Change is inevitable. Growth is optional.
—John C. Maxwell
Most People have a desire to look for the exception instead of the desire to become exceptional.
—John C. Maxwell
Topics: Leadership
Do not take the agenda that someone else has mapped out for your life.
—John C. Maxwell
Over time, is it easier or harder to sustain your influence within your organization? With charisma alone, influence becomes increasingly more difficult to sustain. With character, as time passes, influence builds and requires less work to sustain.
—John C. Maxwell
Topics: Character
Encourage the many; mentor the few.
—John C. Maxwell
Topics: Leadership
A man must be big enough to admit his mistakes, smart enough to profit from them, and strong enough to correct them.
—John C. Maxwell
Topics: Entrepreneurs, Mistakes, Profit, Growth
Life doesn’t do anything to you. It only reveals your spirit.
—John C. Maxwell
Topics: Growth
Character makes trust possible, and trust is the foundation of leadership.
—John C. Maxwell
Topics: Character
We cannot lead anyone farther than we have been ourselves.
—John C. Maxwell
Topics: Leadership
The pessimist complains about the wind.
The optimist expects it to change.
The leader adjusts the sails.
—John C. Maxwell
Topics: Leadership
Success is not a destination thing, it’s a daily thing.
—John C. Maxwell
The truth is that teamwork is at the heart of great achievement.
—John C. Maxwell
You don’t become a success when you get your diploma, you became a success when you decided to go to college when you get your diploma you get the rewards of success.
—John C. Maxwell
Topics: Success
The first step to leadership is servant hood.
—John C. Maxwell
Topics: Leadership
Do you value people who won’t benefit you or only those who might contribute in some way to your success? Great team players truly value others as people, and they know and relate to what others value.
—John C. Maxwell
Life is 10% of what happens to me and 90% of how I react to it.
—John C. Maxwell
Leadership is not a right—it is a responsibility.
—John C. Maxwell
Topics: Leadership
A leader is great, not because of his or her power, but because of his or her ability to empower others.
—John C. Maxwell
Topics: Leadership
It is truly one day at a time.
—John C. Maxwell
Happiness simply cannot be relied upon as a measure of success.
—John C. Maxwell
Topics: Success
Stay focused instead of getting offended or off track by others.
—John C. Maxwell
A big man is one who makes us feel bigger when we are with him.
—John C. Maxwell
Topics: Character
The Wrong Person in the Wrong Place = Regression. The Wrong Person in the Right Place = Frustration. The Right Person in the Wrong Place = Confusion. The Right Person in the Right Place = Progression. The Right People in the Right Places = Multiplication.
—John C. Maxwell
Topics: Teamwork
The greatest day in your life and mine is when we take total responsibility for our attitudes. That’s the day we truly grow up.
—John C. Maxwell
Topics: Growth, Responsibility
There are three qualities a leader must exemplify to build trust: competence, connection, and character.
—John C. Maxwell
Topics: Character
Relational skills are the most important abilities in leadership.
—John C. Maxwell
Topics: Communication
People of poor character tend to blame their choices on circumstances. Ethical people make good choices regardless of circumstances. If they make enough good choices, they begin to create better conditions for themselves.
—John C. Maxwell
Topics: Character
A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way and shows the way.
—John C. Maxwell
Topics: Leadership, Leaders, Entrepreneurs
Don’t hide bad news. With multiple information channels available, bad news always becomes known. Be candid right from the start.
—John C. Maxwell
Generally speaking, there are two kinds of learning: experience, which is gained from your own mistakes, and wisdom, which is learned from the mistakes of others.
—John C. Maxwell
Topics: Failure
Leaders must live by higher standards than their followers.
—John C. Maxwell
Topics: Leadership
Leadership is influence.
—John C. Maxwell
Topics: Leadership, Entrepreneurs
Seek advice, but make sure it’s from someone who has successfully handled mistakes or adversities.
—John C. Maxwell
Topics: Failure
Teams make you better than you are, multiply your value, enable you to do what you do best, allow you to help others do their best, give you more time, provide you with companionship, help you fulfill the desires of your heart and compound your vision and effort.
—John C. Maxwell
Topics: Teamwork
Policies are many, Principles are few, Policies will change, Principles never do.
—John C. Maxwell
Topics: Entrepreneurs
Today matters.
—John C. Maxwell
Most people who want to get ahead do it backward. They think, ‘I’ll get a bigger job, then I’ll learn how to be a leader. But showing leadership skill is how you get the bigger job in the first place. Leadership isn’t a position, it’s a process.
—John C. Maxwell
The best way to serve the individuals on the team is to see that the whole team wins.
—John C. Maxwell
Topics: Teamwork
If you start today to do the right thing, you are already a success even if it doesn’t show yet.
—John C. Maxwell
Topics: Success
Not everyone will become a great leader, but everyone can become a better leader.
—John C. Maxwell
Topics: Leadership
Wondering Whom to Read Next?
Denis Waitley American Motivational Speaker
Max Lucado American Christian Author
Earl Nightingale American Motivational Speaker
Mark Victor Hansen American Public Speaker
T. Harv Eker American Motivational Speaker
Elisabeth Elliot American Christian Author
Chuck Swindoll American Christian Pastor
Byron Katie American Speaker
A. W. Tozer American Christian Pastor
Ken Keyes Jr. American Self-Help Author