John Calvin Maxwell is an American author, speaker, and pastor who has written many books, primarily focusing on leadership. He has also developed the 5 levels of leadership, which visualize at which level a leader perform and how she or he can be more influential, respected and successful. Inspirational John C. Maxwell quotes will give you the right mindset for success, leadership, discipline and dreams.
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Most Famous John C. Maxwell Quotes
To lead any way other than by example, we send a fuzzy picture of leadership to others. If we work on improving ourselves first and make that our primary mission, then others are more likely to follow. – John C. Maxwell
Your life today is a result of your thinking yesterday. Your life tomorrow will be determined by what you think today. – John C. Maxwell
If your habits don’t line up with your dream, then you need to either change your habits or change your dream – John C. Maxwell
Every worthwhile accomplishment has a price tag attached to it. The question is always whether you are willing to pay the price to attain it – in hard work, sacrifice, patience, faith, and endurance. – John C. Maxwell
You have to live with the people to know their needs, and you have to live with God to know how to solve them. – John C. Maxwell
Not realizing what you want is a problem of knowledge. Not pursuing what you want is a problem of motivation. Not achieving what you want is a problem of persistence. – John C. Maxwell
The person who insists on using yesterday’s methods in today’s world won’t be in business tomorrow – John C. Maxwell
You will never change your life until you change something you do daily. Success doesn’t just suddenly occur one day in someone’s life. Neither does failure. Each is a process. Every day of your life is merely preparation for the next. What you become is the result of what you do today. – John C. Maxwell
If you desire to become a more generous person, don’t wait for your income to change. Change your heart. – John C. Maxwell
Believing in people before they have proved themselves is the key to motivating people to reach their potential. – John C. Maxwell
Good thinkers are always in demand. A person who knows how may always have a job, but the person who knows why will always be his boss. – John C. Maxwell
In the end, people are persuaded not by what we say, but by what they understand. – John C. Maxwell
You can’t be a smart cookie if you have a crummy attitude. – John C. Maxwell
No one stands taller in the climb to success than when he bends over to help up someone else. – John C. Maxwell
If your job is not making a difference in this world, by all means, get out there and find something else … You’ll find a sense of making a difference through your work if you simply look for it. – John C. Maxwell
To achieve your dreams, you must embrace adversity and make failure a regular part of your life. If you’re not failing, you’re probably not really moving forward. – John C. Maxwell
You cannot enjoy others until you enjoy yourself because you cannot give to others what you do not have. – John C. Maxwell
The person who does only what he must when he is in the mood or when it’s convenient isn’t going to be successful. – John C. Maxwell
If you don’t change the direction you are going, then you’re likely to end up where you’re heading. – John C. Maxwell
Change is inevitable. Growth is optional. – John C. Maxwell
The single biggest way to impact an organization is to focus on leadership development. There is almost no limit to the potential of an organization that recruits good people, raises them up as leaders and continually develops them. – John C. Maxwell
The best way a mentor can prepare another leader is to expose him or her to other great people. – John C. Maxwell
If you are a leader, you should never forget that everyone needs encouragement. And everyone who receives it – young or old, successful or less-than-successful, unknown or famous – is changed by it. – John C. Maxwell
Your life begins to change when you change something you do every day. – John C. Maxwell
If you can learn to understand people how they think, what they feel, what inspires them, how they’re likely to act and react in a given situation- then you can motivate and influence them in a positive way. – John C. Maxwell
If you wait until you feel like doing something, you will likely never accomplish it. – John C. Maxwell
Talent is a gift, but character is a choice. – John C. Maxwell
Leading well is not about enriching yourself – it’s about empowering others – John C. Maxwell
People will work eight hours a day for pay, 10 hours a day for a good boss, and 24 hours a day for a good cause! – John C. Maxwell
Live to learn and you will really learn to live. – John C. Maxwell
I’ve known people who thought that reaching their potential would come from shoring up their weaknesses. But do you know what happens when you spend all your time working on your weaknesses and never developing your strengths? If you work really hard, you might claw your way all the way to mediocrity! But you’ll never get beyond it. – John C. Maxwell
Don’t wait until you feel positive to move forward. Act your way into feeling good. – John C. Maxwell
Your talk talks and your walk talks, but your walk talks louder than your talk talks. – John C. Maxwell
We cannot become what we need by remaining what we are. – John C. Maxwell
Failing forward is the ability to get back up after you’ve been knocked down, learn from your mistake, and move forward in a better direction. – John C. Maxwell
Leadership is taking responsibility while others are making excuses. – John C. Maxwell
All leaders make mistakes. They are a part of life. Successful leaders recognize their errors, learn from them, and work to correct their faults. – John C. Maxwell
You can easily determine the caliber of a person by the amount of opposition it takes to discourage him or her. – John C. Maxwell
Most people who decide to grow personally find their first mentors in the pages of books. – John C. Maxwell
People rise and fall to meet your level of expectations for them. If you express skepticism and doubt in others, they will return your lack of confidence with mediocrity. But if you believe in them and expect them to do well, they will go the extra mile trying to do their best. – John C. Maxwell
Don’t buy into the notion that mistakes can somehow be avoided. They can’t be. – John C. Maxwell
If you don’t try to create the future you want, you must endure the future you get. – John C. Maxwell
It’s better to prepare than to repair. – John C. Maxwell
It is our decisions not our conditions that determine our quality of life. – John C. Maxwell
Leaders must be close enough to relate to others, but far enough ahead to motivate them. – John C. Maxwell
Discipline – Success doesn’t just happen. You have to be intentional about it, and that takes discipline. – John C. Maxwell
You add value to people when you value them. – John C. Maxwell
The longer you wait to do something you should do now, the greater the odds that you will never actually do it. – John C. Maxwell
Your success stops where your character stops. You can never rise above the limitations of your character. – John C. Maxwell
The GREATEST battle you wage against FAILURE occurs on the INSIDE, not the OUTSIDE. – John C. Maxwell
All visions begin with relationships. My relationship with God is where I receive the vision; my relationship with my people is where I give the vision. If those relationships aren’t what they could be or should be, on either side, the receiving or the giving out, the vision is going to be aborted. – John C. Maxwell
Successful people don’t have any fewer problems than unsuccessful people; they just have a different mindset in dealing with them. – John C. Maxwell
To achieve all that is possible, we must attempt the impossible. To be all we can be, we must dream of being more. – John C. Maxwell
Leadership is influence, nothing more, nothing less. How do you gain influence from people? You invest in them. How do you invest in them? It starts with giving them time. – John C. Maxwell
If you lack initiative, recognize that the problem comes from the inside, not from others. Determine why you hesitate to take action. Does risk scare you? Are you discouraged by past failures? Do you not see the potential that opportunity offers? Find the source of your hesitation, and address it. You won’t be able to move forward on the outside until you can move forward on the inside. – John C. Maxwell
Every time you make a mistake, don’t bring up everything that’s wrong with yourself; tell yourself that you’re paying the price for growth and that you will learn to do better next time. Every positive thing you can say to yourself will help. – John C. Maxwell
The only one you should compare yourself to is you. Your mission is to become better today than you were yesterday. – John C. Maxwell
Small disciplines repeated with consistency every day lead to great achievements gained slowly over time. – John C. Maxwell
It’s said that a wise person learns from his mistakes. A wiser one learns from others’ mistakes. But the wisest person of all learns from others’s successes. – John C. Maxwell
A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way. – John C. Maxwell
SUCCESS is when I add value to MYSELF. SIGNIFICANCE is when I add value to OTHERS. – John C. Maxwell
You either spend your life preparing or you spend your life repairing. – John C. Maxwell
A dream becomes a reality as a result of your actions, and your actions are controlled, to a large extent, by your habits. – John C. Maxwell
Life is a matter of choices, and every choice you make makes you. – John C. Maxwell
A great leader’s courage to fulfill his vision comes from passion, not position. – John C. Maxwell
Often people fail to start or complete a task because they don’t see any connection between what they’re doing and what they really want to accomplish in life. – John C. Maxwell
You will become on the outside, what you believe on the inside. – John C. Maxwell
The best gift you can ever give your mentor is to grow. They feed off your growth. I believe that everyone has the seed of success inside, but too many people can’t find it in themselves and as a result do not reach their potential. But there are those whose purpose in life is to fertilize the seed of potential in another, who are rewarded by seeing that person grow and blossom before their eyes. Raising up others to a higher level is a mentor’s joy and sustenance. – John C. Maxwell
Find your vision, and let it guide you in all that you do. If you lack vision, look inside yourself. Draw on your natural gifts and desires. – John C. Maxwell
To be an influencer, you have to love people before you can try to lead them. – John C. Maxwell
If we’re growing, we’re always going to be out of our comfort zone. – John C. Maxwell
True success is obeying God. – John C. Maxwell
Every time I have had a breakthrough in my life, it has been because of Prayer – John C. Maxwell
It’s true that charisma can make a person stand out for a moment, but character sets a person apart for a lifetime. – John C. Maxwell
Make personal growth a daily priority. – John C. Maxwell
To succeed in life, we must stay within our strength zone but continually move outside our comfort zone. – John C. Maxwell
No matter your title, people will not follow you if they don’t trust you. Whether you are just taking over a team or working to implement large-scale change within one, you are guaranteed to run into resistance if you haven’t taken time to establish a foundation with the people you oversee before turning their worlds upside down. – John C. Maxwell
You build trust with others each time you choose integrity over image, truth over convenience, or honor over personal gain. – John C. Maxwell
A man must be big enough to admit his mistakes, smart enough to profit from them, and strong enough to correct them. – John C. Maxwell
The difference between where we are and where we want to be is created by the changes we are willing to make in our lives. When you want something you’ve never had, you must do something you’ve never done to get it. – John C. Maxwell
Dreams require down payments. Dreams are free, but the journey isn’t. There is a price to pay. First, you must pay the price of dealing with criticism from people who matter. Ralph Waldo Emerson said, ‘Whatever course you decide upon, there is always someone to tell you that you are wrong.’ Second, you must pay the price of overcoming your fears. Failure, rejection, and looking foolish are common fears – but they are just feelings that can be conquered and removed from your thoughts. Finally, you must be willing to pay the price of hard work in order to realize your dream. – John C. Maxwell
Be intentional to add value to every person you meet everyday. – John C. Maxwell
Leaders become great, not because of their power, but because of their ability to empower others. – John C. Maxwell
There are three qualities a leader must exemplify to build trust: competence, connection, and character. – John C. Maxwell
Motivation gets you going, but discipline keeps you growing. – John C. Maxwell
At the beginning, all we have is the vision. At that point God expects us to begin walking in obedience according to the dream He has given us. – John C. Maxwell
Leadership is not about titles, positions or flowcharts. It is about one life influencing another. – John C. Maxwell
A successful person finds the right place for himself. But a successful leader finds the right place for others. Few things in life are better than seeing people realize their potential. If you invest in people by helping individuals improve themselves, showing them the way to their “right place", they will never be the same again. And neither will you. It is impossible to help others without helping yourself. – John C. Maxwell
The best way to help people is to see the best in them. – John C. Maxwell
If you don’t love where you are right now, you won’t love where you are going. Here is what I know: People who are passionate about what they do every day and love where they are in life are the fortunate ones. They have discovered their purpose. They are the difference makers who fully understand the gift of adding value, and yes, they can’t help but love where they are going on their journey. – John C. Maxwell
All good leaders are connectors. They relate well and make people feel confident about themselves and their leader. – John C. Maxwell
God chooses what we go through; we choose how we go through it. – John C. Maxwell
Life is like riding in a taxi. Whether you are going anywhere or not, the meter keeps ticking. – John C. Maxwell
By choosing to embrace and practice good values every day, you choose the higher course in life. And your life goes in a direction that you will always feel good about. You may not always get what you desire, but you will always be the person you desire to be. – John C. Maxwell
People may hear your words, but they feel your attitude. – John C. Maxwell
The first person you lead is you. – John C. Maxwell
The measure of a leader is not the number of people who serve him, but the number of people he serves. – John C. Maxwell
The greatest day in your life and mine is when we take total responsibility for our attitudes. That’s the day we truly grow up. – John C. Maxwell
Don’t ever be impressed with goal setting; be impressed with goal getting. Reaching new goals and moving to a higher level of performance always requires change, and change feels awkward. But take comfort in the knowledge that if a change doesn’t feel uncomfortable, then it’s probably not really a change. – John C. Maxwell
Leaders who are effective are leaders who are disciplined in their daily lives. – John C. Maxwell
A leader is great, not because of his or her power, but because of his or her ability to empower others. – John C. Maxwell
If you wouldn’t follow yourself, why should anyone else? – John C. Maxwell
Anyone can steer the ship, but it takes a leader to chart the course. Leaders who are good navigators are capable of taking their people just about anywhere. – John C. Maxwell
If you want to be a leader, the good news is that you can do it. Everyone has the potential, but it isn’t accomplished overnight. It requires perseverance. – John C. Maxwell
If you really want to be an uncommon leader, you’re going to have to find a way to get much of your vision seen, implemented, and added to by others. – John C. Maxwell
All true leaders have learned to say no to the good in order to say yes to the best. – John C. Maxwell
Sometimes you win, sometimes you learn. – John C. Maxwell
One of the major keys to success is to keep moving forward on the journey, making the best of the detours and interruptions, turning adversity into advantage. – John C. Maxwell
The way you live your life today is preparing you for tomorrow. The question is what are you preparing for? – John C. Maxwell
When people respect you as a person, they admire you. When they respect you as a friend, they love you. When they respect you as a leader, they follow you. – John C. Maxwell
If you want to be the best leader you can possibly be, no matter how much or how little natural leadership talent you possess, you need to become a serving leader. – John C. Maxwell
The challenge of leadership is to create change and facilitate growth. – John C. Maxwell
There are no shortcuts to any place worth going. – John C. Maxwell
The growth and development of people is the highest calling of a leader. – John C. Maxwell
The greatest mistake we make is living in constant fear that we will make one. – John C. Maxwell
What you are going to be tomorrow, you are today. – John C. Maxwell
Success each day should be judged by the seeds sown, not the harvest reaped. – John C. Maxwell
The secret of your success is determined by your daily agenda. – John C. Maxwell
As a leader, the first person I need to lead is me. The first person I should try to change is me. – John C. Maxwell
A difficult time can be more readily endured if we retain the conviction that our existence holds a purpose – a cause to pursue, a person to love, a goal to achieve. – John C. Maxwell
To lead yourself, use your head; to lead others, use your heart. Always touch a person’s heart before you ask him for a hand. – John C. Maxwell
Courage isn’t an absence of fear. It’s doing what you are afraid to do. It’s having the power to let go of the familiar and forge ahead into new territory. – John C. Maxwell
Growth is the great separator between those who succeed and those who don’t. – John C. Maxwell
To change your life, you need to change your priorities. – John C. Maxwell
Successful and unsuccessful people do not vary greatly in their abilities. They vary in their desires to reach their potential. – John C. Maxwell
Leadership is evoking in others the capacity to dream. – John C. Maxwell
Dreams don’t work unless you do. – John C. Maxwell
Leaders are meant to help others become the people God created them to be. – John C. Maxwell
