What happens when you don’t prepare? Take a minute to think about it—and be honest with yourself. In my leadership, the results of being unprepared are predictable. Things I hoped wouldn’t happen do happen—and occur with greater frequency than the things I hoped would happen. The reason is simple: being unprepared puts me out of…

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There’s a hunger for leadership in the world today like never before. People have looked to Hollywood, sports figures and politics, all in hopes that leadership will show itself. We’ve all been disappointed in places of business, or faith, or Wall Street. And this has generated confusion about what leadership really means. This hunger produces…

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Have you ever considered the time investment in some of the world’s greatest achievements? ·      It took 26 months to build the Eiffel Tower. ·      It took Da Vinci 4 years to paint the Mona Lisa. ·      It took Michelangelo 4 years to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. ·      It took Leo Tolstoy…

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Everything worthwhile is uphill. I’ve been saying that a lot lately. Because it’s a fact. Almost everything that has value, almost everything that has purpose, requires work on our part to attain it. We have to put in the effort to get what to where we want to go. Think about it – you want…

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Why is it some people always seem to get ahead? How has that older couple kept the magic of their marriage alive all these years? What does the fitness instructor at the gym, the one with the perfect biceps, know that you don’t? It’s simple: the secret of your success is determined by your daily…

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When I was much younger, I found myself in a job situation where the environment wasn’t conducive to growth. This frustrated and discouraged me. I had always been focused on growth and improvement. From basketball as a kid to speaking professionally, I was always looking for ways to get better at what I was doing.…

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When it comes to job performance, there’s really not much difference between an ordinary person and an extraordinary person. Consider the game of baseball. Miguel Cabrera of the Detroit Tigers had the best batting average in the major leagues last season at around .350. That is, when he came to the plate, Cabrera got a…

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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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Leaders who transform their neighborhoods, businesses, and communities have an unshakable sense of purpose. They are motivated by a bold and compelling vision that consumes their thoughts and fills them with passion. Such a vision demands sacrifices, unconventional choices, and tradeoffs that won’t always make sense to the leaders’ biggest fans: their friends and family.…

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How do you respond when a great opportunity presents itself? I’m a firm believer in finding and embracing new opportunities. But I don’t chase an opportunity without evaluating it according to some specific criteria. How do I evaluate an opportunity? I run it through a series of tests. Only after it passes them do I…

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