Archive for books
Vision: Are you moving forward… or in circles?
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One of the great dreamers of the 20th century was Walt Disney. Back when Walt’s two daughters were young, he used to take them to an amusement park in the Los Angeles area on Saturday mornings. Walt was especially captivated by the carousel. As he approached it, he saw a blur of bright images racing around to the tune of energetic calliope music. But when he got closer and the carousel stopped, he could see that his eye had been fooled. He observed shabby horses with cracked and chipped paint. And he noticed that only the horses on the outside moved up and down. The others stood lifeless, bolted to the floor. The cartoonist’s disappointment inspired him with a grand vision: Disneyland and Walt Disney World.
Vision is everything for a leader. It is utterly indispensable. Why? Because vision leads the leader. It paints the target. It sparks and fuels the fire within, and draws him forward. It is also the fire lighter for others who follow that leader. Show me a leader without vision, and I’ll show you someone who isn’t going anywhere. At best, he is traveling in circles.
if you lack vision, look inside yourself. Draw on your natural gifts and desires. Look to your calling if you have one. And if you stil don’t sense a vision of your own, then consider partnering with a leader whose vision resonates with you. That’s what Walt Disney’s brother, Roy, did. He was a good businessman and leader who could make things happen, but Walt was the one who provided the vision. Together, they made an incredible team.
Find your vision,
and let it guide you in
all that you do.
From The Maxwell Daily Reader,
January 25
Thank you to Everyone who Connected!
Posted by: | CommentsSo here it is: the book we’ve all been working on:
Available March, 2010
When I turned in this manuscript last spring, I was already very pleased with it. After all, I was confident that …
- The ability to connect can change people’s leadership, communication, and relationships;
- Connecting can be learned; and
- As someone who had learned to grow as a connector, I could help others along on that same journey.
Nine months later, I’m excited about this book in ways I couldn’t have predicted. That’s because back when I started writing this book, I had no idea that I’d end up sharing the entire unpublished manuscript with my blog readers.
(For that matter, I had no idea I would even HAVE a blog.)
I didn’t know that I would connect online with such a large number of people on the subject of connecting.
I never knew I could receive so much amazing input and advice from people all over the world that I’d never met.
And I couldn’t have predicted how much your suggestions would change and improve the book.
But here we are. After eleven weeks of sharing the book here a chapter at a time, we’re busy making the final changes to the content based on your input. How much of an impact did you make? Well, here are some exciting facts and stats.
From September 1 to November 16…
This blog recorded more than 100,000 page views.
The posts on the chapters received 1,437 different comments.
To the ten chapters, we added more than 75 of your stories, quotes and anecdotes.
We made over 100 additional changes based on your editorial suggestions.
We redesigned the cover to include the photos of contributors (i.e. YOU).
Then after receiving over 200 photographs – too many to fit on the cover – we redesigned the end papers to include every useable photo.
The one thing that didn’t change, thanks to amazing work by the publishing team, was the date the book will be available for purchase in the United States:
March 30, 2010.
Whether you buy the book or not, I am truly grateful for your part in its creation. I hope that the process has added value to you and your communication.
THANK YOU for connecting with me. It’s an honor to communicate with you.
Connectors Live What They Communicate
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Synopsis coming soon…
Connectors Inspire People
Posted by: | CommentsChapter 9 Synopsis
Connectors Inspire People
When someone begins to communicate with others, the first thing listeners do is start asking questions at a subconscious level. They want to know what’s in it for them. They want to know if the speaker is credible. But they also care about how the person communicates with them.
As I have watched effective communicators inspire people, I have come to the conclusion that there is a kind of formula, which I call the Inspiration Equation, which comes into play. It works like this:
What They Know + What They See + What They Feel = Inspiration
Do people know that you care? That you understand them? Can they see that you are credible? That you live what you say? Can they feel your passion for your message and your confidence in yourself and them? When a communicator is able to bring all three factors into alignment, it creates a synergy that inspires people. And from that place of inspiration, you can often lead people to take action.
Norm Lawson tells the story of a rabbi and a soap maker who went for a walk together. The soap maker said, “What good is religion? Look at all the trouble and misery of the world! Still there, even after years—thousands of years—of teaching about goodness and truth and peace. Still there, after all the prayers and sermons and teachings. If religion is good and true, why should this be?”
The rabbi said nothing. They continued walking until he noticed a child playing in the gutter.
Then the rabbi said, “Look at that child. You say that soap makes people clean, but see the dirt on that youngster. Of what good is soap? With all the soap in the world, over all these years, the child is still filthy. I wonder how effective soap is, after all!”
The soap maker protested, “But, Rabbi, soap cannot do any good unless it is used!”
“Exactly,” replied the rabbi.
According to some scholars, there hasn’t always been such a divide between understanding and action. One linguist says that in up to twenty primitive languages, the words for “hearing” and “doing” are the same word. Only in our modern context have we divided them.
Actor Will Smith once said, “The way I like to measure greatness is: How many people do you affect? In your time on earth, how many people can you affect? How many people can you make want to be better? Or how many people can you inspire?” In the end, what good is our communication if its impact ends the moment we stop speaking? The true test of inspiration isn’t people’s applause; it’s their actions. That’s what makes a difference.
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News and thank yous
Posted by: John C Maxwell | Comments (21)Hello! I hope you had a wonderful holiday season. Our Christmas was very merry. We gathered as a family to thank God for the birth of His Son and express our love for each other. My mother’s absence from this earth was on our minds, but with every smile from our grandbabies, we glimpsed the heart of Mom. We know we’ll see her again.
It’s been awhile since my last post, so let me catch you up a bit:
Everyone Communicates, Few Connect will be published and on bookshelves on March 30th of this year. And this is what everyone who picks up the book will see:
What the average reader won’t see: the incalculable value that was added to the entire book by your participation. It won’t be obvious that we reordered an entire chapter when you said it was unclear. Most readers will never know how many errors you caught. They won’t see the stories we removed in favor of better stories from YOUR lives.
But I’ll know. And I want YOU to know, again, how grateful I am for your help. THANK YOU for not only communicating, but connecting.
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