“Recently I took my daughter Elizabeth out to a restaurant for lunch. The waitress, whose job it was to take care of people, made us feel that we were really inconveniencing her. She was grumpy, negative, and unhelpful. All of her customers were aware of the fact that she was having a bad day. Elizabeth looked up at me and said, “Dad, she’s a grump, isn’t she?” I could only agree with a look of disdain. Halfway through our experience I tried to change this woman’s negative attitude. Pulling out a $10 bill, I said, “Could you do me a favor? I’d like some change for this $10 bill because I want to give you a good tip today.” She looked at me, did a double take, and then ran to the cash register. After changing the money, she spent the next fifteen minutes hovering over us. I thanked her for her service, told her how important and helpful she was, and left a good tip. As we left, Elizabeth said, “Daddy, did you see how that lady changed?” Seizing this golden opportunity, I said, “Elizabeth, if you want people to act right toward you, you act right toward them. And many times you’ll change them.”
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John C. Maxwell
“You don't say how slim the odds are but rather how you can improve the odds.”
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John C. Maxwell
“People who think they’re leading but have no one following them are only taking a walk.”
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John C. Maxwell
“There are two types of people in the business community: those who produce results and those who give you reasons why they didn’t.”
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John C. Maxwell
“Successful people think differently than unsuccessful people.”
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John C. Maxwell
“When you don’t want to change, you look for differences in others. When you are willing to change, you look for similarities.”
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John C. Maxwell
“You must reject common thinking if you want to accomplish uncommon results.”
―
John C. Maxwell
“No one can understand that mysterious thing we call influence . . . yet . . . everyone of us continually exerts influence, either to heal, to bless, to leave marks of beauty; or to wound, to hurt, to poison, to stain other lives.”
―
John C. Maxwell
“When people follow a leader because they have to, they will do only what they have to. People don’t give their best to leaders they like least. They give reluctant compliance, not commitment. They may give their hands but certainly not their heads or hearts.”
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John C. Maxwell
“Why worry about things you can't control when you can keep yourself busy controlling the things that depend on you?”
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John C. Maxwell
“you can act your way into feeling long before you can feel your way into action. If you wait until you feel like doing something, you will likely never accomplish it.”
―
John C. Maxwell
“A person who has a dream knows what he is willing to give up in order to go up.”
―
John C. Maxwell
