Success Lessons from America’s First Family of Football

By John Maxwell

What are the odds of a child in America growing up to play quarterback on a Super Bowl winning team? I'm not sure, but I'm guessing the chances are less than one-in-a-million. Now, what are the odds of two brothers playing quarterback for the Super Bowl winning team in back-to-back years-maybe one-in-a-billion? Yet, that's exactly what happened for brothers Peyton and Eli Manning. Peyton was named the Most Valuable Player of the 2007 Super Bowl after leading the Indianapolis Colts to the championship. A year later Eli led the underdog New York Giants to a sensational victory in Super Bowl XLII and likewise was recognized as the game's Most Valuable Player.

How do you account for the stunning success of the Manning brothers?

1) A Mentor to Emulate

Eli and Peyton Manning attribute much of their success to their father Archie, himself a professional quarterback for thirteen seasons. As boys, Archie taught Eli and Peyton the techniques of throwing the football along with the footwork associated with being a quarterback. While his sports-specific lessons surely left an impression on his boys, Archie's life lessons made the greatest impact. His honesty, work ethic, and exemplary character were on display in the Manning household for his children to see.

2) The Will to Compete

Like any highly successful athletes, Eli and Peyton share a fierce competitive drive. Family dynamics factor into the equation when explaining the Manning's spirited will to win. Eli and Peyton, along with their older brother Cooper, squared off against one another in countless contests: one-on-one basketball games, ping-pong tournaments, etc. Their good-natured competition to be the best in the family toughened the Manning's mentally and sharpened their athletic skills.

3) The Willingness to Learn

In addition to their prodigious athletic talents, both Peyton and Eli Manning are diligent students of the game. They scrutinize their performances on video looking for ways to improve, and they spend hours scouting out their opponents searching for weaknesses to exploit. Their knowledge of the game gives them an edge and contributes to their success. In this regard, they take after their father, himself a high school valedictorian dedicated to cultivating his mind.

As you contemplate your leadership effectiveness, take a cue from the Manning's and consider these questions:

Dad, Hug Your Daughters

By Zig Ziglar

Unfortunately, many men are uncomfortable with their daughters as they begin to mature physically. They refrain from hugging and embracing them and their relationships become more distant. At the most critical time of a daughter’s life, when her need for fatherly affection is at its peak, her dad backs away from his little girl. She no longer feels like the apple of his eye. Now she’s set adrift. Unfortunately, at that precise moment, “Hormones Harry,” who is two or three years older, is set to make his move. That’s tragic.

Let me encourage you, Dad, to continue that relationship with your little girl. Spend more time, not less, with your daughter as she grows up. Talk to her more, if she’s willing (many of them are not); give her more affection, not less. I’m obviously talking about appropriate fatherly affection. She needs to have her confidence and self-image bolstered and your attention and unconditional love are crucial. In addition, at that stage of her life she often feels that she’s “different” and unattractive. The records clearly indicate that the father who is affectionate and treats his daughter with respect and love, produces a daughter who is substantially less promiscuous than the young girl whose father backs away from her as she “grows up.”

Dr. Ross Campbell, a brilliant psychiatrist from Chattanooga, Tennessee, says that in all of his years of research and practice he has never known an adult of either gender with a sexual dysfunction who had a father who was kind, gentle, loving, thoughtful, affectionate, considerate and some of those other “feminine” qualities. So, Dad, go ahead. Hug your daughters and don’t forget to give Mom lots of hugs, too. Take that approach and I’ll SEE YOU AT THE TOP!

One Hour Makes All the Difference

By: Brian Tracy

You've gone as far as you can with what you now know. Any progress you make from this moment onward will require that you learn and practice something new.

Commit to Lifelong Learning
One quality of leaders and high achievers in every area seems to be a commitment to ongoing personal and professional development. They look upon themselves as self-made people, as "works in progress." They never become complacent or satisfied. They are always striving toward ever greater heights of knowledge and understanding.

Get to the Top in Five Years
Earl Nightingale said many years ago that one hour per day of study in your chosen field was all it takes. One hour per day of study will put you at the top of your field within three years. Within five years you'll be a national authority. In seven years, you can be one of the best people in the world at what you do.

Read Everything You Can
Read all you can about your field. Subscribe to the executive book clubs and book summaries. Build your own library of important books in your field. Never be cheap about your education.

In fact, if you make a decision today to invest 3% of your annual income back into yourself, back into your own personal and professional development, you will probably never have to worry about money again.

Go Through 50 Books Per Year
If you read one hour per day in your field, that will translate into about one book per week. One book per week translates into about 50 books per year. 50 books per year will translate into about 500 books over the next ten years.

Join the Top 1% of Money Earners
If you read only one book per month, that will put you into the top 1% of income earners in our society. But if you read one book per week, 50 books per year, that will make you one of the best educated, smartest, most capable and highest paid people in your field. Regular reading will transform your life completely.

Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do immediately to put these ideas into practice.

First, ask the successful people around you for their best book recommendations. Whatever advice they give you, immediately go out and buy those books, take them home and begin reading for one hour every morning before you start work.

Second, when you read, underline and take notes when you find important ideas that you can use. Implement them immediately. Take action of some kind on good ideas. You will be amazed at the change in your career.

The Time to Act

By Jim Rohn

Engaging in genuine discipline requires that you develop the ability to take action. You don't need to be hasty if it isn't required, but you don't want to lose much time, either. Here's the time to act: when the idea is hot and the emotion is strong.

Let's say you would like to build your library. If that is a strong desire for you, what you've got to do is get the first book. Then get the second book. Take action as soon as possible, before the feeling passes and before the idea dims. If you don't, here's what happens:

YOU FALL PREY TO THE LAW OF DIMINISHING INTENT.

We intend to take action when the idea strikes us. We intend to do something when the emotion is high. But if we don't translate that intention into action fairly soon, the urgency starts to diminish. A month from now, the passion is cold. A year from now, it can't be found.

So take action. Set up a discipline when the emotions are high and the idea is strong, clear and powerful. If somebody talks about good health and you're motivated by it, you need to get a book on nutrition. Get the book before the idea passes, before the emotion gets cold. Begin the process. Fall on the floor and do some push-ups. You've got to take action; otherwise, the wisdom is wasted. The emotion soon passes unless you apply it to a disciplined activity. Discipline enables you to capture the emotion and the wisdom and translate them into action. The key is to increase your motivation by quickly setting up the disciplines. By doing so, you've started a whole-new life process.

Here is the greatest value of discipline: self-worth, also known as self-esteem. Many people who are teaching self-esteem these days don't connect it to discipline. But once we sense the least lack of discipline within ourselves, it starts to erode our psyche. One of the greatest temptations is to just ease up a little bit. Instead of doing your best, you allow yourself to do just a little less than your best. Sure enough, you've started in the slightest way to decrease your sense of self-worth.

There is a problem with even a little bit of neglect. Neglect starts as an infection. If you don't take care of it, it becomes a disease. And one neglect leads to another. Worst of all, when neglect starts, it diminishes our self-worth.

Once this has happened, how can you regain your self-respect? All you have to do is act now! Start with the smallest discipline that corresponds to your own philosophy. Make the commitment: "I will discipline myself to achieve my goals so that in the years ahead I can celebrate my successes."

Be Mission Minded

By Sam Adeyemi

Your mission on earth is your life assignment and purpose. It is the reason why you were created by God. Being mission minded is focusing squarely on the purpose God put you on earth to fulfill. In fulfilling earthly assignments, we will encounter distractions.

Distractions come in the form of material needs. We live in a material world, therefore, we need worldly materials for sustenance - basic needs like food, shelter and clothing; but when we allow these needs grow out of proportion, we attach unnecessary importance to them and then they become distractions because we shift our focus from our mission to acquiring wealth for our basic needs to be met.

When you are mission minded, you will strive to exterminate distractions. There is a part of man that can never be satisfied with material resources. Jesus, during His days on earth, sought to deliver people from the deception that man's primary needs are material. He said we should seek first the kingdom, the government and God's system of doing things, and then all the other things we need will be added to our lives.

When we fail to do this and attempt to do things our own way, we are prone to deception. Unfortunately, there is the tendency to overly value material resources because of the amount of lack and deprivation around. Deprivation can colour one's perspective. Consecrating our lives to God is the solution to breaking free from setting our minds only on acquiring material possessions. God has invested gifts and talents in the lives of every person.

Without God's direction, we will never realize our callings; so, we must co-operate with Him to fulfill purpose. The purpose of our lives is much more than mere survival. God seeks to install capacity to solve problems for others in our lives through the Holy Spirit, and with this capacity you cannot lack.

Not until we make sacrifices to help people, will we achieve true success. We need to commit to laying down our lives, becoming the light and salt of the earth. True success cannot be achieved by acquiring material possessions but by sacrifice.

Become a Global Networker

By Dennis Waitely

Bill Gates, Microsoft’s founder, and the richest person in the world by several billion dollars, is convinced that the huge access to information will trickle down to the consumer. In another two years, he predicts, most decisions such as hiring a part-time worker for your home, buying a consumer product, choosing a lawyer . will be made on a much more informed basis because of electronic communication.


It changes the nature of competition, because in a networked world, we can ignore geographic limits to our shopping. People, information and services are merging together, all in the name of time-based competitive advantage.
Here is a check-off list of important considerations.

How many on the list are part of your daily life?

E-Mail is now the most popular method of communication next to the telephone in the industrialized nations. And, you can now transmit your e-mail by voice mail. It is possible and reasonable to expect that you can answer 30 e-mail messages in one hour, or one every two minutes. This is equivalent to answering personal correspondence at the rate of 30 letters per hour, without a secretary.

If you communicate long distance, nationally or globally by phone . through the use of Internet phone or software – you can talk indefinitely without long distance phone charges over the Internet. By paying only the monthly, on-line service charge, you can reduce your long distance phone bills immeasurably by communicating verbally, computer to computer, with individuals having compatible software.

Since it will be desirable to be multi-national in your business and personal relationships, by installing foreign language software you’ll be able to have all of your word processing appear on the screen in two languages.

Select at least one new language you feel will be desirable to learn during the next few years and install the software for that language. By having your correspondence appear in both your native language and one new language, both in text and audio, it is a great way to learn.

As you look toward the future, be prepared to have at least one of the following: An ISDN phone line for your modem. A cable service for your modem. Or a satellite dish for your modem. Cable and satellite modem services will be mandatory as requirements for speed and quality of downloading large quantities of information and graphics increase.

Ensure that your computer is upgraded for real-time audio, MP3, and video streaming, so you’ll be able to receive information from the Internet in real time. Consider investing in video conferencing equipment that allows you to hold live video conferences at multiple locations nationally and internationally, with multiple clients. Although video conferencing will not replace live seminars and meetings, it will reduce the costs and greatly increase the number of clients that can be served at the same time, in the knowledge century.

Action Idea: Pick at least two friends or business associates living in other countries, or in other parts of this country, that you will e-mail at least once every two weeks.

Zig On…I’m C2 and Fat-free

By Zig Ziglar

Several years ago I heard about a fellow who returned a phone call and when the phone was answered the response was, “286-7495.” The gentleman replied, “Yes, I’m returning Mr. Anderson’s call,” and the operator said, “Who is this?” He responded, “233-9191.”

It seems to be true that many people have become mere numbers in our non-caring, technological world. This was brought home to me recently when I checked in at the gate for one of my numerous flights. When I showed my ticket with the boarding pass to the gate agent, he picked up his microphone and said to the flight attendant aboard, “C2 is here.” What he meant was simply that I had seat C2 and was now aboard. I kind of laughed and said to the fellow, “Well, that’s the first time I’ve been identified as a seat number.” He smiled as I walked aboard the airplane where I sat down and we took off. When meal time came, the flight attendant began listing the menu choices for the passengers. When he got to me I said, “I believe I have a special meal.” He turned to another attendant and said, “Fat-free is here.” Since I prefer to be called Zig, I’m glad the names C2 and fat-free did not stick.

I find it to be amusing and yet, in a strange way, a little sad that we’ve reached that point in life when we can so casually deal with each other as a number or a letter. That’s especially true at this time in our history when mergers, downsizing, rightsizing, buy-outs, early retirement and bankruptcy have created stress and fear in the marketplace. Today, people need hope and encouragement, combined with genuine care and concern from those with whom we deal on a regular basis. When we pay our bills with a check or credit card, we like to be called by name. I’m not “C-2″ and “fat-free,” I’m a human being – and so are you. So let’s treat each other that way and I surely will SEE YOU AT THE TOP!

The Power of Pausing

By: Brian Tracy

All the top salespeople ask good questions and listen carefully to the answers. One of the most important skills of listening is simply to pause before replying. When the prospect finishes talking, rather than jumping in with the first thing that you can think of, take three to five seconds to pause quietly and wait.

Becoming a Master of the Pause
All excellent listeners are masters of the pause. They are comfortable with silences. When the other person finishes speaking, they take a breath, relax and smile before saying anything. They know that the pause is a key part of good communications.

Three Benefits of Pausing
Pausing before you speak has three specific benefits. The first is that you avoid the risk of interrupting the prospect if he or she has just stopped to gather his or her thoughts. Remember, your primary job in the sales conversation is to build and maintain a high level of trust, and listening builds trust. When you pause for a few seconds, you often find the prospect will continue speaking. He will give you more information and further opportunity to listen, enabling you to gather more of the information you need to make the sale.

Carefully Consider What You Just Heard
The second benefit of pausing is that your silence tells the prospect that you are giving careful consideration to what he or she has just said. By carefully considering the other person's words, you are paying him or her a compliment. You are implicitly saying that you consider what he or she has said to be important and worthy of quiet reflection. You make the prospect feel more valuable with your silence. You raise his self-esteem and make him feel better about himself.

Understanding With Greater Efficiency
The third benefit of pausing before replying is that you will actually hear and understand the prospect better if you give his or her words a few seconds to soak into your mind. The more time you take to reflect upon what has just been said, the more conscious you will be of the their real meaning. You will be more alert to how his words can connect with other things you know about the prospect in relation to your product or service.

The Message You Send
When you pause, not only do you become a more thoughtful person, but you convey this to the customer. By extension, you become a more valuable person to do business with. And you achieve this by simply pausing for a few seconds before you reply after your prospect or customer has spoken.

Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do immediately to put these ideas into action.

First, take time to carefully consider what the customer just said and what he might mean by it. Pausing allows you to read between the lines.

Second, show the customer that you really value what he has said by reflecting for a few moments before you reply.

The Importance of Leaving a Legacy

By Jim Rohn

There are four areas concerning Leaving a Legacy that I consider to be fundamental: a Life Well-Lived, Principles to Live By, The Importance of a Spiritual Legacy and an Impact Legacy and a Financial Legacy. Today, I would like to share on a Life Well-Lived.

You know, I have had an amazing life. I have traveled the world. I have shared my heart with so many wonderful people. I have been fortunate enough to make a great living and enjoy the fruit of my work. I have met thousands of people who are dedicated to personal development and self-growth. I have made it my life's pursuit to teach others the philosophies and actions that would help them achieve greatness and personal fulfillment in their own lives. Forty years ago, it felt like it would never end. Today, I still imagine I have many years left, but I also am more aware than ever that there is much less time left than before.

Being aware of this has made me even more clear on my goal of living well and teaching others to do the same. Our One-Year Plan of Success is designed to help others achieve all of their dreams, and is part of one of the legacies I want to leave.

Leaving a legacy for others to follow is part of what drives me. I followed others who had gone before me. They left a legacy for me. Now I am making sure that those who come after me will have a trail to follow as well. You see, leaving a legacy is important.

Think about those who left a legacy for us to follow and for you specifically:

Your parents
Your grandparents
Your aunts and uncles
Your schoolteachers
Your coaches
Your neighbors where you grew up
For those of us in America (for our international readers, take a moment to reflect on those leaders who helped form the foundations of your own country):

The Founding Fathers of the United States, who had a dream of a place of self-determination
Abraham Lincoln, who freed the slaves
FDR, who saw us through the Great Depression
The many men and women who defended our liberties through the wars of the 20th century so we could live in freedom
JFK, who called us to space exploration and set us on course to have a man walk on the moon
Martin Luther King Jr., who left us a legacy to pursue the dream of racial equality
There are literally thousands of men and women who lived in ways that affect our lives today.

And yes, the list goes on from there as well. These are the people who we knew, who we lived with, and who shaped us deeply, for good and for bad in some cases.

You see, a legacy can be anywhere on the continuum, from very bad to very good. It all depends on how we live our lives.

How we live our lives is critically important. I want to challenge you to take a look at how you live—challenge you to think deeply about the major areas of your life where you can and should leave a lasting legacy.

Why is leaving a legacy important? Here are a few reasons:

The legacy we leave is part of the ongoing foundations of life. Those who came before leave us the world we live in. Those who will come after will have only what we leave them. We are stewards of this world, and we have a calling to leave it better than how we found it, even if it seems like such a small part.

Legacies have raw power for good and for bad. There are people who have changed the world for good, people who have opened up new worlds for millions of others, people who have spurred others on to new heights. And there are people who have caused massive destruction for countless millions, people who left a wake of pain behind them wherever they went.

There are parents who have blessed their children with greatness and other parents who have ruined their children's fragile minds and hearts. What we do affects others. Our lives have the power to create good or to purvey evil. It is important that we choose to do good.

It is an act of responsibility to leave a legacy. Because of the power of our lives and the legacies we leave, it is a great responsibility to choose to leave a positive legacy. All good men and women must take responsibility to create legacies that will take the next generation to a level we could only imagine. I truly believe that part of what makes us good and honorable people is to have a foundational part of our lives based on the goal of leaving a legacy.

Purposefully leaving a legacy for others breaks the downward pull of selfishness that can be inherent in us. When we strive to leave a legacy, we are acting with a selflessness that can only be good for us. Yes, I suppose someone could work hard to earn money so that when he or she dies, a building is named after them, but that is not the kind of legacy we are talking about. We are talking about legacies that make life better for those who come after us, not about our own fame or recognition, but about helping others. After all, we won't be around to watch our legacy. To build that which will last beyond us is selfless, and living with that in mind breaks the power of selfishness that tries so desperately to engrain itself in our lives.

It also keeps us focused on the big picture. Legacy building is "big picture." It keeps us focused on the long term and gives us values by which we can judge our actions. When we act based on selfishness, personal expediency and the like, we are "small picture"—whatever is pragmatic right now. When we build a life that will give for many years, we are "big picture." Ask yourself: How does this action affect my overall goals? How will this affect people in the years to come?

Yes, your legacy is very important. Reflect today on how you are going to build a life that leaves a tremendous legacy!

Building a Foundation for Success

By John C. Maxwell

California redwoods are enormous, majestic trees that can grow taller than a 30-story building. A full-grown California redwood is estimated to weigh greater than one million pounds. The massive redwoods can be so wide that in some places tunnel-like roads have been built through their tree trunks.

A mature California redwood tree is virtually indestructible. It has no known diseases, and insects pose no threat to its health. The thick bark of the redwood even makes it resistant to most fires. Fierce winds are perhaps the tree's greatest hazard. That's because, even for trees towering 350 feet, the redwoods' roots only grow about six feet deep. Erosion or wet soil can weaken the roots to the point where a giant redwood can be brought crashing down by blustery winds.

For a California redwood, a strong root system supplies nourishment to the tree and anchors it to the earth. Character serves the same function for a leader. The strength of a person's character below the surface sustains his or her success in leadership. Stalwart character gives a leader a base of support from which to withstand the tumults of life.

How, as a leader, do you develop your "roots?"

The first requirement is to shift your attention. As my friend Andy Stanley says, it is a mistake to focus on what you want to do before you've decided who you want to be. As leaders, we can be in such a hurry to build our careers that we neglect to lay a solid foundation of integrity in our lives.

The second requirement is to identify specific character qualities that you would like to make a part of your character. Set aside time to ponder this question: when I'm gone, what do I want the people in my life to remember about me? Think about each of the meaningful relationships in your life and write out the response.

•How do you hope your co-workers will think about you after you've transitioned to another job or into retirement?
•What would you like your spouse to say at your funeral?
•What legacy do you want to leave your children?
•How would you want your church or community to describe your involvement in it?

Look for patterns in your answers. Words like generous, caring, or courageous may appear. These are the character traits you should hone in on developing.

The third and final requirement is to make the cultivation of character part of your regular routine. At the beginning of each week, strategize concrete ways in which you can demonstrate the character qualities you aspire to attain. If you want to be generous, then what can you give this week? If you would like to be caring, then who can you show regard for over the upcoming week? List out the specific actions you can take to build up your character. Review them during the week, and then evaluate how successful you were at accomplishing them at the week's end.

If you diligently mold your character within, then over time it won't matter what you do. Once you've grown your roots deep enough, whatever happens to you and whatever you choose to do, you'll be in demand. With the roots of character to sustain you, you'll experience true success.

The Biggest Goof Sellers Make When Dealing with Hot Prospects

By Jill Konrath

I dream of hot prospects who call me up and say, “We’ve heard good things about your company. We want to make a decision quickly. We’re hoping you can help us out.”

Occasionally, my sales fantasies turn into realities. When it happens, it’s so easy to be seduced by this low-hanging fruit. Outwardly, I try to appear calm, cool and collected – a true professional. But inside, every inch of my body wants to scream out, “Take me! Take me!”

Okay. I’m being a bit dramatic here, but I really want to make my point.

It’s so easy to be tempted by these opportunities. And when you yield to this temptation, you make fatal mistakes—ones that can totally derail your sales efforts and cause you to lose the business.

True, But Embarrassing Story

Let me give you a personal example, to show you how easy it is to get caught up in this seduction.

A few years ago, my primary business focus was working with large corporations in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area when they were launching new products. My expertise? Helping them shorten time to revenue on new product introductions.

I’d just launched SellingtoBigCompanies.com to help small businesses gain access to my expertise. It was my new baby. I’d invested tons of time and lots of love to get it up and running.

When the phone rang that day, I answered absentmindedly. But when the caller announced that he was from Southwest Airlines, I snapped to attention. He’d been all over my new website, was very impressed, and also very interested in my training programs.

The airline was going to be putting its salespeople through training in the not-too-distant future and was evaluating its options. When I asked who else he was looking at, I was delighted to be included with the industry biggies.

Mr. Southwest had dozens of questions about my content, delivery models, remote training options, learning reinforcement and more. I answered every single one of them in glorious detail.

When he requested a proposal, I asked, “How soon?” When he answered that he wanted it in two days, I quickly agreed.

The proposal I sent to him via e-mail covered everything we had talked about in our conversation, plus a full range of pricing options. It was a masterpiece. I had high hopes that this opportunity would take my business to a whole new level.

I never heard from Mr. Southwest again. Even though I contacted him many times, he never called back.

Lesson Learned

It was my own fault. I mistakenly let my own eagerness to land this marquis customer outweigh my common sense.

The truth is I really needed the business at that time. After spending many months and lots of money to create SellingtoBigCompanies.com, I was running short on cash. I should have known better, but I was seduced by the opportunity.

In retrospect, I failed to find out if Mr. Southwest was just exploring his options or actually in the final stages of decision making. It’s highly likely he was just doing the former.

Had I known that, I would never have written a detailed proposal. Instead, I would have focused on helping him determine the business value of making a change. I would have used my expertise to help him sell the concept internally and establish decision criteria favorable to my solution.

Over and over again, I see other sellers make similar mistakes when they have a hot prospect on the line. Like me, they expound on their capabilities and benefits. They willingly provide detailed information and do tons of extra work to create proposals or presentations—anything the prospects want.

While that puts you into the “nice” seller category, it’s not a good business decision to invest tons of time and effort to land a fantasy customer. Nor does it help your prospects make the best decision for their organization.

If Mr. Southwest was actually deciding in a couple days, I should have addressed the fact that I was a small boutique firm that didn’t compete head-on with the larger companies he was looking at.

Doing business with me would have been risky. I knew that. But I didn’t want to bring it up; I was hoping he wouldn’t notice!

I was so blinded by the opportunity that I was willing to do anything that he asked. It was delusional on my part. Wishful thinking. Hopeful. When we feel this seduction, we need to remind ourselves that “hope is not a strategy.”

While hot prospects may hold the promise of big paychecks, there’s often much that still needs to be determined if it’s a good fit for your company.

Don’t be overeager. Instead be ruthlessly realistic. Detach from the fantasy and assess your true chances. Bring up the tough questions.

Why? Because it’s the right thing to do for both you and your prospect.

The Three Mental Barriers to Time Power

By Brian Tracy

If everyone agrees that excellent time management is a desirable skill, why is it that so few people can be described as “well organized, effective, and efficient?” Over the years, I have found that many people have ideas about time management that are simply not true. But if you believe something to be true, it becomes true for you.

Your beliefs cause you to see yourself and the world, and your relationship to time management, in a particular way. If you have negative beliefs in any area, these beliefs will affect your thinking and actions, and will eventually become your reality. You are not what you think you are, but what you think, you are.

Barrier 1: Worries About Organization
The first myth of negative belief, of time management is that if you are too well organized, you become cold, calculating, and unemotional. Some people feel that they will lose their spontaneity and freedom if they are extremely effective and efficient.

Many people hide behind this false idea and use it as an excuse for not disciplining themselves the way they know they should. The fact is that people who are disorganized are not spontaneous; they are merely confused, and often frantic. The key is structuring and organizing everything that you possibly can: Thinking ahead; planning for contingencies; preparing thoroughly and focusing on specific results. Only then can you be completely relaxed and spontaneous when the situation changes.

The better organized you are in the factors that are under your control, the greater freedom and flexibility you have to quickly make changes whenever they are necessary.

Barrier 2: Negative Mental Programming
The second mental barrier to developing excellent time management skills is negative programming, which is often picked up from your parents, but also from other influential people as you are growing up.

If your parents or others told you that were a messy person, or that you were always late, or that you never finished anything you started, chances are that as an adult, you may still be operating unconsciously to obey these earlier commands.

Time management and personal efficiency skills are disciplines that we learn and develop with practice and repetition. If we have developed bad time management habits, we can unlearn them. We can replace them with good habits over time.

Barrier 3: Self-Limiting Beliefs
The third mental barrier to good time management skills is a negative self-concept, or what are called “self-limiting beliefs.” Many people believe that they don't have the ability to be good at time management. They often believe that it is an inborn part of their background or heritage. But there is no gene or chromosome for poor time management, or good time management, for that matter. Your personal behaviors are very much under your own control.

Action Exercise
Imagine that someone were to offer you a million dollars to manage your time superbly for the next thirty days. Imagine that an efficiency expert was going to follow you around with a clipboard and a video camera for one month. After thirty days if you had used your time efficiently and well, working on your highest priorities all day, every day, you will receive a prize of one million dollars. How efficient would you be over the next thirty days?

Vitamins for the Mind

by Jim Rohn

It’s best to start the discipline of generosity when the amounts are small. It’s easy to give ten cents out of a dollar; it’s a little harder to give a hundred thousand out of a million.

Giving is better than receiving because giving starts the receiving process.

Here’s what is exciting about sharing ideas with others: If you share a new idea with ten people, they get to hear it once and you get to hear it ten times.

Sharing makes you bigger than you are. The more you pour out, the more life will be able to pour in.

Somebody says, “Well, I can’t be concerned about other people. About the best I can do is to take care of myself.” Well, then you will always be poor.

What you give becomes an investment that will return to you multiplied at some point in the future.

Only by giving are you able to receive more than you already have

Want To Be a Success? Celebrate Failure

By John Maxwell

"Failure is not an option."
Gene Kranz, Apollo 13

Unless you're skydiving, tightrope walking, or trying to land a space shuttle, failure IS an option. In fact, the most successful people usually are the ones who have failed the most. Unafraid to take risks, they stumble frequently, but in doing so they learn valuable lessons and improve themselves.

Consider Google. The California-based firm revolutionized Internet search technology and Internet advertising, and it has created a host of innovative tools such as its mapping service (Google Maps), email platform (Gmail), web browser (Google Chrome), and mobile phone operating system (Android).

But spectacular successes rarely come without spectacular failures. The company massively misfired with Google Wave, a web application designed to integrate email, social networking, and instant messaging. On August 4th, Google announced its decision to shut down the high-profile project, not even a year after its launch. In explaining the decision, Google CEO Eric Schmidt asserted the company's attitude toward the situation:

"We celebrate our failures. This is a company where it's absolutely okay to try something that's very hard, have it not be successful, and take the learning from that."

Celebrating Failure

Leaders set the tone for how their people view failure. In particular the stance leaders take toward failure affects an organization's tolerance for risk, openness, creativity, and teamwork. With so much at stake, how can leaders create a culture in which failure is celebrated rather than feared?

1) Encourage Risk-Taking

Leaders invite their people to take risks when they entrust them with the authority to make decisions and the responsibility to exercise their own judgments. People who are empowered to act without having to seek the approval of higher-ups may misstep occasionally. Yet, in the long run they'll learn invaluable lessons and gain confidence in their own abilities.

2) Set Expectations

Leaders de-stigmatize failure by setting the expectations that, from time to time, people will mess up. Instead of insisting on perfection, seasoned leaders simply desire progress. They concern themselves with effort rather than focusing only on outcomes. To this end, they don't punish failure; they welcome it as a natural part of life and a necessary step in the process of maturing as a leader.

3) Interpret Setbacks

Some people are their own worst critics. After making a mistake, they have trouble recovering and moving on. Leaders come alongside their teammates to help them interpret failure. Instead of equating an error with disaster, leaders point to the slip-up as a portal of discovery. They frame failure as a learning opportunity and use it to instruct and guide team members.

Prayer is not the answer

By Dele Olawanle

Prayer is good no doubt, however, in most areas of life, prayer is not always required. There are a lot of people who pray to God regularly with no change or improvement in their circumstances. This is because as much as God is all-powerful and can do all things, we have a part to play. Anyone who only prays without corresponding action will live a life of mediocrity. We abdicate our responsibility by asking God, through prayer, to do what we should do. God will not do for you what you can do for yourself. There are ways we can resolve issues instead of praying non-stop about them. God has endowed us with the power and creative ability we need to deal with life’s issues. Here are some of the things we ought to do rather than just praying about them:-

Help people in need, if you have the capacity to do so, rather than just praying about their issues. Give a hungry person food not prayers. ·

Appreciate people by saying thank you whenever you have been shown any goodness. Ingratitude closes the doors of opportunity and prayer will not open them. ·

Where we need to add value to our lives, prayer will not suffice. Get an education or more education and don’t pray only. ·

Be humble. James 4: 6; the prayer of the proud will not be answered because God resists the proud. ·

Maintain personal hygiene and strive to look good all the time. Prayer will not solve the problem of achieving a decent appearance. ·

Prayer is not the answer to prospering financially rather obey the command ‘Give’ Luke 6: 38. Pay your tithes and give offerings. ·

Associate with the right set of people. Surround yourself with visionaries. Your life will not change or improve until you change your circle of influence. ·

Speak the right words because words are creative. Our words create our destinies. After you’ve prayed speak positive words. More prayers will not make any difference. ·

Forgiveness is required for prayers to be answered. Unforgiveness hinders our prayers from being answered. Matthew 6: 15 ·

Form the habit of saving part of what you earn; if you don’t save money, prayer will not help in times of hardship. ·

Love your neighbor as yourself. Matthew 19: 19. Where love is needed, prayer is not the answer. Prayer will not avail much when love is needed. ·

Do not be stuck with the age barrier. Your solution to a problem might be with a younger person but trying to hold your position of seniority might deprive you of it while the problem lingers, prayer is not the answer. It is not by age but by grace. Job 32; 6-9. ·

Deal with wickedness if you choose to have peace. Here also prayer will not suffice. The wicked person can never have peace. ·

Where obedience is required, prayer is not the answer. Obey God, obey authority figures. Disobedience is as the sin of witchcraft. ·

Learn to apologize whenever you are wrong; say sorry! Prayer will not replace an apology.

Don’t stop communing with God through prayer but learn to do your part by acting and God will do His.

The FOrmula for Failure and Success

By Jim Rohn

Failure is not a single, cataclysmic event. We do not fail overnight. Failure is the inevitable result of an accumulation of poor thinking and poor choices. To put it more simply, failure is nothing more than a few errors in judgment repeated every day.

Now why would someone make an error in judgment and then be so foolish as to repeat it every day? The answer is because he or she does not think that it matters.

On their own, our daily acts do not seem that important. A minor oversight, a poor decision, or a wasted hour generally doesn't result in an instant and measurable impact. More often than not, we escape any immediate consequences of our deeds.

If we have not bothered to read a single book in the past ninety days, this lack of discipline does not seem to have any immediate impact on our lives. And since nothing drastic happened to us after the first ninety days, we repeat this error in judgment for another ninety days, and on and on it goes. Why? Because it doesn't seem to matter. And herein lies the great danger. Far worse than not reading the books is not even realizing that it matters!

Those who eat too many of the wrong foods are contributing to a future health problem, but the joy of the moment overshadows the consequence of the future. It does not seem to matter. Those who smoke too much or drink too much go on making these poor choices year after year after year... because it doesn't seem to matter. But the pain and regret of these errors in judgment have only been delayed for a future time. Consequences are seldom instant; instead, they accumulate until the inevitable day of reckoning finally arrives and the price must be paid for our poor choices—choices that didn't seem to matter.

Failure's most dangerous attribute is its subtlety. In the short term those little errors don't seem to make any difference. We do not seem to be failing. In fact, sometimes these accumulated errors in judgment occur throughout a period of great joy and prosperity in our lives. Since nothing terrible happens to us, since there are no instant consequences to capture our attention, we simply drift from one day to the next, repeating the errors, thinking the wrong thoughts, listening to the wrong voices and making the wrong choices. The sky did not fall in on us yesterday; therefore the act was probably harmless. Since it seemed to have no measurable consequence, it is probably safe to repeat.

But we must become better educated than that!

If at the end of the day when we made our first error in judgment the sky had fallen in on us, we undoubtedly would have taken immediate steps to ensure that the act would never be repeated. Like the child who places his hand on a hot burner despite his parents' warnings, we would have had an instantaneous experience accompanying our error in judgment.

Unfortunately, failure does not shout out its warnings as our parents once did. This is why it is imperative to refine our philosophy in order to be able to make better choices. With a powerful, personal philosophy guiding our every step, we become more aware of our errors in judgment and more aware that each error really does matter.

Now here is the great news. Just like the formula for failure, the formula for success is easy to follow: It's a few simple disciplines practiced every day.

Now here is an interesting question worth pondering: How can we change the errors in the formula for failure into the disciplines required in the formula for success? The answer is by making the future an important part of our current philosophy.

Both success and failure involve future consequences, namely the inevitable rewards or unavoidable regrets resulting from past activities. If this is true, why don't more people take time to ponder the future? The answer is simple: They are so caught up in the current moment that it doesn't seem to matter. The problems and the rewards of today are so absorbing to some human beings that they never pause long enough to think about tomorrow.

But what if we did develop a new discipline to take just a few minutes every day to look a little further down the road? We would then be able to foresee the impending consequences of our current conduct. Armed with that valuable information, we would be able to take the necessary action to change our errors into new success-oriented disciplines. In other words, by disciplining ourselves to see the future in advance, we would be able to change our thinking, amend our errors and develop new habits to replace the old.

One of the exciting things about the formula for success—a few simple disciplines practiced every day—is that the results are almost immediate. As we voluntarily change daily errors into daily disciplines, we experience positive results in a very short period of time. When we change our diet, our health improves noticeably in just a few weeks. When we start exercising, we feel a new vitality almost immediately. When we begin reading, we experience a growing awareness and a new level of self-confidence. Whatever new discipline we begin to practice daily will produce exciting results that will drive us to become even better at developing new disciplines.

The real magic of new disciplines is that they will cause us to amend our thinking. If we were to start today to read the books, keep a journal, attend the classes, listen more and observe more, then today would be the first day of a new life leading to a better future. If we were to start today to try harder, and in every way make a conscious and consistent effort to change subtle and deadly errors into constructive and rewarding disciplines, we would never again settle for a life of existence—not once we have tasted the fruits of a life of substance!

Taking Risks

By Zig Ziglar

The entrepreneur is alive and well. Sometimes a big loss can be the catalyst for an even bigger gain. Many years ago, farmers in Delta and Montrose County, Colorado, lost a big barley-growing contract which put their future in question. The farming industry had suffered numerous reverses. Inflation, high interest rates and other factors had substantially reduced the number of farms. The situation was serious so the governor sent his economic team to preach value-added agriculture. John Harold, a local farmer and well-known figure, decided to take a gamble and bet on Olathe sweet corn. It’s truly a case of taking the proverbial lemon and making lemonade. In 1985 they shipped 12,568 boxes of corn. In 1994, they shipped a half-million cases. How did it happen?

Olathe sweet corn had long been a favorite in the Western Slope area of the country. By improving the storage and shipping process and assuring fresh delivery, John Harold made it a favorite from Atlanta to Los Angeles.

Harold’s role is primarily that of a coordinator as he works with 25 growers, including himself. They time the harvest so it occurs over an eight-week period. The corn is boxed in the field, 48 ears per container. Then it’s brought to Harold’s 20,000-square-foot cooler by truck. A forklift removes the boxes and a machine called a “clamshell” injects a slush-ice mixture into each box to make certain the corn is packed cold. Seventy-five percent of the corn is on trucks headed out the day it’s picked, and no corn sits in his cooler longer than three days.

By adding value to their product, the Delta and Montrose County farmers have opened a huge new market, a market facilitated largely by John Harold’s willingness to take a risk and try something new.

The message is clear. If you have any entrepreneurial spirit and are willing to take some risks, you can turn lemons into lemonade. Think about it and I’ll SEE YOU AT THE TOP!

Listening Wins Sales

By Brian Tracy

There are books, articles and multi-day courses on listening. There are audio/video-learning programs that include hours of instruction and a variety of exercises. They are all valuable and helpful, but what they teach can be distilled down into a key skill. Your mastery of these skills, through discipline and practice, is all you need to become an excellent listener, with all that that entails.

Listen Attentively When Others Speak
The best listening skill is to listen attentively. Lean forward; face the prospect directly rather than at an angle. Focus your attention on the prospects face, on his or her mouth and eyes.

Hang On Every Word
Listen without interruption. Listen as though you were hanging on every word the prospect was saying. Listen as if the prospects were about to give you the winning lottery number and you would only hear it once. Listen as if this were a million dollar prospect who was just on the verge of giving you a major order. Listen as if there were no one else in the world to whom you would rather listen at this moment than this prospect, and to what this prospect is saying.

The Most Important Skill of All
The ability to pay close, uninterrupted attention to a person when he is speaking is the primary listening skill. It is the hardest facility to develop and is simultaneously the most important of all. It requires continuous practice and discipline. And it's not easy. It is hard to keep your thoughts from wandering, but the payoff is tremendous.

Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do immediately to put these ideas into action.

First, imagine that your customer is the most fascinating person in the world. Hang on every word as if he was about to place a million dollar order.

Lastly, lean forward when your customer speaks. Nod, smile, agree and be both active and involved. Listening builds sales relationships.

Correcting Our Shadowy View of Success

By John C. Maxwell

Have you ever watched a dog chase its shadow? It can be a comical sight. Mistaking the shadow for something concrete and catchable, the dog yaps at it and tries to chase it down. Time after time, the dog dramatically pounces on the shadow, expecting to pin it to the ground. Yet, no matter how hard the dog tries, the shadow always eludes its grasp.

We laugh at the silliness of a dog's futile attempt to catch a shadow, but it's not nearly as funny to watch a person try the same routine. Unfortunately, that's just what many leaders do in life. They chase after a shadow of success, not realizing that what they're pursuing lacks depth and substance. They're running after an illusion of success rather than tracking down the real thing.

I've found that there are two core fallacies that cause us to have a shadowy view of success. Let's take a moment to look at each one in greater detail.

Fallacy #1: We see success as a place instead of a process.

Most people have destination disease. They see success as a far-off place where they hopefully will end up in the future. In the meanwhile, they float through life without a sense of urgency. Lacking a plan to get where they want to go and eschewing the hard work needed to get there, people with destination disease rarely arrive at their vision of success.

People with a proper understanding of success know that it is determined by their daily agenda. They're aware that success has two main ingredients: decisions and discipline. Decisions pave the way to goal-setting while discipline fuels goal-getting. The two traits cannot be separated; one is worthless with out the other.

Good Decisions - Daily Discipline = A Plan without a Payoff
Daily Discipline - Good Decisions = Regimentation without Reward
Good Decisions + Daily Discipline = A Masterpiece of Potential

Successful people know where they want to go. They don't drift; they drive. Along the way, they pay the price of daily discipline in order to achieve their goals.

Fallacy #2: We measure success by the magnitude of our accomplishments rather than by the richness of our relationships.

Many people envision success as attaining a powerful position, commanding a high salary, or obtaining luxurious possessions. None of these goals are inherently wrong. However, distortion comes when, in striving for "success," leaders elevate getting above giving. Rather than connecting with and serving their teammates, they slip into self-absorption and start to treat their followers like pawns.

People who live solely for themselves end up by themselves-alone and disconnected. Albert Einstein hit the mark when he said, "Only a life lived for others is worth living." An unselfish life of service never ceases to be filled with the pleasant company of friends and loved ones. If you desire true success, then put a high value on people, make the effort to form relationships, and invest in those relationships regularly.

Charting Your Course to Success

By Chris Widener

People will often ask me how I get so much done in my life. They wonder how I am able to accomplish so many things. The answer is found not in what a great person I am, but in an equation I came up with a few years ago and that I remind myself of on an almost daily basis. And when I live this equation out, it produces big results. What people don’t seem to grasp is that this equation will work for anybody! Anyone can see results in their life if they will live it out!

This little equation, when understood and acted upon, is perhaps the most powerful equation there is, in regard to long-term achievement and accomplishment. Yet, this is not a complex equation. In fact, it is rather simple. So what is it?

Your short-term actions multiplied by time equal your long-term accomplishments.

If you want to see change in your life, see big results, the first thing you must do is change your current actions. Otherwise, the old saying becomes a reality: “If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you always got!” But if we change our actions, we will see different results!

Most people want to accomplish a lot in their lives. Yet very few actually do. Why is this? It is because what they believe will equal their long-term accomplishments is wrong. Here are some of the things that people believe will create great accomplishments for them:

Beliefs
Vision
Big dreams
Ideas
Ideals
Values
Desire

The truth is, that while these things are very important, they are not enough in and of themselves. We need to have the above underlying all that we do, but we need to actually do something! And this is where most people stop. We need to take action on our dreams and beliefs every day.

Here are some examples of how this works.

Who loses weight? The one who knows all about the benefits of exercise or the one who walks three miles a day?

Who retires early? The one who dreams of a house on the beach or the one who invests $300 a month?

Who writes books? The one who desires to become a best-selling author or the one who gets up early and writes for half an hour a day?

Who has the best marital relationship? The one who knows how much spending time with their spouse can improve their relationship or the one who sits down and talks with their spouse every night?

Who makes the most sales? The one who believes they can become a great salesperson or the one who makes 10 sales calls a day?

I think you get the point. When it all comes down to it, we must act upon our vision, beliefs and ideals, or we won’t see them come to fruition. I see too many people who know what is right but don’t ever do anything about it. Imagine what a difference we could make in our lives and the lives of others if we would simply begin to act on our beliefs!

When I get to the end of my life, I want to know that I have done all I can to make this world a better place and enhance the lives of those around me. I want to know that I gave it my best shot. And I am sure you do, too.

I remember reading an interview with an author who has written numerous books that have sold in the tens of millions. The interviewer asked him how he did it. His answer was that he got up every morning before anyone else in his family and wrote, longhand, with a pencil, for an hour. Then he quit and went about his day. But his short-term actions piled up. Seven hours a week, 30 hours a month, 365 hours a year. After a while, he had lots of books!

Some questions as we leave:

* What long-term accomplishments do you want to see come to pass?
* What short-term actions will you need to do over time to see them come to pass?
* What will you do today to begin seeing your dreams come true?
* What will you do this week to see them come true?

You can have an awesome future, filled with great achievements and results, if you begin today to take action and make it a reality!

One more time, so you can plug it in, memorize it and live it:

Your short-term actions multiplied by time equal your long-term accomplishments.

Conducting a Personal Inventory of Your "Knowledge Resources"

By Denis Waitley

Self-knowledge has always been the key to preparing for competition. Knowledge of your attributes, abilities, interests, strengths, weaknesses, and traits is essential to riding the front end of the wave of change into the new century. To fully assess your own talents, realize that studies confirm that what we love and do well as children continues as our latent or manifest talent as adults.

Examination of your weekend or evening interests might reveal a gem of potential you can apply to your vocation. I strongly suggest you don’t unthinkingly relegate what you love to do for yourself solely to hobbies. You might make it, or at least integrate it into your life’s work.

The acquisition of knowledge, which is the new global power, is a life-long experience, not a collection of facts or skills. Not long ago, what you learned in school was largely all you needed to learn to secure a career. With knowledge expanding exponentially, this is no longer true. Hundreds of scientific papers are published daily.

Every thirty seconds, some new technological company produces yet another innovation. Your formal education has a very short shelf life. Life-long learning, once a luxury for the few, has become absolutely vital to continued success. Continue gaining expertise and avoid thinking like an expert.

Action Idea: An excellent benchmarking exercise is to spend a weekend with key associates or family members and dust off your childhood memories. Remember what you really enjoyed and wanted to do most as a child. The next activity in assessing your interests is considering your current ones. What do you most enjoy after work? What do you most want to do on weekends and vacations? What are your hobbies? Can you bring more of what you enjoy into your business life?

Action Step - Increase Your Reading, Writing and Vocabulary Proficiency. One of the most important qualities of successful leaders is an ability to express thoughts and knowledge. Research by management and human resource experts confirms that no matter what the field of employment, people with large vocabularies - those able to speak clearly and concisely, using simple as well as descriptive words - are best at accomplishing their goals. Well chosen, carefully considered words can close the sale, negotiate the raise, enhance relationships, and change destinies.

In a world of e-mail, fax dispersal, voice mail, sound bites, concise reports, business plans, and meeting briefs, the individuals who can articulate their goals, substantiate their claims, and support their visions, will own the future. In the 21st Century, literacy will be the major difference between the haves and have-nots.

Why do fewer than 10 percent of the public buy and read nonfiction books? One reason is that many would rather get home than get ahead. They are motivated to get by and get pulled along by the company, the economy, or the government.

Another reason is that many individuals believe that information found in books, computer programs, and training sessions has no value in the business world. How self-deluding!

As the new tools of productivity become the Internet, the Digital Versatile Disc, direct digital download of text, audio and video, and the combination of the interactive computer with telecommunications, the people who know how to control the new technologies will acquire power, while those who thought that education ends with the diploma are destined for low-paying, low-satisfaction jobs. In almost the blink of an eye, our society has passed from the industrial age to the knowledge era.

Increase your reading by 100 percent. Decrease your television watching, and that of any children in your family by 50 percent. Surf the Internet and subscribe to book summaries, or download free chapters from different sources. By reading book summaries, you can gain the essence of all the top business books in a very brief period of time.

Action Idea: Read at least one book each month, and listen to at least one additional audio book during commute or down time. One of the best sources for business audio books online is MP3audiobooks.com.

All kinds of reading and listening to fiction and non-fiction will increase your vocabulary, writing and presentation skills. Incredibly, a mere 3,500 words separate the average person from those with superior vocabularies.

Keep a dictionary beside you when you read and look up every word you don’t fully understand. Doing that on the spot helps make the word part of your vocabulary forever. And don’t depend on your computer’s spellchecker for your spelling. Not all e-mail service includes spell check. Also, you may be called upon to write longhand notes, memos, or information on white boards or blackboards at meetings. You not only want to use the right words. You also will want to spell them correctly.

A great way to increase your literacy is to engage in Internet conferences and to read summaries on the web from services like Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble and other booksellers. The more interactive you become in communications and the less you indulge in prime-time television, the more successful you’ll become in all areas of your life. Knowledge is the new power. And literacy is the door to knowledge. Hopefully, attending this "Winning for Life" program will be one of the keys that will open the door to your future for you.

Zig On…The Scout Oath

By Zig Ziglar

“…TO HELP OTHER PEOPLE…” I have a concept that I’ve built my life and my business on, namely that you can have everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want. Sam Walton put it this way: “I quickly learned that when I enriched others, I also enriched myself.” Part of the Scout teaching is to do a good deed every day. Recently I had the opportunity to help a lady who was physically unable to lift her bag and put it in the overhead compartment on an airplane. She thanked me profusely and I laughingly said, “Well, it gave me a chance to do my good deed for the day, so I thank you.” That good deed for the day is right out of what I learned as a Boy Scout. From time to time I still hear it said by people around the country. It is a marvelous philosophy.

Here’s one of those intriguing facts of life: Other people can give you pleasure, but you will never be happy until you do things for other people. Scientifically speaking, to do so also floods the brain with serotonin, which is that “feel-good” neuro-transmitter which helps to energize us, so the practicality of the Scout Oath is significant. A Psychology Today study revealed that people who are active in the community doing things for people who can’t do for themselves are physiologically energized and are able to be more successful in their own careers.

Now, I’m certain that the typical thirteen-year-old saying the Scout Oath is unaware of all of these things, but that does not lessen the benefits that a Scout receives for doing that good deed every day. Needless to say, I’m excited about Scouting and hope you are, too, because if you will buy what Scouting teaches, then I will SEE YOU AT THE TOP!

Encouraging Lessons From America's Top Educators

By John Maxwell

Summer vacation has slipped away and yellow buses are back on the streets, carrying children to schools. Some of the kids will endure classes disinterestedly, longing to hear the bell ring at day's end. Others will get wrapped up in the excitement of studying new subjects, learning with joyful fascination. Perhaps more then anything else, the leadership of their teachers will affect whether the kids love or loathe learning.

If you're like me, then you studied under a wide variety of teachers. Some you recall fondly for their ability to bring subjects to life in a way that captured your attention. Others you have trouble remembering because their listless, droning lectures frequently put you to sleep.

With school back in session, we thought it would be interesting to study what makes the best teachers great. How are these amazing educators able to encourage their pupils to excel in the classroom? We pored through quotes from award-winning teachers and came to the following conclusions about America's finest classroom leaders:

The Best Teachers Recognize and Value the Uniqueness of Each Student

"A good teacher knows how to read a story, and that each and every student arrives at our classroom door with a unique and intriguing yet incomplete story. The really good teachers know how to read a child's story and recognize the remarkable opportunity to help author the story. The really good teachers want to script confidence and success onto the blank pages; they want to edit the mistakes; and they want to help write a happy ending."
~ Anthony J. Mullen, 2009 NEA National Teacher of the Year

"I struggle each day to see students as individuals, to know their stories of learning well enough that I don't have to talk about grades at conferences. I can talk about students, and I can talk about what they learned."
~ Sarah Brown Wessling, 2010 NEA National Teacher of the Year

"All children can learn, but all children learn differently."
~ Clover Stephenson, 2010 Teacher of the Year, Dept. of Defense Education Activity, Korea District

As leaders, we give the most fulfillment to our people, and gain the most productivity from them, when we position them to use their strengths. In order to locate people's niches we must initiate relationships with them. As we learn their unique talents, we can customize their jobs accordingly. In addition, as we discover their values and goals, we can tailor our influence to provide them with suitable encouragement and motivation.

The Best Teachers Prod their Pupils to Take Risks

"Like any teacher, my true success is with my students. My central goal is to prepare each of my students to be successful in life. I encourage them to take challenging risks because they know that I will always be there as their safety net."
~ Donna Patrick, 2010 Texas Elementary Teacher of the Year

"Lechleiter-Luke likens her educational approach, both in classes and in extracurricular activities, to leading students to the cliff-like edges of their comfort zones, then pushing them off and watching them discover the ability to fly."
~ Said of Leah Lechleiter-Luke, 2010 Wisconsin Teacher of the Year

"I became an advocate for students to feel safe within the educational environment, to take learning risks, to never fear failure and to reach for the dream that will give purpose and meaning to their life!"
~ Catherine S. Webb, 2010 Virginia Teacher of the Year

Most people's dreams are sitting idle on the runway. Fear, doubt, and insecurity prohibit them from taking flight. It's incumbent upon us, as leaders, to see the potential in our people and to help them believe the best about themselves. We instill self-belief in others when we offer hope, give encouragement, and properly define failures as stepping-stones to success.


The Best Teachers Measure Success by the Achievements of Their Students

"My rewards don't come from grades students get on a test, but from students coming back years after graduation to visit me and tell me about their experiences traveling the world and becoming passionate about learning."
~ Craig Divis, 2010 Vermont Teacher of the Year

"The best teachers are those who are committed to excellence, not only for themselves, but for their students, colleagues, parents and community leaders."
~ Mary Pinkston, 2010 Delaware Teacher of the Year

"The most satisfying part of teaching is at the end of every year, I am able to see the growth of each student academically and behaviorally and say that I was a little part of that."
~ Brad Shonk 2010 Mississippi Teacher of the Year

As a leader, don't fix your gaze on profits or prestige. Likewise, be careful not to expend your energies trying to achieve personal greatness. Instead, concentrate on uplifting the people you lead. Make their success your number one priority. Serving those beside you is the surest path to greatness.