John C. Maxwell Quotes

No matter what our circumstances, our greatest limitation isn't the leader above us - it's the spirit within us.

With a little faith in themselves people, people can do miraculous things. But without it, they have a really tough time.

When you finish reading the book [Today Matters], take the daily dozen and list them in order of how well you do them. For example, the one that I would put at the highest for me is attitude or relationships because I'm really strong at both of those. At the bottom would be health. What I tell people is, "Take one month and work on one of the daily dozen for a whole year." And so it's really a one-year personal growth plan.

Your leadership skills determine the level of your success, and the success of those who work around you.

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.

You'll never know how close you are to a million-dollar idea unless you're willing to listen.

We are so blessed, we get hundreds of emails a day that say, “John, I’ve worked this plan for one year and I can really see my growth.” So what I would love is for readers to do that for a year and then email me.

Becoming a good listener, you are able to connect with others on more levels and develop stronger, deeper relationships.

Commitment comes as a result of choice, not conditions.

Time is more valuable than money, because time is irreplaceable.

If you want to be great, you can't be great by yourself. You gotta to bring people around you. As the the challenge escalates, the need for teamwork elevates. The greater the challenge, the better the team.

Your life today is a result of your thinking yesterday. Your life tomorrow will be determined by what you think today.

If you want to do something really big, do it as part of a team.

The success of a vision is determined by its ownership by both the leader and the people.

God doesn't move until we move first.

Until I understand where I am, I can’t get to where I am going. This is the value of a compass when we are out walking or hiking and need to know we’re going in the right direction. But we also have an internal North Star. It’s that little nudge that tells us if we are on the right path to fulfilling our potential, or on the wrong path wasting energy traveling somewhere we don’t need to go. So my advice to you is, pull out that compass every once in a while and make sure you are navigating in the right direction on your journey.

It takes a team to do anything of lasting value

Everyone gets discourages...The question is: Are you going to give up or get up? It's a choice.

Your teammates will stretch your vision or choke your dream.

Motivation is like love and happiness. It's a by-product. When you're actively engaged in doing something, it sneaks up and zaps you when you least expect it.

The only one you should compare yourself to is you. Your mission is to become better today than you were yesterday.

Leaders who fail to lift others in the long run, fail to lift themselves.

I really didn't settle stuff spiritually until I was 17 years of age. But through my teenage years I just knew that someday I had to settle accounts and get things straightened up and move in that direction.

I can afford to take a risk in my life. Only the insecure cannot afford to risk failure. The secure can be honest about themselves. They can admit failure. They are able to seek help and try again. They can change

If you want to do a few small things right, do them yourself. If you want to do great things and make a big impact, learn to delegate.

Look behind you: What have you learned? Look around you: What is happening to others? Look above you: What does God expect of you? Look besides you: What resources are available to you?

When a leader reaches out in passion, he is usually met with an answering passion.

Team leaders have to connect with their team and themselves. If they don't know their team's strengths and weaknesses, they cannot hand off responsibilities to the team. And if they don't know their own strengths and weaknesses, they will not hand off responsibilities to the team.

42% of college graduates never read a book after college.

If your habits don't line up with your dream, then you need to either change your habits or change your dream

Growth inside fuels growth outside.

The real leader holds the power, not just the position.

People are training for success when they should be training for failure.

A good leader encourages followers to tell him what he needs to know, not what he wants to hear.

Presence is a result of confidence. Presence... when we see it we feel it.

Integrity is not so much what we do as much as who we are.

Educators take something simple and make it complicated. Communicators take something complicated and make it simple.

The only thing we can control is what we do in the present. The more we replay yesterday, the further we get from today's opportunities. And the further away we move from opportunities, the tougher the road is to get back. Opportunities never look as good coming as they do going, and they wait for no one. We need to be highly attentive to spot them. And we must be focused on our present capabilities, not past regrets.

Positivity is an inside job that makes the outside look a lot better.

The single biggest way to impact an organization is to focus on leadership development. There is almost no limit to the potential of an organization that recruits good people, raises them up as leaders and continually develops them.

Unless you want to carry the whole load yourself, you need to be developing leaders.

Policies are many, Principles are few, Policies will change, Principles never do.

People are not going to give you a vision, but God can.

The goal of the pastor is not to get people to show up but to get people to grow up.

No great leader in history fought to prevent change.

It was while I was pastoring that I began to realize that pastors were not growing churches because they didn't understand leadership because they were not trained, adequate leaders.

Leaders touch a heart before they ask for a hand.

If you do the things you need to do when you need to do them, then someday you can do the things you want do when you want to do them.