John C. Maxwell

A successful person finds the right place for himself. But a successful leader finds the right place for others.

The difference between average people and achieving people is their perception of and response to failure.

Most people want to avoid pain, and discipline is usually painful.

A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.

A great leader’s courage to fulfill his vision comes from passion, not position.

Leaders who are effective are leaders who are disciplined in their daily lives.

Even as entrepreneurs, we rely on people to get things done. We may have the original idea, but moving it forward can involve hundreds of people. Every person becomes integral to the overall success.

Leaders, true leaders, take responsibility for the success of the team, and understand that they must also take responsibility for the failure.

Everything rises and falls on leadership.

The art of leadership is a serious matter. One must not lag behind a movement, because to do so is to become isolated from the masses. But one must not rush ahead, for to rush ahead is to lose contact with the masses. He who wished to lead a movement must conduct a fight on two fronts–against those who lag behind and those who rush ahead.

Your performance depends on your people. Select the best, train them and back them. When errors occur, give sharper guidance. If errors persist or if the fit feels wrong, help them move on. The country cannot afford amateur hour in the White House.

The challenge of leadership is to create change and facilitate growth.

The very essence of leadership is having vision.

If you aspire to be a leader of your own country, you must speak your own language, for God’s sake.

I feel like the thing we can do is celebrate people doing great work and create more cultural momentum and awareness that this is an important thing in the world. So when the next economic crisis hits and people are talking about where to cut from the budget, science isn’t the thing.

You will launch many projects, but have time to finish only a few. So think, plan, develop, launch and tap good people to be responsible. Give them authority and hold them accountable. Trying to do too much yourself creates a bottleneck.

Don’t necessarily avoid sharp edges. Occasionally they are necessary to leadership.

Teamwork makes the dream work, but a vision becomes a nightmare when the leader has a big dream and a bad team.

A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.

As a leader, the first person I need to lead is me. The first person that I should try to change is me.

And give… give more credit to others and don’t assume they’re mean until you know they’re actually mean.