“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.”

“Nobody wants to be sold, but everyone wants to be helped.”

“Not realizing what you want is a problem of knowledge. Not pursuing what you want is a problem of motivation. Not achieving what you want is a problem of persistence.”

“Maturity doesn’t come with age. It begins with the acceptance of responsibility.”

“1. Watch the news together. Select one crisis and answer the question: If I was in charge of this what would I do? List solution-steps they could take. 2. Groom the optimist in them. Have them read and listen to positive books and tapes. Feed them with big ideas from great people. 3. Have them write out their dreams. Then, have them list their skills and talents. Do any match? Ask them what they would do if they had no fear of failure. 4. Go with them to interview a visionary leader. Ask that leader how they think about problems. How do they perceive opportunities? 5. Discuss current events each week. Ask them to identify one burden or problem”

“greatest enemy to tomorrow’s success is sometimes today’s success.”

“move up to another level in your career and personal life

“It’s better to have a great team with a weak dream than a great dream with a weak team. Your team must be the size of your dream.”

“If you lead a team, start asking questions and really listening. Start valuing the contributions of your teammates ahead of your own. And remember that when the best idea wins, so does the entire team.”

“If a team is to accomplish its goals, it has to know where it stands.”

“Experience alone isn’t a good enough teacher – evaluated experience is.”

“There’s a difference between hearing people and listening to them.”

“You cannot separate your identity from your perspective. All that you are and every experience you’ve had color how you see things. It is your lens.”

“La mayor parte de las personas buscan la excepción en vez de ser excepcionales.”