The 73 Best Lessons I’ve Learned for Leadership Success in Business and Life

You really can Lead Without a Title.

Knowing what to do and not doing it is the same as not knowing what to do.

Give away what you most wish to receive.

The antidote to stagnation is innovation.

The conversations you are most resisting are the conversations you most need to be having.

Leadership is no longer about position, but passion. It’s no longer about image, but impact. This is Leadership 2.0.

The bigger the dream, the more important to the team.

Visionaries see the “impossible” as the inevitable.

All great thinkers are initially ridiculed – and eventually revered.

The more you worry about being applauded by others and making money, the less you’ll focus on doing the great work that will generate applause. And make you money.

To double your net worth, double your self-worth. Because you will never exceed the height of your self-image.

The more messes you allow into your life, the more messes will become a normal (and acceptable) part of your life.

The secret to genius is not genetics but daily practice married with relentless perseverance.

The best leaders lift people up instead of tearing them down.

The most precious resource for businesspeople is not their time. It’s their energy. Manage it well.

The fears you run from run to you.

The most dangerous place is in your safety zone.

The more you go to your limits, the more your limits will expand.

Every moment in front of a customer is a gorgeous opportunity to live your values.

Be so good at what you do that no one else in the world can do what you do.

You’ll never go wrong in doing what is right.

It generally takes about 10 years to become an overnight sensation.

Never leave the site of a strong idea without doing something to execute around it.

A strong foundation at home sets you up for a strong foundation at work.

Never miss a moment to encourage someone you work with.

Saying “I’ll try” really means “I’m not really committed.”

The secret of passion is purpose.

Do a few things at mastery rather than many things at mediocrity.

To have the rewards that very few have, do the things that very few people are willing to do.

Go where no one has gone and leave a trail of excellence behind you.

Who you are becoming is more important than what you are accumulating.

Accept your teammates for who they are and inspire them to become all they can be.

To triple the growth of your organization, triple the growth of your people.

The best leaders are the most dedicated learners. Read great books daily. Investing in your self-development is the best investment you will ever make.

Other people’s opinions of you are none of your business.

Change is hardest at the beginning, messiest in the middle and best at the end.

Measure your success by your inner scorecard versus an outer one.

Understand the acute difference between the cost of something and the value of something.

Nothing fails like success. Because when you are at the top, it’s so easy to stop doing the very things that brought you to the top.

The best leaders blend courage with compassion.

The less you are like others, the less others will like you.

The thoughts you think today determine the results you’ll see tomorrow.

Excellence in one area is the beginning of excellence in every area.

The real reward for doing your best work is not the money you make but the leader you become.

Passion + production = performance.

The value of getting to your goals lives not in reaching them but in what the journey reveals to you in talents, strengths and capabilities.

Stand for something. Or else you’ll fall for anything.

Say “thank you” when you’re grateful and “sorry” when you’re wrong.

Make the work you are doing today better than the work you did yesterday.

Daily, seemingly insignificant small improvements and innovations lead to staggering achievements over time.

Peak performers replace depletion with inspiration on a daily basis.

Take care of your relationships and the sales will take care of itself.

You can’t be great if you don’t feel great. Make exceptional health your No. 1 priority.

Doing the difficult things that you’ve never done awakens the talents you never knew you had.

As we each express our natural genius, we all elevate our world.

Your daily schedule reflects your deepest values.

People do business with people who make them feel special.

All things being equal, the primary competitive advantage of your business will be your ability to grow Leaders Without Titles faster than your industry peers.

Treat people well on your way up and they’ll treat you well on your way down.

Success lies in a masterful consistency around a few fundamentals. It really is simple. Not easy, but simple.

The business (and person) that tries to be everything to everyone ends up being nothing to anyone.

One of the primary tactics for enduring winning is daily learning.

To have everything you want, help as many people as you can possibly find to get everything that they want.

Understand that a problem is only a problem if you choose to view it as a problem (versus an opportunity).

Clarity precedes mastery. Craft clear and precise plans, goals and deliverables. And then block out all else.

The best in business spend far more time on learning than in leisure.

Lucky is where skill meets persistence.

The best Leaders Without a Title use their heads and listen to their hearts.

The things that are hardest to do are often the things that are the best to do.

Every single person in the world could be a genius at something, if they practiced it daily for at least ten years (as confirmed by the research of Anders Ericsson and others).