As I stumbled for my alarm at 3:00 a.m. on my first day on the job as a street washer, I wondered what I was getting myself into. CBS had asked my company to participate in its hit reality show Undercover Boss. As the CEO of Herschend Family Entertainment (HFE) at that time, I’d agreed…

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A few years ago, I was considering a crazy idea. I was thinking about retirement. I was in my late sixties, and things were going well. It was the right time for my team and myself to think about the future and what it was going to look like. As we talked, it seemed like…

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No matter how talented people are, there is no success without perseverance. Perseverance is not an issue of talent. It’s not an issue of time. It’s about finishing. Talent provides hope for accomplishment, but perseverance guarantees it. Today, I want to give you four statements about perseverance that I’ve found to be true and ask…

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Recently, my team at the John Maxwell Company introduced a new offering for beginning leaders called Permission Granted. The purpose behind it was helping new or aspiring leaders understand that they have permission to lead—from themselves, the people around them, and the world at large. We felt comfortable launching that product because we believe it…

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Questions have power. Think about the power of simply asking, “Why?” Bernard Baruch said, “Millions saw the apple fall, but Newton was the only one who asked why.” Thank God for Isaac Newton! But what about the millions who saw the apples fall and never asked why? What kept them from asking the question? Have…

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Last week I talked to you about rewriting your story into one of significance. You may have been thinking more about how you can make a difference in the lives of others. Today I want to encourage you to think big: How can you partner with like-valued people to make a bigger difference than you…

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Sports teams at the University of Oklahoma are known as the Sooners, one of strangest nicknames in collegiate athletics. The story of how their peculiar nickname originated highlights a key ingredient to success in leadership: initiative. In 1889, the U.S. government agreed to open up public lands in Oklahoma to aspiring homesteaders. Anyone who agreed…

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“The greatest gap in life is the one between knowing and doing.”– Dick Biggs Life would certainly be easier – and success more simple – if all it took to achieve was to KNOW the right things and DECIDE to do them, right? But I think it’s more accurate to say that a decision is…

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A man and his dog returned home from a walk through the woods covered in cockleburs. The tiny burs had clung to the man’s pants and the dog’s fur, and it took a long while to disentangle them all. The man, Swiss engineer George de Mestral, was impressed by how easily the burs had latched…

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One of my roles as a motivational teacher is to try to help people reach their potential. For years, I tried to inspire passion in audiences by going about it the wrong way. I used to tell people about what made me passionate, what made me want to get out and do my best. But…

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