“Focus on your faith and feed it. The more energy and time you give it, the stronger it becomes. And anytime you feel afraid of doing something but go ahead and do it anyway, you will be reprogramming your attitude. When you feel fear, it will mean “go” instead of “stop,” and “fight harder” instead of “give up.” 

“Secrecy spawns isolation, not success.”

“When talented teams don’t win, examine the leadership.”

“No entender lo que usted quiere es un problema de conocimiento. No tratar de obtener lo que quiere es un problema de motivación. No lograr lo que quiere es un problema de persistencia.”

“When we’re more interested in telling people what to do than in listening to what they are presently doing, we are off balance.”

“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!”

“The boss drives his workers; the leader coaches them. The boss depends on authority; the leader on goodwill. The boss inspires fear; the leader inspires enthusiasm. The boss says “I”; the leader, “we.” The boss fixes the blame for the breakdown; the leader fixes the breakdown. The boss knows how it is done; the leader shows how. The boss says, “Go”; the leader says, “Let’s go!”

“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”

“A successful person finds the right place for himself. But a successful leader finds the right place for others.

“Enlightenment writer and philosopher Voltaire likened life to a game of cards. Players must accept the cards dealt to them. However, once they have those cards in hand, they alone choose how they will play them. They decide what risks and actions to take.”

“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”

“If you combine your thoughts with the thoughts of others, you will come up with thoughts you’ve never had!”

“You can lead your horse to water, but you can’t manage him to drink.

“growth compounds and accelerates if you remain intentional about it.”

“The measure of a leader is not the number of people who serve him, but the number of people he serves.”