Transcription
[Music] Don't miss this. If we could just understand the high return of everyday essentials, you would be wildly, wildly successful in whatever you're doing. Just five things. They're all simple. Everybody can do it. I mean, nothing's complex, but every day.
He's written over a hundred books, taught millions to lead, and for decades, communication and leadership expert John Maxwell has been turning influence into impact and teaching others how to do the same. Somebody would ask me what the key to my communication skills today would be, I would tell them that for 50 plus years, I have not been lazy. Everything worthwhile is uphill. Period. End of story.
What's a trait that is foundational that you'll see in every leader who is great? A mountain mindset. What I would tell anybody, age doesn't matter.
Well, hello everybody. Welcome to Front Row Seat. This is a very special recording of the show, as you can tell, not in our normal digs at Ramsey Solutions headquarters. We're here on the stage of the Entree Leadership Summit and we got a bunch of our platinum attendees out in the crowd eating and then we got four special guests of our studio audience, if you will, behind us and they'll be asking questions as well. And of course, my guest, the big shot of all leadership books and titles, John Maxwell. I used to work for John years ago and I've interviewed him many times and we're really delighted to have him here for this special episode. He'll be on this stage a little bit later. So, John, welcome. We're going to dive right in.
Um, I've told many people over the years, it's been now over 20 years, you know, since I worked with you, but um, I've told many people that I think you're a master communicator, a true master craftsman, because you've worked at the craft. To that end, whether you're a keynote speaker or just a leader who's got to communicate to the team, to customers, to investors, this is such a vital skill. Two things. What do you do naturally very well as a communicator? What what's a natural gifting that God gave you that you can now look at and go, I honed it, but I've got this natural gift that makes me a good communicator? And then the second part of the question, what have you done intentionally to become a great communicator?
Well, I think um I think that I I was a natural communicator. I I would say, but I wasn't really that good. Um as I look back, I think I was kind of terrible to be honest with you. But uh what I knew as a very young communicator was that I had the ability to say things in an interesting way that I could kind of put a turn on a phrase or a thought that would make people kind of lean in and and look. So that would probably be the naturalness of it. And when I I started off, as you know, Ken is a pastor. So my first church was a little country church in southern Indiana. beautiful, beautiful people, but their expectation of comm communication wasn't very high. They were farmers and they were just grateful to come together and have some young kid kind of preach. And and this is what I think I want uh everybody to hear. Within about 3 months of pastoring that little church, I realized that I had enough natural skills that if I wanted to, I could wing it. that that I could every Saturday night get a scripture verse, get a couple stories, get up and probably exceed the expectations of everybody there in the church. And so it was very tempting because I mean, you don't have to work hard if you wing it. You just kind of wing it. And I really had a an internal struggle for probably three months, four months of am I going to wing it or am I going to work for it? And I made a decision. It was and it I didn't make it quickly. I made a decision to work for it. And if somebody would ask me what the key to my communication skills today would be, I would tell them that for 50 plus years. I have not been lazy. I've worked hard. I've prepared hard. I've written everything I've ever taught out word by word. not to memorize it so much but the discipline of being definitive and accurate and and uh uh different. So the working on it I think is where I am today and probably I just wish people could have heard if if you could have heard me when I started all of you would be greatly encouraged. You really you just would be you'd just say oh my gosh he wasn't that good and and I and I wasn't that good. I'm not being humble. I just wasn't that good. But the work for it and I still do, by the way. Yeah. I I mean I could I mean I could by this time after 92 books and a whole bunch of stuff I could work I could wing about anything. But I still I mean the lesson I'm going to give today is a a brand new lesson. I've never taught it before. And you know I was up early this morning in my room working on it. And I've been back in the green room working on it. and I'll be working on it till I come out and trying to improve it and try to um you know to tweak it. So I think the point about anything of excellence here here's the point. You see greatness and you see people who work for it. You don't sustain a level of high excellence without paying a price for it. So in communication, yeah, I think I I do pretty good at that. Yeah. But I work for it.
You do. And and to that end, I I want to ask you to talk to this audience. I think there are people that are sitting in here that go, I don't have the natural gifts, the turn of phrase that you mentioned. And that's why I asked that second part of the question tactically speaking, what can this audience here in the room watching all around the world, if they can say to themselves in true self-awareness, I'm not gifted with turn of phrase. I may not be very comfortable speaking. I'm not an extrovert. all of the things that are reality, but they still have to communicate effectively. They don't have to be ortors. Sure. What would you say to them would be maybe step one to just be a effective communicator?
Yeah, that's I'm glad you asked the question. U because when people ask me, how do I communicate effectively? It's very simple. Get over yourself. Just get over yourself. You I tell people all the time, you ought to laugh at yourself more because everyone else is. And whenever I see people that are not able to communicate effectively, it's because they're focused on themselves. You see, if I come out and I'm saying, "Boy, I hope I do a good job and I hope the people like me and I hope now I I'm focused on me and it's impossible for me to focus here and focus there also. I I've got to make a decision. It's either going to be all about you or it's going to be all about me. And if it's all about you, I'm going to communicate very well. And you're going to be able to feel that. You're going to be able to sense that I really want to help you and add value to you. If it's all about me, it doesn't go very far. So, the the ability and the willingness to be confident enough to just really understand it's not it's not about me. I remember when I did uh the book uh the 16 laws of communication. We did a video shoot of of that book and I started that the the whole video kin started with me out there sitting in a seat where they are and my opening statement is all great communication doesn't start on the stage. It starts in the seat here. In other words, for me to connect and communicate well with you, I have to understand it's all about you and that my success has everything to do with when I'm done teaching. You don't say Maxwell's amazing, you walk out feeling empowered and equipped and saying, "I can be amazing." The moment I can put it to where you are and help you there, then we're going to cook. Really good.
So good. One of the things that you've modeled for me and I got to see you do it day in and day out. We were actually backstage sharing some old travel stories. We got some fun stories when I used to work for John. And we have some stories, don't we? We do. We have some stories. That would be its own podcast. Be be careful. I know. Very careful. I know I can't fire you, but I'll try. You could get me fired. That's for sure. And by the way, just just I know you got some stuff to go and do, but but let me tell you something, kid. I'm so proud of you. because 20 years ago you were good, but you have worked on your craft also. Thank you. And when I'm watching you do these podcasts and do these other things, I'm seeing a person that you're much better today than you were 20 years ago because you've been working at it. And so it makes me very proud when I see people like you again, not wing it, but work for it. And you've really you've you've really really grown and developed. And uh it's it's just good to I love to see people do better and grow in progress and you certainly have. And so anyway, just want you to know how I'm proud of you're doing good, kid. You're you're doing good. You're you're not great yet. No, that's a fact. But but but you're getting there because all the great ones never feel like they've arrived. Yes. They're they're always understanding. There's more to learn, more to more to grow. Yeah.
And and I'm gonna try to get through that question. I want to cry. I want to cry right now, but I'm not going to. Uh, no. One of the things that you've modeled is intentionality. One of my favorite all-time quotes was, "Every day I read, every day I file." And I've learned that from you. And in the role that I get to play now, I'm very much the same way. I have a system that I created on my own, but but it was because of you. And it has served me well because I always have a database to pull from because I know what I believe. Sure. And you taught me that. Sure. And I want to talk about living on purpose. Now, a lot of times people hear living on purpose and they think purpose at work. We'll get to that in a second, but I'm talking about intentionality. My all-time favorite book of yours is Today Matters. It's my favorite book. It's hard to choose, but that has had a tremendous impact on me. And I I I wanted you to share for this audience and our audience watching and listening how you have designed your life because you're very intentional and you design you have your own systems and I think it would just be a master class in personal and professional growth to learn from your system and why it's worked for you.
It's such a I think it's such an important question for all of us to kind of grapple with and understand. Um, I think they're I think there are two books that I've written. I wouldn't say they're my favorite books, but they have the the most Maxwell DNA in them. And one of them is the book you just mentioned to Today Matters, uh, which I think has been retitled now, Make Today Count. Um, where I talk about the 12 disciplines, the daily disciplines. Uh basically in that book I I talk about the fact that every day you're either preparing or repairing. And if you really um are intentional, you're preparing. If you're unintentional, you don't maximize your day. And so you have to go back and fix yesterday and repair. So today matters is just a very simple system that I have that basically says we overestimate what we can do tomorrow. or we overexaggerate what we did yesterday but we underestimate what we can do today right now I think that's very true the other book I think that has the uh the most maxwell DNA is the book you mentioned briefly intentional living um those two books are me you know Stephven CVY in his great uh book on habits of successful people Stephven CVY said uh begin with the end in mind. I live that life. I look at where I am and what I'm doing, but I ask myself, what do I want it to look like on the other end? So, I always have what I call the long view, not the short view. I I go for delayed gratification instead of instant gratification. Because if you really begin with the end in mind, you understand that it's a process. We overestimate the event. We underestimate the process. We always do. So when you ask a question like that, Ken, if you are intentional and if you prioritize well, today matters is all about prioritizing, making your day impactful, making it count. If you do those two things really well, you'll develop and make your life very simple. It's what you referred to a little bit earlier in your question when I call them everyday essentials. You when you said every day I read I do five things as an author, just five things. And it's only five and they're all simple. Everybody can do it. I mean, nothing's complex about it. But every day I read, every day I think, every day I file, every day I ask questions, and every day I write. I do that every day. And people they they come to me, they say, "What do you mean by every day?" And what what I mean by every day is every day. I I mean, what part of every day don't we understand? And and people they'll press me. They'll say now because every day is I mean like that's every day and they'll say now come on I mean every day I what do you do on your birthday will on my birthday I read think file ask questions and write what do you do at Christmas read think file ask questions right what do you do when you're on vacation read think finest questions right what do you do when you're sick read think questions right every day now don't miss this I didn't say all day. I said every day. That may mean I only spend 30 minutes on that day because I have other things that are consuming my time. But we again what I want us to see is the value of consistency because consistency compounds. So when people ask me, you know, how did you write 92 books? Well, it's very simple. One word at a time. Honest to God, I always It's just one word at a time. Yeah. I've never been able to write a sentence at a time and or paragraph or I can't look at the blank paper and say be filled with words. In fact, I do it with a fourcolor big pen. It cost me 79 cents and a legal pad. And I just write every day. I didn't say I wrote all day. I may only write a paragraph that day. It could be. Today I got up and I I wrote probably three pages this morning before I had to go do other things. But every day I write. And if we could just understand the high return of everyday essentials and doing them on a daily basis, you would be wildly wildly successful in whatever you're doing. We we we kind of get intense. We get to a conference like this and we go back and say, "Okay, I'm gonna really get on it." And so we get on it and then we we we run out of gas about a month later and we're back to our old routines. Well, if we just understood that if we just do the right thing every day to a certain time that we'll be very successful.
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All right, I want to pause for a minute, see if any of our audience members up here on stage want to ask a question. You want to go? All right, there it is. The man with the mic. Dr. Maxwell, it is an honor to be up here with you and you too can. My name is Mitch. I'm from Charlotte, North Carolina, but I was born and raised in Ohio in a rural town, northern Ohio near Oberlin. Oh, yeah. Sure. Central Ohio. That's why I asked. What business are you in? I am in ground penetrating radar. I'm a commercial construction contractor. Okay. And that's what my question has to do with is leadership and attitude in construction. So, in uh in attitude 101, you said good attitudes among players do not guarantee a team success, but bad attitudes guarantee its failure. So the question is in construction all of the old experts are kind of these grumpy old people that know better than everybody else and they have great value because they they legitimately are the experts. So for those of us who want to lead a construction business and we want to lead people who have good attitudes, what would you say to all of us to pull those people along? How do we train them and pull them along? And how do we know when to cut them loose and try with somebody new?
Did you notice he put old and grumpy together? Yes, there's some young. Did you notice the question was for me? And did you notice he looked at me when he asked the question? In fact, he almost he didn't point, but he was he was want He couldn't get that finger out there, but he's kind of going, I'm having fun with you. I I can promise you this. You know, people ask me all the time, how do I stay young, although I'm old? How do I stay young? I I say it's very simple. I I stay away from old people. I mean, dear Lord, they're old. And and and and and by the way, I have decided that I'm going to be an old person that believes in the next generation. Because so many times you see people when they get old and they think they're the last great hope. And boy, when we die, everything's going to go to hell. And I don't think that at all. And I I want I want I when I want people to stand on my shoulders. I want them to do better than I've done. And so when you talk about attitude, which is by the way the difference maker. Once in a while I'll hear people say attitude is everything. That's not true. I I mean you can have a great attitude, but if you're incompetent Yeah. I really don't want to hire you. You know what I'm saying? You know, the good news is they smile. The the bad news is they don't produce. You know what I'm saying? Although, if you have a good attitude and you are incompetent, when I fire you, it's not that bad because you're happy. I mean, you you go home and say, "Hey, got some time freed up in my life. Got some time freed up in my life." But you So, attitude isn't everything. You've got to also have competence in your there's several things that are important, but attitude, I think, is the main thing. And what I mean by that is all things being equal, people have good skills that they they have good good work habits, whatever, the attitude if it's if it's good just raises the level of what a person does. So when you're talking about you're the contracting business and and honestly that business has a lot of grouchy people and a lot of a lot of kind of limited thinkers in that business. I'm not being critical of the business. I'm just saying that's part of the that's part of the game. And as a leader, you have to allow your people to understand you don't allow that. You have to have upfront expectations with them. It's very simple, kid. If you're going to be on the team, you got to have a good attitude. And if you don't have a good attitude, I'll fire you. My name is John. I'm your friend, but I'll fire you. And there why should you allow people on your team have a bad attitude? I found out that people for free will criticize you. Why should you pay for it? If if you can get it if you can get it for free then you know just have them. You know you got those people they just gather. But don't we call it upfront expectations and upfront expectations simply means on the front end. We're going to help you understand how the game is going to be played and uh we want you to be in the game. We want you to play a good game, but it's our game and this is the way it's going to be. And so I think once you have those upfront expectations and then don't allow that culture to be created, it's only a matter of time till those people that have that bad attitude, they'll they'll they'll pretty well work themselves out of the game because you're not going to let it happen.
Yeah. I want to move to relationships in leadership and we're talking personal relationship. I saw a study recently, John, that uh revealed 71% of professionals said that stress from work, whether it be leadership or their whatever's going on, killed their relationships. In fact, ended their relationships. And I think of leaders because of the room we're in and the audience that we talk to. And you've done marriage well. You've coached leaders. You speak to leaders, you've been a pastor. That data is troubling. And so I wanted you to speak to that. How can leaders and professionals who are driven and want to make their mark, how do they preserve their relationships, their marriages, while still dealing with the drive, the tension, the stress that comes with that particular battle in the arena?
Well, that's every day is a challenge. You know, I had a mentor when I was younger give me such great advice. He said, "There are no two good consecutive days in a leader's life." And and I've just valued that so much throughout my life because leadership's hard. Leadership demands a lot out of you. I mean, the average person, they just have to take care of themsel. the leader has to take care of himself or herself, but then they have to take care of everybody on the team. So they're con they, you know, if everything worthwhile is uphill for a leader, you not only go uphill, but you got to take people with you uphill. And and so people talk, you know, they talk about balance. How do you get balance in your life? And when they ask me that question, I always disappoint them because I say, "I have no clue." I mean, honestly, I don't think balance is possible. I mean, life's not balanced. I've I've never had a balanced day. I've never had life treat me like, "Okay, I've given you enough difficulties today. We'll have some easy stuff now." And and tomorrow, okay, well, even as I life has never I've never have found life to come to me that way. There are major disappointments there. I mean, sometimes you got to you got to work hard because you're not doing well or you're I don't think balance happens. I I don't think life's balanced. So, I don't think we could be balanced. But I do think in relationships and what the question you're asking is that we have to understand seasons. And seasons work well with me. I mean, a farmer understands seasons. in the in the springtime. He not going out trying to harvest something. There's nothing to harvest. You better plant the seed and you better plant it now and it isn't going to work. If you wait till summer, so plant the damn seed and in the summer, okay, now you got to work the ground. You got to work the ground. Okay, I don't need to go through the whole all the seasons, but they understand you got to if you work with the seasons, not against the seasons. Life gets to be a lot more productive and effective. I mean, and then you have your your winter, which that's the season where you you don't work quite as hard because that, you know, there all the other hard work has been done. So I think that um in relationships, okay, the core of a relationship that's solid, whether it's a marriage or a working relationship or a friendship even, is respect. When I see people not being respected, I see a relationship that's going to deteriorate very, very quickly. And you have to earn respect. I I love it when somebody will say, "Well, I bless their hearts, I all my life, I've hung around in immature people. I demand respect." And I listen to that and think, "You can't demand respect. You got to earn that sucker." And and respect is earned on difficult ground. You don't get respect for easy decisions. You get respect when you make hard decisions. And when people see that, they see you come through a difficult season and you come through it with still uh your faith and you come through it with that determination, that smile, they respect that. So in relationships, I just I I my first goal is not to get a good relationship with you, Ken. If we're working together, my first goal is to get your respect. To do more than what I'm expected to do and do it better than what I'm expected to have done until you look at me. Because once I get your respect, now that relationship's on solid ground. Without that respect, I think it begins to be kind of just a little bit uneasy. So to me uh value people but never rely on friendships to do to do insufficient work. I've I've seen people say, "Well, you know, I know I didn't do really a good job, Ken, but you understand. We're friends. We go back a long way." Well, don't use the friendship card. If anything, if we're good friends, I ought to work harder for you. I ought to do better for you. And the moment that I think that respect is there, I think you've got something to solid to build a relationship on.
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Uh let's go to uh one more audience question. Who who's got one? Who's ready to go right there on the end? Now this is a woman with a great attitude. Look at the joy radiating off of her. Fantastic. Go ahead. Tell us your name and and what you do. Sure. So my name is Katie and I'm third generation in a manufacturing business. Good. Um in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. So my question for you is what's the most important factor for preserving a strong company culture across multiple generations?
Well, first of all, congratulations for being a third generation. Yeah. Most of them don't last that long. Thank you. So you we work really hard at it. You're helping. Well, thank you. Well, and you you know why you're working hard at it? It's because it's not easy. You you can you can lose very precious things, Ken. You know this very quickly, you can you can work a whole lifetime to build something up that's solid and then because of a lack of trust or something like that is a house of cards and all of a sudden all of a sudden you lose it. So it's such a good question. The only way that you can continue to have a great culture is to understand that at this moment you're responsible for that culture. culture. It's it's, you know, it's like vision. Vision leaks. Culture leaks. Everything good in life leaks. It just does. It if you don't maintain it and keep it going, it doesn't it doesn't stay the same. So, if you're in a third generation and you're saying, "I want to keep the culture." You got to understand your grandfather can't do it for you and your father can't do it for you. You got to do it for yourself. You're only good as good today as you are today. You know, yesterday ended last night. What part of that don't we understand? It's true in my life. It's true in everybody's life. It's what am I doing today to keep that culture going? I have a wonderful friend that has a tre tremendous pharmaceutical company. And he said every year the highest award that he gives in his company is what he calls the um culture warrior award. And he said, 'I call it culture warrior because you have to fight to keep your culture. It automatically if you don't fight for it gets worse. And he said, there's nothing more important than a person really keeping that culture strong and solid. And so he said it's the highest award I give. It's it's like my most valuable player. Every year somebody gets the culture warrior award. And what I would say to you is the fact that it the third generation has every right to believe it can be as strong as the first and second generation, but you're now responsible for that culture. You can't live off of yesterday. And so often we want to like live off of our heritage or say, "Well, we've been a great company for years." Let me tell you something. You're only a great company if you're a great company right now. If you're not a great company right now, you could just say, "We were a great company, but we sure aren't now." So today goes back to today matters. Make today count. Understand the importance of now, this moment, because there's never going to be another moment. And then the last thing I would just say to you is culture is everybody's responsibility. It's just not like the leader's responsibility. And so as a leader, you constantly let your team players know this is who we are. This is our DNA. This is what we look like. This is what we do. Now, that's how you're to live. Uh we have a coaching company. In fact, it's the largest coaching company in the world. We have 59,000 coaches inund like 70 countries. And and every six months they come to Orlando, usually two to three thousand of new ones. And and we get them ready to be a coach. And I have like a two-hour teaching on the DNA of a John Maxwell team member. And it's all about these are our values. We it starts off with we are people of value who value people and add value to them. That's who we are. And and these are the values that we have. And at the end of that sometimes I'll look at them. I'll say now if these aren't your values, you can go back to the back of the room. We'll give you your money back. you can go home because we want only people that say this fits me, this works, I like this, I can do this and I but what am I doing? Upfront expectations to all the coaches. This is our DNA. This is who we are. That's what you have to do.
I also in a company. Yeah. I'm just learning with the audience and I what I'm learning from John I'm just going to give to you because this is the thought I had. He said, "Fight for it to be a warrior." And to me, I'm thinking a fort. And you don't let anybody in that doesn't match the DNA. And when they do sneak in, you get them out. And you fight. I thought that was beautiful. You fight, fight, fight. And doing that every day. It'll stick. You don't get a day off. No. You fight for it every day. But that goes back to that intentionality. Yes. You, Most people, they accept their life. They don't lead their life. So true. And if you accept your life, what you're going to get is second best every day of your life. The moment you take intentionality and put that in your life and you lead it with the end in mind, now all of a sudden you'll get the return you want to have.
Yeah. One of the survey data points we've seen, I saw in the lobby, this group is here uh and they want to develop as a leader. They want to grow as a leader. you've dedicated your life to this. If I were to sit with you, we could have a 3-hour, 4 hour, 5 hour conversation. And I'd say, John, walk me through the traits that you need to have to be a great leader. We don't have time for that. Our time is fleeting. So, I put you under the pressure because you can handle it. If there was just one trait, a beginner trait, a foundational trait that you have to have, you cut open secretariat as they did, the greatest horse and they found he had a heart two and a half times the size of other thoroughbreds. If we were to cut open and do an autopsy on great leaders, what's a trait that is foundational that you'll see in every leader who is great? Something they can tactically begin to try to work on and develop. What comes to mind?
Well, you know what comes to mind now? If you ask me the question two minutes from now, there'll be another one come to mind. Exactly. Because there's so many of them. But you got to be you got to be a great team player. Teamwork makes the dream work. And uh not everybody can be a star, not everybody can be great, but everybody can be a team player, which means we compleiment one another, we add value to one another, we cheer for one another. John Wooden was a mentor of mine and a the greatest coach. Well, Sports Illustrated said that he was the greatest coach of the 20th century, was the UCLA basketball uh coach. And he he told me about um a player that he had on his team. If you're old like me, you would love basketball. He had a player named Sydney Wixs. and he said the first day Sydney got on the basketball court by the end of practice every player on the team knew he was truly the best player but he wasn't a good team player. He basically was selfish. You know, give me the ball, give me the ball. And so coach Wood said the only way I could get him through that uh wrong thinking was to sit him on a bench. So I just set him on a bench. Now he's the best player, but he's on the bench. And he said sometimes Sydney Wixs would come up to him in a game. He'd say, "Coach, put me in the game. put me in the game. You know, I'm the best player on the on the team." And Coach Wood said, "Sydney, I know you're the best player on the team, but the team doesn't play their best when you're on it." That's powerful. Yes. And that right there shows you that if you can just get everyone to play great team ball and support and help and add value to one another, you're just going to if you improve a couple players on your team, you'll have some improvement. But if you can have every person just elevate their teamwork, it's going to be massive the return that you get from your organization.
Wow. I I would be remiss if I didn't ask you your observation of Gen Z? This is the youngest generation in the workforce, the below millennials. And and and I get weary of older people, you know, poo pooing these generations, you know, that are below us. I'm raising three Gen Z. They're we're seeing from the data, John, that they're the most entrepreneurial generation as far as their expectations as they look forward. but they're the next leaders. If you could speak to every Gen Z young person who wants to lead or thinking about leading and they're different and unique, knowing what you know about them and what you know about leadership, what would be the message, the locker room before they head out? What would you say to those young people about leading?
Well, yeah, it's a great question, Ken. you know um in the corporate space when I do Q&A one of the uh in the five years ago if you go back five years ago one of the uh most often asked questions when people ask me how do I how do I lead millennials how you know how okay what what or let's say what what are we going to do with the millennials now when you ask what are you going to do with the millennials you know you already got an attitude issue you know what are we going to do with the millennials and and I I I I'll give them their their word for them in just a moment. But let me just say this. Um when they asked me that question, it all begins with valuing people because you can't get the best out of people if you don't value them. And I what I my answer is you've got to find them before you can lead them. Too often leaders say you find me and I'll lead you. But with millennials or even the next go down Jenzi, go on down in that in that generational area, you've got to have enough uh value in of them to to find out where they are and what motivates you and you know how how how can I lead you better and and have that kind of a conver uh session. I I wrote a book a few years ago called um the leader's greatest return. And I talk about having a leadership table where you where you where you bring people that are not designated or official leaders around a table to talk about leadership in the company just so that you can get their input and and and you asking those questions, you all all of a sudden find out who the potential leaders for your organization are. Anyway, so you've got to really really value people. Now, for the people who are saying, "Okay, I'm starting out. This is brand new. Give me a word of advice. Everything worthwhile is uphill." Period. End of story. If you want to succeed in life, it's difficult. It's not easy. It's not fast. It's not simple. It's uphill. Doesn't matter your age. Doesn't matter what kind of job you've got. It's uphill. We've got all kind of people that want to drift to a desired location and nobody ever has. It's a climb. And by the way, that's why you've got to be intentional. What I would tell anybody, age doesn't matter. You better have a mountain mindset. Life's not flat. Life's not downhill. For success, it's uphill. And if you have a mountain mindset, you'll do a lot better to climb that mountain than if you have why is that mountain in my life? And why do I have to climb that mountain? That's gold.
Uh we only have a few minutes left, so I want to give you the final word here. And I was thinking, what would I want my friend John to say to this audience? And I just know that when people come to an event like this, people that are watching this show, listening to this show, they're they're listening, they're here for a reason. They want to get better. But I know that people that are striving are many times struggling. You're a great encourager. Would you encourage leaders that are listening, watching, sitting in this room right now that are discouraged? They're down. They know they're supposed to lead. They got the mission and the vision, but it's a particularly difficult season and they feel like they're just spinning their wheels. Would you encourage their hearts as we wrap?
Yeah, I'd be glad to. Thank you for the opportunity. What I say to each one of you here, what do I say to my friends behind me, what I say to everybody that you know watches this podcast and that whole process is I truly do wish that you could have seen me when I was 20, 25 because I wasn't that good. Again, I'm not trying to be humble, just trying to be fair and honest with you. I wasn't that good. Now I had a passion to become really good. So within me, I had a burning desire to grow my life, to grow my business, to do well, to be successful. So it I didn't I didn't lack that within me. But I just had not developed the skill set. I had not had enough experience. I hadn't learned enough lessons. And so when I started off, I wasn't that good. And the reason I wish you could see me then, because you see me now, the problem is when you see me now is you're seeing me at 78 years of age. Consistency compounds. I'm in a ridiculous, unbelievable compounding time of my life. And it's it's it's it's I can't even imagine it myself. But it's because I've got 50 plus years of just staying consistent, doing the essentials, not forgetting what my priorities were, and you just do it. And it just it, you know, it it's kind of like this. In the beginning, you're not as bad as people think you are. And in the end, if you do it right, you're not as good as people think you are. You're exaggerated on both ends. So, I wish you could have seen me in the beginning because if you could, you'd be greatly encouraged. You'd be greatly encouraged because you would have seen somebody that probably isn't as far along in life as you are right now. And then all of a sudden, you would realize, I can get there. I can't get there today. I can't get there tomorrow, but I can get there. It won't be easy, but it's possible. It's uphill all the way. And if you could just understand that where you are today, your potential is unlimited. And if you'll stay intentional and be consistent and stay with the essentials in life, add value to people every day, have an attitude of gratitude, and then don't wing it, work for it. If you'll do that, trust me, you're going to pass me and I'm going to be proud because my goal isn't to be the best in anything. My goal is to help people be better than me and pass me. I'll be the first one to cheer you on. Thank you very much.
Love that, John. As we wrap every episode, I always challenge you, the audience, to understand the power of questions. That the right questions reveal the right answers that you can then use to unlock tremendous growth. And I want to challenge you to take something away from this conversation and actually apply it in the days ahead. Here's what I'm taking away. John, you reminded me that every day we're either preparing or repairing. What a wonderful statement and a great reminder to me that I need to win today. And that singular focus is going to allow me to win over the long haul. So, I'm going to remind myself of that and put that into play in every area of my life in the days ahead. Thank you, John, for that. So, good.
Hey, if you're enjoying the show, uh we'd love for you to follow, like, share, and subscribe. We appreciate you being a part of this audience. Also want to say thank you to our platinum entree leadership summit audience that joined us here live. And would you in the room join me one more time in thank you John Maxwell for being with us here on front row seat. Thank you John.