Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
Transcending what terrifies you and finding freedom from fear is one of the primary pursuits of people rising to world-class, both in their work and within their lives.
I'm an evangelist for the idea of being ultrafit if you want to be the best of breed. Getting into world-class physical condition is one of the smartest moves you can make.
Be a warrior when it comes to delivering on your ambitions. And a saint when it comes to treating people with respect, modeling generosity, and showing up with outright love.
Showing leadership doesn't mean every employee will run the organization; that would lead to chaos. Businesses do need someone to set the vision and then lead the team to it.
Most of my ideas are based on the latest research on productivity, performance and mental mastery - that's why so many iconic companies bring me in to help them grow and win.
Don't always be so reasonable and practical and sensible that you refuse to seize glorious opportunities when they show up and push the envelope as to what's possible for you.
No one wants to fail. So most of us don't even try. Sad. We don't even take that first step to improve our health or to deepen our working relationships or to realize a dream.
People want to be a part of an organization that lets them be fully alive and bring their gifts to work. People really do want to be engaged and feel proud of their contribution.
I buy a lot of books I never read. But that's not really a waste, since all it takes is one idea from even one book to radically reshape the way a person leads, thinks and lives.
Cynicism stems from disappointment. Cynical and faithless people were not always like that. They were filled with possibilities and hope as kids. But they tried and perhaps failed.
Hard work opens doors and shows the world that you are serious about being one of those rare - and special - human beings who use the fullness of their talents to do their very best.
The true leader - the genuine world-builder - lives to the point. Acutely concentrated on the few high priorities that will deliver the life of their greatest aspirations. At the end.
I have spent years as a leadership coach to the very wealthy and have been able to get behind the eyes of some of the world's best, studying the minute details of what makes a person great.
The starting point of discovering who you are, your gifts, your talents, your dreams, is being comfortable with yourself. Spend time alone. Write in a journal. Take long walks in the woods.
Your billion-dollar ideas don't show up in the middle of dramatic distraction. They show up when you have the business and personal discipline to make space for your creative mind to flourish.
The best do sweat the small stuff. They get the seemingly insignificant details right. They have the discipline to shine at the baby things which they get gives birth to spectacular giant things.
Three hours of focused time on the projects that will really add value and uplift your career are so much better than 10 hours where you are constantly being interrupted and taken off your focus.
Basically, to lead without a title is to derive your power within the organisation not from your position but from your competence, effectiveness, relationships, excellence, innovation and ethics.
The relationship that tests/frustrates/irritates you the most actually is one of your greatest blessings. Why? Because it reveals to you the very beliefs/fears and false assumptions that most limit you.
I bought my own home in 2004. It's a sanctuary for my family and a place of peace and calm. It's key for anyone committed to leadership and success to avoid the noise and focus on their best opportunities.
Just imagine how fast, innovative and excellent your business will be once every single teammate - from the janitor to the executive - begins to see themselves as the CEO of their own area of responsibility.
Questions matter. In business, remarkable performers are brilliant at getting to the right question: the one that speeds them to the place they need to get to and offers them the missing piece they need to find.
My best investment, as cliched as this sounds, is the money I've spent developing myself, via books, workshops and coaching. Leadership begins within, and to have a better career, start by building a better you.
I've found I get big things done when I'm on airplanes or in hotel rooms. It's a total needle-mover to book a fantastic room in a place you adore and then put the 'do not disturb' on the phone and door for a week.
My encouragement: delete the energy vampires from your life, clean out all complexity, build a team around you that frees you to fly, remove anything toxic, and cherish simplicity. Because that's where genius lives.
I've had some wins. And been knocked down with defeats. Glimpsed views from the top of the mountain. And walked through the darkest of valleys. But through this entire ride called 'a life' - I've refused to give up.
No matter how busy I get or how much pressure is on my shoulders, a good workout makes me feel at ease. I come off the treadmill feeling relaxed, full of joy and with a sense of perspective over the issues on my plate.
Delegate to others who have strengths where you don't. But sometimes, you just need to be the one to drive the change when everyone else is waiting for someone else to take the first step. To me, that's courage in action.
Anyone can show exceptional leadership ability in easy times. When all's going to plan, anyone can be inspirational/excellent/innovative and strong. The real question is how do you show up when everything's falling apart?
There is a new model of leadership in the world that rides on the premise that every single person in the organisation can be a leader. Titles are important for structure and order, but real power does not come from titles.
The more you rely/trust and believe in your team and the bigger the investment you make in getting them to their greatness, the larger will be the commitment, engagement, and outright devotion they have when it comes to you.
Most people in business and within their personal lives move towards complexity. More To Dos. More projects. More products. More meetings. More possessions. More goals. The best - I suggest to you - move in the opposite direction.
So many amongst us live in the past rather than loving the present and building a brilliant future. Some people stay stuck for years over something they did or a failure they've experienced. Sad. A life is a terrible thing to waste.
By seizing the opportunities that disruption presents and leveraging hard times into greater success through outworking/outinnovating/outthinking and outworking everyone around you, this just might be the richest time of your life so far.
I was a litigation lawyer, working in downtown Toronto. I was successful, yet I was very unfulfilled. I had the sense that I really wasn't living according to my values, and I didn't have the passion or sense of mission I was looking for.
I used to be incredibly afraid of public speaking. I started with five people, then I'd speak to 10 people. I made it up to 75 people, up to 100, and now I can speak to a very large group, and it feels similar to speaking to you one-on-one.
If there are only three guys at the top of the organization handling things, it's the definition of a bankrupt company. In creating leaders without titles, we are going to have organizations with people at the helm putting forth their best.
Leadership is not about a title or a designation. It's about impact, influence and inspiration. Impact involves getting results, influence is about spreading the passion you have for your work, and you have to inspire team-mates and customers.
I had lost a clear sense of the vision and values instilled in me as a child and was no longer driven by any mission or passion. I made the difficult decision to pull back from the noise of my life and reinvent the way I was living and leading.
Please remember that as you become a more extraordinary human being, every element of your outer world must change accordingly. Just has to. So the more remarkable you become, the more remarkable will be the professional and personal life you'll create.
Here's the thing: When you become brilliant at listening, people feel that you care about them. When they feel you care about them, they begin to care about you. And when people care about you, your success becomes a part of how they define their success.
If you've tried everything possible to get an outcome, and it just hasn't worked out as planned, stop trying so hard. Relax. Maybe the timing's not right. Maybe it wasn't in your best interests. Maybe while one door seems to be closing, another is opening.
Too many people start their day like a five-alarm fire. Instead, I teach people to start their day a little earlier than they usually do, and urge them to take the time to prepare, to practise, so when you get to work, it's show time and you're at your best.
I was a litigation lawyer. That's all very logical. Become a litigation lawyer. Become successful. Have a nice office. But there was some pull inside of me saying, self-publish this book. I followed that intuition and it's been a great choice for me in my life.
The fears you do not face become your walls. Most people in business, and in their personal lives, design everything so they can avoid doing what makes them feel uncomfortable. Yet any good business person knows we are not only paid to work, but also we are paid to be scared.
I believe it's strikingly important to remember that when you know better, you can do better. With higher levels of awareness, you can make smarter choices. And the more clarity you get as to who you want to become, the quicker you can start making the choices need to get you there.
Greatness comes by doing a few small and smart things each and every day. Comes from taking little steps, consistently. Comes from a making a few small chips against everything in your professional and personal life that is ordinary, so that a day eventually arrives when all that's left is The Extraordinary.
I'd done all the things I thought a person had to do in order to be successful and fulfilled, like getting a great education and becoming a lawyer, and yet there was zero spark in my life. But there was no light-bulb moment. It was gradual. In the early 1990s, I decided to experiment and try some new ways of living.
If we are paying attention to our lives, we'll recognise those defining moments. The challenge for so many of us is that we are so deep into daily distractions and 'being busy, busy' that we miss out on those moments and opportunities that - if jumped on - would get our careers and personal lives to a whole new level of wow.
Most organizations don't fall apart as a result of one big blow. Most relationships don't end because of one grand argument. Most lives don't fall to pieces due to one sad event. No, I suggest to you that sustained failure happens as the consequence of small, daily acts of neglect that stack up over time to lead to a blow up - and break down.