Archive for Failing Forward
On success and stupidity – TAKE TWO
Posted by: | CommentsWe are all failures – at least, all the best of us are.
~James Barrie, author of Peter Pan
This is one of the many thoughts and quotes that I’ve been posting on Twitter this week on the subject of failure. Some others:
There are many ways to be a winner, but only one way to be a loser:
to fail & not look beyond the failure. ~Kyle Rote, Jr
I truly believe that the difference between average people & achieving people is their perception of & response to failure.
Let me illustrate from my own life with this:
The March 2009 cover of Success Magazine.
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That was quite a cover. They made me look so SUCCESSFUL.
And the article? Well, it was so good that my wife Margaret read it and asked who it was talking about. 
Ten months ago, you could find this issue on quite a few newsstands. Walk into just about any airport, and you’d see my smiling “successful” face.
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Now, let’s just contrast that amazingly flattering magazine cover with the photo that follows.
Only weeks after the Success Magazine hit newsstands,
a very different photo was taken of me…
coincidentally, IN an airport:
Yes, that IS a mug shot. Yes, I AM an idiot.
On March 13, 2009, I was arrested at my local airport.
What for? Well, probably the best thing is for you to read what I wrote right here on this blog when it happened.
If you don’t know the story, you need to see this. Today I intend to “raise the bar” on stupid for anyone who’s ever made a mistake. Go read it; I’ll wait.
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Okay, welcome back.
Yes, it’s all true. In one instant, I went from celebrity shot to mug shot. From the penthouse to the outhouse, so to speak. Now, the good news is that ten months later, everything has worked out okay. And thanks to my friends and family – who seem to have seen my embarrassment as an answer to prayer – I’ve learned to laugh at my stupidity.
(Who else’s friends deal with their own mistakes by proclaiming, “Well, at least I didn’t try to take a GUN into an AIRPORT”?)
Here’s the truth: I’m convinced that I’m not the only one who’s done something stupid. In fact, I believe that ALL of us are just one step away from stupid. We walk a fine line. And whether our failure is a bad decision or a stupid mistake, we need to learn the right ways to respond to it.
In the last few months, I’ve taught a few lessons on failure and the best ways to handle and learn from it. Click the underlined titles to go listen and/or view them online.
Failing Forward, on Robert Schuller’s Television Hour of Power
Famous Failures, a series of three messages preached at Christ Fellowship Church (CFC), West Palm Beach, Florida
(This link takes you to all sermon archives. Click on “Famous Failures” to view/listen to my 3 specific sermons. The first, Stupid Hurts, will update you on my airport experience.)
I hope that if you’re dealing with your own failures, mistakes, or foolish choices, you’ll find some guidance and encouragement in viewing or listening to them.
And now I’ll close with just two of the many book titles suggested to me after this incident:
The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Airport Security
and
Developing the Gangsta Within You
Today’s Daily Reader: Put others first
Posted by: | CommentsToday’s blog post is an excerpt from The Maxwell Daily Reader. I loved compiling this book, with the goal of offering the reader one leadership principle per day for an entire year. Each one-page entry is drawn from one of my earlier (pre-2007) books, and is designed to be put into practice right after reading.
An added bonus: Besides providing a wide variety of leadership lessons, The Maxwell Daily Reader offers a good survey of my writing up until 2007.
What follows is the entry for today’s date: August 21.
Put Others First in Your Thinking
When you meet people, is your first thought about what they’ll think of you or how you can make them feel more comfortable? At work, do you try to make your coworkers or employees look good, or are you more concerned about making sure that you receive your share of the credit? When you interact with family members, whose best interests do you have in mind? Your answers show where your heart is. To add value to others, you need to start putting others ahead of yourself in your mind and heart. If you can do it there, you will be able to put them first in your actions.
But how can anyone add value to others if he doesn’t know what they care about? Listen to people. Ask them what matters to them. And observe them. If you can discover how people spend their time and money, you’ll know what they value.
Once you know what matters to them, do your best to meet their needs with excellence and generosity. Offer your best with no thought toward what you might receive in return. President Calvin Coolidge believed that “no enterprise can exist for itself alone. It ministers to some great need, it performs some great service, not for itself, but for others; or failing therein it ceases to be profitable and ceases to exist.”
(from Failing Forward)
Put others ahead of you in your mind and heart today.
More books … at your request
Posted by: | CommentsIn response to your suggestions for future books, I described in my last post how some questions could actually be answered by already-published books.
Next month, we’re going to talk about my next book (the one that comes out next spring). But before we do, here are some other published books and some of your questions that they answer:
The Difference Maker
Reading it should answer the following questions (and more) from my blog readers:
- How to actually change your mindset.
- Leaders who work in the face of negativity and doubt.
- I think a lot about optismism vs realism vs pessimism. Are both extremes unrealistic? Does optimism = often disappointed?
- Expecting the best when all around you says “no way.” Expecting the best and getting it.
Today Matters
Read this book if you want to get back to basics in managing your life. It will answer:
- Being a mom and business owner/leader and keeping God in the center of both.
- My biggest problem is finding a work-life balance. It seems like no one really has a solution. I could use a book with solutions.
- Managing balance between family focus and business focus. Can they coexist, or is it a case of switching (back and forth) between?
- How do you reach the masses and travel but take care of the most important aspect of life: family? How to balance?
- How to build our lives on solid principle, vs living life based on current culture and trends.
- BALANCE: spiritual, physical, marriage, parenting, business ownership, employing others, networking, extended family and friends.
Failing Forward
Read it to learn how to see mistakes as stepping-stones to success – and apply that to your daily life.
- Coming back from a major setback or failure post-prime. Rebuilding/recovering from loss.
- Feeling washed up at 38 after failing and blowing it.
- How to get unstuck in challenging circumstances.
- Turning failure into success.
- Getting back up after letting down those around you.
As I mentioned earlier, next month I’ll be asking for YOUR help. Through this blog, I want to offer you the opportunity to influence my next book.
The topic? Communication.
Stay tuned.
Leadership answers; no waiting!
Posted by: | CommentsThree weeks ago, here and on Twitter I sought your input on books that you’d like to see from me in the future.
Within minutes, the comments here and the replies on Twitter came pouring in. And when we finally compiled all of your responses, we had close to 30 pages of ideas.
So many of you took the time to really consider the needs you see today, and then communicate them to me. Thank you! I’m excited by all the themes that really stirred my ideas for future books.
Now, what probably shouldn’t have surprised me was how many requests came in for topics that I’d addressed in previous books. Here’s the good news: You don’t have to wait a year or more for the book you requested! Since the books already exist, they can give immediate answers to your questions.
Here is just a sampling of your actual replies/comments (without names, to protect the innocent), along with the existing Maxwell book(s) that answer those questions.
I hope this is a helpful resource to you.
On Direction and Purpose:
- I train elite athletes. Our dreams go to the wayside during the daily grind. We need a process to keep the achievable dream in focus.
- Finding your true calling in business and in life. How to do what you want.
- Interested in how to find purpose within internal processes that require collaboration when adversarial environment is prominent.
- A book about discovering your passion in life, what it is you are “meant” to be, how to identify talents.
- How do you know what you’re supposed to do in life? How do you plan for it after you know?
I’m happy to say that the answers to the above questions can be found in my new book, Put Your Dream to the Test.
On Working for a Difficult Boss or Leading from the Middle:
- The problem I face is having to read my boss’s mind and dealing with his micromanagement. He gives me feedback (99% bad, things that irritate him) days or weeks after an event has happened, and when he does he lashes out from the build up of irritation. He questions the work my coworkers and I do, and assumes no work is getting done if he’s not updated on every detail. He’s a real demotivator, and I’m trying to shield my team and keep them going. Any advice?
- How to deal with different types of leaders – a follower’s perspective.
- A book about “followership” – How to be a good follower, (especially) under bad leadership.
- How to lead a company from the middle. How middle management can change the direction of a company and how to get your ideas heard.
- One for followers on how to help the leader.
- A book for middle managers trying to break through to the next level.
The 360 Leader addresses all of these questions – and more – on leading up, down, and alongside.
On Various Leadership Issues:
I received many specific leadership questions. This is just a sampling:
- Hiring eagles versus ducks.
- Leading yourself (toughest leadership challenge there is)
- On self-discipline and tools to train my staff in same area.
- How to recover when you’ve violated laws of leadership.
- Qualities of a leader of significance. The seasons of leadership, enduring legacy.
- On working with boards, or a section on group politics.
- Courage to make tough decisions in shaky economic times.
These questions and many more are answered in Leadership Gold, which contains the hardest-won leadership lessons of my life in one book. In 26 chapters, I share the nuggets of wisdom that I gained through my successes AND my failures.
I’ll stop here. I received so much feedback that I can’t address it all in one post. So stay tuned for another installment in this series very soon.
But in the meantime, don’t miss my next post!
I’ve got an exciting announcement regarding my 2010 book – and how YOU can have a part in creating it!
