“One day when the Raiders were in Oakland, a reporter visited their locker room to talk to Ken Stabler. Stabler really wasn’t known as an intellectual, but he was a good quarterback. This newspaperman read him some English prose: “I would rather be ashes than dust. I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than that it should be stifled by dry rot. I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy, impermanent planet. The proper function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. I shall use my time.” After reading this to the quarterback, the reporter asked, “What does this mean to you?” Stabler immediately replied, “Throw deep.” Go after it. Go out to win in life.”
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John C. Maxwell
“When you realize that people treat you according to how they see themselves rather than how you really are, you are less likely to be affected by their behavior.”
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John C. Maxwell
“Do you know the difference between leaders, followers, and losers? Leaders stretch with challenges. Followers struggle with challenges. Losers shrink from challenges.”
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John C. Maxwell
“Believing in the cause creates your conviction. Believing in your vision fuels your inspiration. Believing in your people builds your motivation.”
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John C. Maxwell
“An intentional life embraces only the things that will add to the mission of significance.”
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John C. Maxwell
“I state in my book Put Your Dream to the Test that the more valid reasons a person has to achieve their dream, the higher the odds are that they will. Valid reasons also increase the odds that a person will follow through with personal growth.”
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John C. Maxwell
“Learning is defined as a change in behavior. You haven't learned a thing until you can take action and use it.”
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John C. Maxwell
“Write down somewhere in the margins on this page your answer to this question: How have you changed . . . lately? In the last week, let’s say? Or in the last month? The last year? Can you be very specific? Or must your answer be incredibly vague? You say you’re growing. Okay . . . how? “Well,” you say, “In all kinds of ways.” Great! Name one. You see, effective teaching comes only through a changed person. The more you change, the more you become an instrument of change in the lives of others. If you want to become a change agent, you also must change.2 Change the leader—change the organization.”
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John C. Maxwell
“The effectiveness of your work will never rise above your ability to lead and influence others. You cannot produce consistently on a level higher than your leadership. In other words, your leadership skills determine the level of your success-and the success of those who work around you.”
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John C. Maxwell
“If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it enough.”
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John C. Maxwell
“To be persuasive we must be believable; to be believable we must be credible; to be credible we must be truthful.”
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John C. Maxwell
“Four Unpardonable Sins of a Communicator”: being unprepared, uncommitted, uninteresting, or uncomfortable.”
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John C. Maxwell
“Leaders have to grow into their roles, and if the role becomes more demanding, the leader has to keep growing. Leadership is never a right. It’s a privilege and a responsibility. But it’s one that is open to anyone who’s willing to work hard enough to get it.”
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John C. Maxwell
“The ability to connect with others begins with understanding the value of people.”
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John C. Maxwell
