“when the real leader speaks, people listen. Leadership is influence-nothing more, nothing less.”

“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!”

“Great minds have purposes; others have wishes. Little minds are subdued by misfortunes; but great minds rise above them.”

“60 percent of all management problems are the result of faulty communications.”

“To lead any way other than by example, we send a fuzzy picture of leadership to others. If we work on improving ourselves first and make that our primary mission, then others are more likely to follow.”

“Successful people think differently than unsuccessful people.”

“When you know your purpose and priorities and you have ordered your day, week, or year according to them, you have a clarity of thought that strengthens everything you do.”

“A leader with great passion and few skills always outperforms a leader with great skills and no passion.”

“The closest to perfection people ever come is when they write their resumes .”

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

“First we form habits, but then our habits form us.

“Most good leaders want the perspective of people they trust.”

“Being in power is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are, you aren't."

“It's good to be out of your comfort zone. Just don't step out of your gift zone.”

“most people overrate decision making, and they underrate decision managing.”