Quality effective leaders have the confidence to trust others to try, succeed, and sometimes to fail. We very often confuse personality with leadership. In other words, leadership is not about being a nice person or not a nice person.Collection: Nice
There's only one why. You only have one why, and your why is fully formed by the time you're 17, 18 or 19years old, maybe even earlier. The rest of your life are simply opportunities to either live in or out of balance and the career choices we make and the decisions we make in our lives either put us in balance with our why, which makes us happy, fulfilled and inspired. Or it puts us out of our why, which makes us frustrated, stressed out and sometimes we fail.Collection: Opportunity
When someone asks for your time, and you put your phone away to talk to them... that's leadership.Collection: Phones
Givers advance the world. Takers advance themselves and hold the world backCollection: World
Ideas are like dreams; they will disappear unless we record them. Write a book, a blog, build a company, anything that makes the ideas real.Collection: Dream
The next time someone starts listing all the reasons an idea won't work or can't happen, ask them to give 3 reasons it can.Collection: Ideas
How can you help the human race progress?Collection: Race
Stories are our attempts to share our values & beliefs with the hopes that we may attract those who believe what we believe. This is the basis of forming a trusting relationship. Story telling, therefor, is only worthwhile when it tells what you stand for, not what you do.Collection: Believe
Good leadership is always human. It takes time and energy. It is hard work. Which is why good leadership is so special when we find it.Collection: Hard Work
So much of starting a business or affecting change is the confidence and courage to simply try.Collection: Trying
Our survival depends on our ability to form trusting relationships.Collection: Survival
Managers watch over our numbers, our time and our results. Leaders watch over us.Collection: Numbers
Don't freak yourself out by what other people have. They don't have what you've got.Collection: Meaningful
When leaders care less about their people, their people will be careless.Collection: People
You have to have a patience for exercise. You have to have a patience for college. You have to have a patience for relationships. Once the momentum gets going it takes on a life all of its own.Collection: Exercise
You [should] persist even though there are some short-term stresses and even though there is some uncertainty, because it's the right thing to do.Collection: Stress
Customers will never love a company until its employees love it first.Collection: Leadership
The more you inspire, the more people will inspire you.Collection: People
Inspire people to do the things that inspire them and, together, we can change our world.Collection: Our World
The reason we grow up to be healthy adults is because our parents played this game of giving us responsibility, disciplining us when necessary, letting us try, letting us fail. No matter what we know they are there to support us and see us do well. Leaders are exactly the same.Collection: Growing Up
When we accept the fact that we can't do everything, we are more willing to ask for and accept help when we do anything.Collection: Facts
If we inspire people, they will give us more than we asked for. If we manipulate them, they will give us exactly what we paid forCollection: People
Work requires effort. Things we love to do feel effortless. Only do the things you love and you'll never have to work again.Collection: Effort
If I walk into a room of 500 people, my standard is, if I can't give 400 or 450 of you something, a language or a new way of seeing something, then I have failed. If I get 100 of you, I am a failure. I have to get a majority.Collection: People
I only have one why, and my challenge is to make sure the things I say and the things I do remain consistent for as often and as long as possible.Collection: Long
Progress and innovation happen when you set unrealistic goals.Collection: Goal
Leadership is about empowering others to achieve things they did not think possible.Collection: Thinking
All organizations start with WHY, but only the great ones keep their WHY clear year after year.Collection: Years
Our goals should serve as markers, measurements of the progress we make in pursuit of something greater than ourselves.Collection: Goal
The concept of why is already in the vernacular. It is now a noun. "That company doesn't know their why." "They need to learn their why." "That politician needs to understand his why." We talk about it as a noun. That never existed prior to 2009. That never existed prior to 2006 when I first started articulating it. This is the most amazing thing to me. It has now become a concept. It's part of the way we think about businesses and transactions and decisions.Collection: Thinking
Dr. King gave the "I have a dream" speech, not the "I have a plan" speech.Collection: Dream
We should all have an opportunity to feel a part of something not just have a part in something.Collection: Opportunity
A why has to be for others. It's something you give to the world. It's the reason your friends love you because this is the thing that you give them and it fulfills them. This is the reason your clients love you or your fans love you because you give them something. It's something to offer, that's what the why is.Collection: Love You
My challenge is to make sure the things I say and the things I do remain consistent for as often and as long as possible. My why is to inspire people to do the things that inspire them so that together we can change our world. That's why I wake up every single day. I'm agnostic to the form it takes: I teach, I write, I speak, I advise.Collection: Writing
Leaders volunteer to go first into danger. Their willingness to sacrifice for us is the reason we're inspired to follow.Collection: Sacrifice
We are drawn to leaders and organizations that are good at communicating what they believe. Their ability to make us feel like we belong, to make us feel special, safe and not alone is part of what gives them the ability to inspire us.Collection: Believe
The goal of business should not be to do business with anyone who simply wants what you have. It should be to focus on the people who believe what you believe. When we are selective about doing business only with those who believe in our WHY, trust emerges.Collection: Believe
Most people ignore opportunities because they see only danger. Entrepreneurs ignore danger because they see only opportunities.Collection: Opportunity
If you don't understand people, you don't understand business.Collection: People
A boss who micromanages is like a coach who wants to get in the game. Leaders guide and support and then sit back to cheer from the sidelines.Collection: Cheer
Knowledge is understanding based on what has been studied and learned. Wisdom is understanding based on what has been felt and experienced.Collection: Understanding
Emails get reactions. Phone calls start conversations.Collection: Phones
Profit isn't a purpose, it's a result. To have purpose means the things we do are of real value to others.Collection: Real
Never opt for change simply to leave something you don't like. Change works best when you go toward something, even if it is the unknown.Collection: Ifs
Value is not determined by those who set the price. Value is determined by those who choose to pay it.Collection: Pay
Complaining begets more complaints. Anger begets more anger. And optimism begets more optimism.Collection: Optimism
I don't care about convincing the people who think I'm naive or an idiot. I'm interested in how do I inspire the people who are open-minded that there's a different way of seeing the world.Collection: Thinking
Because a true sense of purpose is deeply emotional, it serves as a compass to guide us to act in a way completely consistent with our values and beliefs. Purpose does not need to involve calculations or numbers. Purpose is about the quality of life. Purpose is human, not economic.Collection: Emotional
Greatness starts with a clear vision of the future.Collection: Greatness