s Day: Revitalize Your Spirit and Empower Your Leadership The 360 Degree Leader: Developing Your Influence from Anywhere in the Organization The Right to Lead: Learning Leadership Through Character and Courage
Relationships	25 Ways to Win with People: How to Make Others Feel Like a Million Bucks Be a People Person: Effective Leadership Through Effective Relationships Becoming a Person of Influence: How to Positively Impact the Lives of Others Everyone Communicates, Few Connect: What the Most Effective People Do Differently Partners In Prayer Teamwork Makes The Dreamwork Treasure of a Friend Journal Winning with People: Discover the People Principles that Work for You Every Time
Success	Dare to Dream . . . Then Do It: What Successful People Know and Do My Dream Map Put Your Dream to the Test: 10 Questions that Will Help You See It and Seize It Success: One Day At A Time Talent Is Never Enough: Discover the Choices That Will Take You Beyond Your Talent The Choice is Yours The Journey from Success to Significance (Maxwell, John C.) The Maxwell Daily Reader: 365 Days of Insight to Develop the Leader Within You and Influence Those Around You There’s No Such Thing as “Business” Ethics: There’s Only One Rule for Making Decisions Today Matters: 12 Daily Practices to Guarantee Tomorrows Success (Maxwell, John C.) Your Road Map for Success: You Can Get There from Here

Catalog of John Maxwell’s ResourcesMaxwell has a wide range of resources, from blog posts to videos.  For simple scanning, I organized Maxwell’s collection of resources into the following buckets: Key Links, Videos, and Popular Posts.

Category	Items
Key Links	Maxwell’s Blog John Maxwell.com About John Maxwell John C. Maxwell (Wikipedia) Amazon Author Page
Videos	Hope Joyce Meyer – Attitude Adjustment with John Maxwell part 1 Joyce Meyer – Attitude Adjustment with John Maxwell Part 2 Joyce Meyer – How to Simplify Your Life with John Maxwell Joyce Meyer – Words of Affirmation with John Maxwell Part 1
Popular Posts	Any dream worth considering is worth evaluating (and Tweeting?) are you driven by Emotion? Or Character? Connecting increases your influence in every situation Developing your creativity — even if you’re not sure it’s within you. File under F for Filing How Successful People Think If at first you do succeed, try something harder Imagination: Your ticket to a dream. Leadership answers; no waiting! On success and stupidity — TAKE TWO Stupid is as stupid does … What do YOU think I need to say about communication? What is success? Wherever you go, there you are. You’re doing too much on your own.

http://sourcesofinsight.com/lessons-learned-from-john-maxwell/

"stand on the shoulders of giants!"

 
Photo by Esparta 

Leverage the wisdom of the ages and modern day sages. Draw from books, people, and quotes to be your best in any situation.