This is the end millet show welcome back to max out everybody today's an honor You know it's rare in life that when you meet a hero of yours that they personally exceed your expectations of them And the first time I met one of my heroes named John Maxwell that happened It was a conversation that I'll never forget and it developed into a friendship that I'm very grateful for John is an icon I think you could argue that he's the number one selling author in the history of whatever category you want to call it leadership personal development faith Change your life stuff. He's a number one all time. He's a he's an incredible speaker. He's a great leader He's a good man, and he's become a good friend and I just so grateful I get to share his wisdom with you all today for the second time on the program So John Maxwell welcome back great to have you here.
Thanks And you know I think back of our time together too, and it was one of the most enjoyable experiences I've had You know sometimes you just get in the zone Yeah, and that day we got in the zone You know they talk about athletes and they get in the zone and they you know if they're playing basketball They can't miss you know if they're hitting there, you know, and we just we got into that I don't know the edge on zone something that day and I Could not agree with you more and my prayer is that we're stepping right back into that zone again today Because it's been a while and I still we still get messages about that conversation that day because it did what your new book is doing for people to It helped change people's worlds to help change their life And then I'm so grateful that you've written a book so guys I just you know when we have some of the show about books I promote them But then there's books that I really love and so John wrote this one with Rob Hoskins actually co-authored it together Which is unique it's called change your world and I love this how anyone anywhere can make a difference And I can't think of a more timely conversation based on where the world is and people's lives are at So as we dive into this topic and I have the best in the world for those of you that are listening or watching I go I'd like to change my world. I like to change the world I have the man here to do that and I just want to start out with one thing He says in the book just at the stage for today John's books by the way I always say this you highlight most books You can't do that in John's books because otherwise if the whole page is just highlighter You'd be better to highlight with the one or two things in the book that you're not going to go reread because the whole book is Highlight really but he says this guys he says people change when they heard enough they have to maybe someone you can relate to that When they see enough that they are inspired to or when they learn enough that they want to and so I'm hoping that today one of those three categories Fits one of you that are listening and that we can help you so John let's start I'm just curious I think when people hear that they think hey you say in the book anybody can transform their life But does that really apply to me can anyone actually change their world? And I love the question and I think that here's where the miss is I think that most of the time when we're talking about positive change We leave it to others because we really don't think that we're probably capable of doing it And in fact I call the book change your world not change the world Change the world's too big. It's it's overwhelming.
So I'm just asking people to go into the world I mean, you know your family your friends Maybe maybe there are a few people that you work with but I'm asking them to to go into that world and become a positive Influence positive force with the people around them and what really excites me about the book and our time together today is that the book is has No theory in it. It's all proven work It's I'm not throwing out a book and saying I think maybe if we did this that we could change our world and where I'm not hyping people Or you know pie in the sky stuff. We're not going to Disneyland today It's it's just stuff that it works and I know it works because I've been able to see it firsthand I've been able to lead it and and to be able to put a book like this in the hands of any person and have them not have a False promise but have a true promise that they can really make a difference with someone else is just an incredible feeling So I can say you know, I've written 86 books. So that's a few and by the way, that's no And when you think about this no big deal Old if you're not old you can't write any six books Relax take a pill.
It's not that big of a deal. You just have to be old you 86 books But of the 86 books that I've done this one is the most fulfilling. It's a timely book It's very timely, but I'm very excited because what do leaders do and leaders offer hope in the darkest hour Yeah, and honestly when crisis comes you separate the players from the pretenders real quick Mm-hmm, and so we're in a crisis and I'm giving an opportunity for all of us to be players. You know, I noticed John I noticed that by the way on the book I was gonna ask you that it didn't say change the world It said change your world as one of the things I actually wanted to ask you about and so you kind of started out there And like most of John's books guys it goes right into the granular like here's what you do and on that hope topic You have this great term in there called a possibleist you need to become a possibleist.
What is that? Don't you love that word? I love it. I love it.
It took me about a month to learn how to say it So I got it out of the way early in the interview. I'm like, I'm gonna say this correctly early Yeah, I could write it before I could say it, but I love it because what this a possibleist is a person who doesn't deny reality I mean, they don't have their head to say and they don't say they're not just an optimist and everything's good and everything's gonna come out okay without any kind of Substantial support to their statement a possibleist sees reality sees the downside, but also sees the possibility And by the way, I think that's I think that's what a leader is I think a leader sees reality In fact, you know, Max priest has the first responsibility of a leader ed is to define reality So we don't do our people a favor when we leave reality in fact I think reality is the foundation of building a dream I you know, I watch people try to build a dream without reality and I want to walk into their life and say it's not gonna happen You've got it. You've got it. You've got it.
The foundation is reality is what is solid now You can build something off of it and a possibleist is a person who says this is very difficult time and this is not going to be easy And it's not gonna be quick And it's not gonna be even sometimes simple, but it can happen and I'm not only believe it can happen But I'm gonna make it happen in other words a possibleist gets involved It's awful easy to be an optimist on the sideline, but when you've got to go in the game All of a sudden that optimism isn't going to show anything in your game You've got to be able to provide the resources and support to make the game a winner for you So I love the word because it says we're gonna we're gonna we're not going to deny reality But we're also going to not deny possibility Yeah, and you know some people they go to reality and lose possibility enough some people go to possibility lose reality Possibilities says I take both of them with me. Does that make sense totally makes sense? I've not heard it said that way because I talk a lot about operating out of your imagination and not your memory or your History a lot of people just keep operating out of their memory and their history They don't give themselves a gift of being what I call a possibility thinker and I love possibleist It's so beautiful because now what you've added to that though that is really valid is you also have to define reality I think about these you know you got to dream big and possibilities But defining where you are is the place you're going to begin and when I love about the book actually for me You know I'm trying to in my life, you know, I have different businesses And so as I was reading the book I'm like this really applies to turning around this one particular part of my life in my business And I was fascinated because John Lee's foundations guys It's steps in this book and I thought it was interesting that really you start sort of with values and that that's sort of the foundation of transformation I think this is bad because if you've been hurt through what's going on in the economy right now in the world You're like where the heck do I begin to turn my world around? John recommends you start with getting clear again on your value So talk about that a little bit, just it's beautiful and I don't read that anywhere else Well, thanks for bringing that up And you know if it's okay, I would like to give all of your people a behind the scenes It's not in the book at all, but but but but it's I'd like to give context I'd like to pull back the curtain for a moment Yeah, because I got to go back to 2002 and if you go back there I mean if you picked up the Time Magazine in 2002 They summarized that year as the Year of Distrust because that it all I got to say Enron, okay?
Yeah, that was the year when corporate scandals were rampant and and what we said we were and what we were was not the same thing and Employees got hurt and clients got hurt and corporations just went belly up and all kind of bad things happen I was right at that time for Time Warner and Larry curse bomb who was the CEO of the book division of Time We're calling up to New York City We had a long dinner and he said John I want you to write a book on business ethics force I we just really need this voice in America right now, and I told him I said I can't and he said why can't you I said because There's no such thing as business ethics And he looks at me and he said what do you mean look what's happening in the business world? I said I know I understand that but there's still no such thing as business ethics. I said there's just ethics just ethics It's not business ethics. It's not home ethics.
It's not community ethics. It's not relationships. It's ethics And either you have them or you don't and by the way if you have them they work in business. Oh happy day, okay We're cooking you with me.
Yes, so so so he gets it real quick He said oh my god. He said well can you write a book on ethics? I said I'm not sure Okay, you're holding back on me again. Wait, and I said how do you write a book?
I mean ethics is all about doing the right thing for the right reason Regardless of the situation I said how can you write a book on ethics when there's no truth or absolute? I mean in a world of relativism How do you think substantial and I said you're gonna have to give me a little time to see if I can write the book on it And so I went with ways my research writing team We talked about a lot and we finally came up with an answer So I wrote the book on ethics and the answer was very simple We wrote the book based on the golden rule treat other people as you like to be treated yourself And our research team found out that every religion in the world and every culture in the world has the golden rule So it's not like I'm telling them something they don't already know or probably haven't even embraced So we wrote that book and it was a game changer. I mean I was interviewed by Chicago Tribune Wall Street Journal I went to West Point I mean I went to places and they said talk to us about and all of a sudden the light turned on in my life And I realized back in 2002 that the golden rule was just nothing more than a good value The goal this is a good value treat others if you want to be treated It's a good value all of a sudden I thought good values can make us become good feet people if we learn them if we live them And so I began to although I trained leadership skills and everybody knows that I try to develop leaders I got that part I said I want to do more than help people leadership skills I want to help people not only be trained leaders I want to help them be transformational leaders and transformation is an inside job. It's a values issue and it's one thing Okay, let me give you an example.
Yeah, I'm known for this day But everything rises and falls on leadership. Yep. Well, that's that's the that's the good and the ugly the good and the bad of leadership rises Or falls you got a bad leader falls good leader. Now.
What makes leadership rise Ed two things Competence in other you have to be a good leader and good values and you can't divorce them You're not going to rise if you have great skills, but you have terrible values Yeah, and if you have great values, but you have terrible skills, you can't lead anybody I mean, you know, the good news is they're a friend but they aren't going to take you anywhere And so the falls on leadership is when you have bad values and you have bad bad bad leadership skills And so all of a sudden I realized that here we've been training people to lead in leadership skills And we've tried we train them on what to do and they know how to do the right thing But we haven't trained them to be right. We haven't trained them to be the right person I felt like John I didn't jump in But I thought it's one of the revolutionary parts of the book is the part on transformation tables is that you make change in groups and It made me think a couple things guys on values as I read the book and I did the values assessment myself I think one of the reasons all of you they're trying to make change I think if you want it to be long-term start different this time start with your values That's the foundation that'll be that'll be everlasting. I mean your values will evolve obviously over time But the other thing that happens when you take inventory of your values I think and it helped me is I've been talking a lot lately about you've got to believe you're worthy of success You got to get yourself more credit for your intentions not enough I think everyone credit case I could be successful as you said when I'm completely ready or when I've got all the answers I get this amazing ability to execute Well, how about you deserve the one because you're a good human because you intend to make a difference There's a lot to be said in this world right now for just somebody with great intentions and not enough good people give themselves credit For having good intentions delivering on their self-confidence because they don't take an inventory of it And then when you set up these transformation tables he talks about you'll discuss them But I think it begins to grow within you and so I see so many granular things like that in the book You also talk in the book John You have to list them off you don't want to but I think his stuff is so real There's like eight like eight streams of influence that you talk about and why they're necessary to for transformation If you want to go through all eight you're welcome to but if you could at least make some reference to it I just feel like it'd be so valuable for someone watching this right now or taking notes or maybe They're about to pull over the side of the road so they can write these down The reason I love to be on your show is you know how to bring the best out of the person you interview you're a master at it You really are at your pro and I got I'll go to the eight strings But you know when you when you just when you talk about people with good intentions that all of a sudden we give them courage We you know what we let people that have had good intentions and a good heart out of the closet. Yeah We let up we say you can get out the closet You don't have to stay there anymore and we're gonna give you a simple game plan that and you don't have to start big Do you have five friends?
Do you have three friends that you'd be willing to get together with and just work through these values and I I just love what you said Because I thought to myself Wow, I wish I would have written it as good as you said it as far as we we just really help people Who really would like to make a difference but have never had the courage or the confidence? Yeah, the thing it's always got I mean somebody else is gonna have to make a difference I'm just going to hope and pray for it, right? And then all of a sudden no no you can walk out of the closet now and you can start doing it And so that that transformation that magic happens there We may come back to the table a little bit because yes interaction interaction hearing other people discuss their their difficulties and issues Just really helps bring everybody out let's stay there for a second John I think it's too valuable so I reminded me almost like if you go to church There's you know you go to church every Sunday, but then sometimes there's like a small group Yeah, you sit around fellowship and you'll share a scripture and discuss it and then it grows and you come back I think it's I think it's you're right. Let's just finish that for a second What is a transformation table specifically and how do I begin to build one?
Oh my gosh, okay? Well, it's a small group of people you know, six eight you can get up to ten But don't you know keep it small keep it small and it's but it's a place where everybody roots for everybody There's no judgment there. We don't need any teachers there. We don't even call me their facilitators.
There's one person They say okay, you can you share next but but but it's it's a we're in this together and all we're wanting to do is improve each other And so it's one for all for one you can call us the six musketeers around around the transformation table or whatever you want to call But here's what's beautiful here's why the table works in There are three questions that people ask Then if they can get those answered it brings life change to them and they always ask it about somebody that's leading them Okay, and these are the three when I spoke to the United Nations few years ago when I did the opening session of the United Nations to all the Ambassadors of the world. I spent two hours on these three questions, but these are these are the three every follower ask a leader Basically these three questions now they don't ask them personally But intuitively they're following for a reason and the reason is they're looking at that person who ever is this leader And they're asking the questions first of all do you care for me? Secondly, can you help me and thirdly can I trust you? Those are the three questions in the table.
Here's what makes the transformation table magic those three questions are answered every time This is life change and when I'm teaching those three questions can be asked But I can't answer them to a crowd when I'm reading it when I'm writing a book They can pick up the book and they can be reading it But those three questions can't be answered at long distance through on a page You can put people around the table Ed and all of a sudden the trust factor begins to increase because people get to be vulnerable But trust is is built out of vulnerability. It's not built out of covering and you know Authenticity is essential and all of a sudden you've got people helping each other and you don't have professionals helping each other You have friends helping each other and let me tell you something the difference between a professional help is they'll tell you what you need to know a friend Help help will say I'll walk with you. Wow. That was so good To get this content for me.
I got my my contact curator in here and it's just becomes absolutely life changing fire And I want you to know it's it's it's like social trust social trust Every country that does well every community does well and has social trust and any country that doesn't be well lacks it Social trust is I trust you I trust you to do what you ought to do most of the time and when there's distrust I don't trust you to do what you ought to do most of the time and if you can see we've got a trust fall in America right now A major trust fall no question and somebody needs to speak about this issue now. What's this is huge We've got a trust fall and we're looking at each other and we're saying oh my gosh And it's we're divided it's you and it gets me and and we got our issues and hope and we've totally lost our way around the table That all disappears you've got people that are friends and they're saying well Let me tell you how what happened with me in that area and and you've got you've got support I mean it's it's it's like a a meetings. I mean there's a reason that they've worked for decades There's a reason there's a there's a community of that table that you can get nowhere else And so what we've watched is as we've done we've now put And two and a half million people through these tables So we I mean it's not like we tried a table last week and we wrote a book about it We think it might work Yeah, and we have story after story of life change and the life change comes when people just are sitting around that table And they're finding out yes, you care for me. Yes, you are helping me and oh, yes I do trust you and now there is a safe place for people to have change because change is not easy You refer to that earlier when you know people change when they heard up They have to they they see enough that they're inspired to you know, they learn enough that the changes not easy But around the table changes as easy as it's ever gonna come yeah because you're not doing it by yourself and that's so It's huge you said by the way what you established that table is social trust in that community and guys listen We're just getting in here.
We've already talked about yes, you can make transformation Yes, you need to be a possibleist yes, it starts with your values the way you go out and do that as you go out and create one of these Transformation tables these are real applicable things you can do right now that can begin to create the transformation in your world These are real things John I read the book and there's a group of kind of you know influences I guess you call them that are friends of mine that we've all sort of said hey Let's get together one-on-one and I actually took the transformational table concept and next Friday I'm doing that with a group of men and women that are in this group And I said I want to sit I want to begin to build my own transformation table I'm not the leader of it I want it to be a community and I said to them actually ironically that I wanted to build social trust and I've learned the three keys of Leadership from John Maxwell when you guys hear me talk about those three keys now, you know where I got them So, you know, I'm coachable to John on these things because I know by the way when I think of John I think of values when I think of someone who sustained a career this long that so many of us that are in this space look to It's somebody that we admire that said sustaining impact and value like John has it's because of these reasons These are the reasons why I love John So he's being humble, but he's lived many of these things for years and years and years Which is why he's who he is so I interrupted you on the eight streams of influence because the transformation table is so Dung Good, but I know that's one of the things after values that's necessary for transformation So let's at least give him the gift of that wisdom as well. Yeah Well, and by the way, you just because you keep saying things that trigger me it's your fault that we don't get to the extreme Because it's your fault and because let me just say something I have fulfillment in accomplishing things that I can do But I have much greater fulfillment multiplied fulfillment in helping other people accomplish things that they've never done before and that's why Change your world is so exciting to me because I got this down. I've done transformation tables I'll keep doing transformation tables Margaret and I took a cruise about 18 months ago a Disney cruise a great Disney cruise with our grandchildren and Every day we went through another value. We finished the Disney cruise.
We go to four different countries. We got Mickey We got goofy. We got them all running around. We've got them in the parade.
We got them doing everything I sit down I say okay because I always do this at the end of a trip I always ask my kids my grandkids. What did you love? What did you learn? Wow?
Always because experience is the best teacher, you know, it's evaluated experience. Okay, all five of my grandchildren What did you love goofy Mickey Mouse parade? Papa we love sitting around the table with you and me and learning values and discussing them I mean these little kids would get around I'm talking about their all my kids are teenagers they would get around I remember that I'll never forget the moment when John my number three grandchild in one of our used was very open and honest about a very difficult Time he's going through and the next thing I knew his cousins and his sister and his brother were around him And they had their arms around him and they were loving on him and they decided to pray for him life changing life changing life It can only happen at the table. Okay now.
Wow Eight strings of influence I knew we would do this again. I knew it. What's magic your fault? Hey, I've had to help Interviewers finish their program, okay, yeah, I just sit there and I say jump in and the flow as flow will take you wherever you want And you do this alone, but leadership everything rises and falls on leadership So in every community in every country there are eight streams of influence.
We this is just well documented We've got it down government business education media arts family Religion and health. Okay now. These are the eight streams of influence We only go into the country when we get permission from the top of those people and here's what's key So the president says we want you to come in we say well to the president will you and your cabinet go through transformation tables? You know this with the Supreme Court justice.
I say now we you and your supreme We you started transformation table and we go right and and if they won't we've had countries we don't go because because they won't here's What we found I have seven companies, but what are my companies is a leadership training company and and what we discovered This is huge the major difference between success and failure in a company when we're doing leadership training with them There's one indicator and we can tell it on day one whether they're going to make it or not There's one indicator of whether it's going to be successful or not and here it is when the leaders buy into the program and they go to the program themselves It's going to be successful interesting if they have the program pay all the money and resources and send their people It's not going to go mmm people do what people see And so the buy-in is the fact that in those eight streams at the very top they say yes, and they get involved now What does influence to influence just filters down to the whole country and to the whole culture very good And so what so what do you matter what stream your listeners are with me on right today? No matter what stream they're in this really works, and I'm gonna give you one example. I can give you a hundred I will give you one it's this in Guatemala We've been doing transformation tables teaching values to the second largest bank in the country has 10,000 employees Okay, so it's a big back So the CEO after they've done this for two years the CEO asked me to come down He said I have two thousand of our clients that I'm bringing together and I want you to talk to them about change your world and transformation tables And values because he said it's so changed our company I want only help our clients and so I said I would so he introduces me Two thousand clients out there and here's what he says for two years We've been doing transformation tables in our business three positive outcomes number one our bottom line the profit better than it's ever been By for in fact he said it increased 36% last year now. Why did the bottom line do so well?
We teach values hard work industry honesty integrity teamwork His employees are learning all these values and all of a sudden they start to live them and embrace them now bottom line profit Number two he said we now have a leadership culture in our company He said we have a new culture here there you go He said and where did they get their leaders in the tables because and if you're not a table one week You'll facilitate that table and you'll take whatever values that comes up next week the person beside you facilitates it And we go we passed the leadership baton around and how do you develop leaders by practicing leaders? How do you know you have leaders by watching them practice? He said all of a sudden leaders are popping up. We said we have more leaders now then we have positions for them now That's a pleasant thing to have no number three and this is what it really got me so good He said the families of our employees have beautifully changed What are they doing they're taking those values they've learned at work and by the way every week 45 minutes they the banks all shut down We do the tables on on bank time.
Hey, they go home to their families say here's what we're discussing this week It bleeds right in the families and all of a sudden the family gets better. So good. That's why I love what this work This is okay. I wrote a book, but I'm wanting to create a movement Yeah, and that's what I'm passionate.
It's and movements don't start with the mask They start with a few you know mass movements never start with a mask when Gandhi left prison started going to the by the time He got to the sea at a million We only had six within the beginning so let's let's hey He just had one transformation table in the beginning by the time he got there He had a million and we think we have the possibility through this book to start a positive movement of values learning living and embracing and And that's gonna be fine and the way that you do it John is worth See I think watching what John's doing not only in the content, but the way in which he's creating the movement So for me, I don't always just watch the execution I also watch the the person executing I shouldn't say executioner But the person doing the executing and one of the things you talk about in the book and I want people to read the books We'll only cover one or two more things in it But the truth is you talk about moving from me to we Yeah, I think so many leaders Unknowingly still sort of make what's happening about them and they're not cognizant enough I'm making it about the we and I don't think any great movement has ever happened without a cause and I don't know that enough Business leaders are aware of turning their business into a cause and for me. I've done that in business But when I read the book, I'm like if I don't have my family I'm the leader of my family What's the cause of our family? What's our family's mission? That's why you said about the crews really made an impact on me So can you just speak to that a little bit now be glad to because I think that we you know Stephen come he said begin with the end in mine and when I wrote intentional living It was whole the whole deal is most people accept their life instead of lead their life And so when we talk about this movement and what we're trying to create first of all it starts with credibility A cause without credibility won't go anywhere.
I know a lot of people they have really good values and a really good cause But they're not credible. They can't say but we've done it and and you know if I haven't done it all I can do is tell But when I've done it I can show and tell and show and tell is about a hundred to one more powerful than just tell And so you know when a lot of times books are tell and there's nothing wrong with that in fact I love what you said about your imagination a while ago And I think so many people cut themselves short because they don't allow their imagination to take them to where their potential could be But what I do know is this that it the cause The cause has to be a positive cause that adds value to people. Let me just say you can't sustain a movement out of negativity We've got a lot of negativity in our country right now. You can't sustain negativity if people wear out with nay There's only so I there's only much I could only curse the darkness so long Yeah, I mean until okay now I've cursed the darkness and it's really dark and we've cursed a lot and it's nothing's happened Hey, this book is quick cursing the darkness and goes turn on the light This is a turn on the light movement and then what you've got to be for something the moment that you're for something that gets this adds value to the people This is not a movement that adds value to me when you talked about me to we a moment ago Ed you're so right on my friend you're so right on the vision never is sustaining if it's about me I mean if I'm saying hey, I joined my team.
Hey, come on into my hey get into my coaching company Hey, you know get on my leadership train. Well, how many mys do you need to hear before you sit there and say boy? You know, I think I think I I think I'm John slave here I think you know no no no it's the first thing that happens to happen is that you've got to take the vision from me to we The vision works when all of a sudden you're not talking about John Maxwell's book when you go to your friends You say let me tell you something this book helped me now. It's contagious.
It now has legs It's not like well John has a book out here. No, no, they don't care about John Maxwell They care about the fact that it's helped you now that it's helped you There's a difference between being a vision caster and being a vision carrier What happened you can just cast you know, oh well, this is good. I'll throw that out cast that out You know here we go the moment you're a carrier You cast the vision by cousin who you are you're so stinking contagious that everybody catches it They catch it because you won't let him not catch it You won't shut up about it You mean why it because it's you it's changed you and all of a sudden it's made a difference in its life Not Maxwell's life. It's not about me.
It's all about you and when you go to your group You know Friday night and you go bring that book and you start sharing what it's helping you do connect All of a sudden they're in the game. They're in the game. I I'm listening to you. I'm just thinking you know, you're such a treasure I don't you know, and I don't mean just I'm just speaking what I feel when I talk with you and I'm curious John So by the way, what you just I have to just add one thing to I recently to be Martin Luther King the third and we're talking Obviously a lot of us is that great just this little movement, you know Only one of the greatest movements in the last hundred years probably arguably the greatest movement in the last hundred years And I was golfing this week with a buddy of mine and he goes that guy was Martin Luther King was off So he was against racism.
I said that's not right. He was for equality. He was for justice He was for unity. You don't create a movement that lasts this long being against something There's nothing wrong with having an adversary that you're against but Jesus Christ great movement wasn't just against the adversary It was for our salvation if you're a person of faith.
That's what endures and so I just want to second that But when I look at you, we are gonna talk about John Maxwell for a second I'm listening to this man who's been out this for more than one decade put it mildly and I'm watching him at the top of his game I've known him a while I've read I haven't read every one of the 86 books, but I've read a lot of them way before we met you all heard me Singing the praises of John Maxwell and I'm watching him like he's better than he's ever been Is there something that you could impart to all of us about you're on the top of your game How do you do that to sustain that level of what's the mechanism that drives you to stay at this level or even keep getting better? I love the questions you ask him you go right to my heart every time first of all I am getting better I am at the top I get I've said I turned 74 Saturday February 20 so I turned 74 so okay, I get this and I'm in my best days But my best days today are because when I was in my 20s I had a mentor share with me that growth was not automatic that if I was going to personally grow I was going to have to dig for it and be intentional in it and that getting older is automatic getting better is not And so once I understood the difference I said okay I've got to get a game plan for my personal growth and I did and my game plan for personal growth over years has been quite simple It's just it's deals around our EAL relationships equipping attitude and leadership And and if you'll read my books But almost all my books are either in relationship equipping attitude or leadership category And I did that because I came to the conclusion at 27 that if I could teach people how to do those four things really well They could pretty much be successful in any kind of venture that they have because I mean if you're good with people Relationally if you know how to equip people and build yourself a team If you know if you got an attitude that can handle COVID-19 and adversity and if you can lead and influence people pretty much You're in the game of success. So I said every day. I'm going to learn how to relate better equipment better attitude better I'm gonna live in this world and I didn't become goal oriented.
I became more values oriented And I think this is a difference. I'm not I'm not opposed to goal oriented at all. I but it's a If you're growth oriented you'll hit all your goals, that's right But if your goal oriented not growth oriented every time you hit a goal you want to do you go to the game? What's next?
Okay, now what do I do? I okay? I just made this much money. Oh my gosh.
Okay. I got this position Okay, I bought that house now what do I do and to take the what do I do out of your life? Just begin to grow now stay right with me. What happens because I grow and have done this for about 50 years now in it I have increased my growth capacity.
This is where people miss my growth capacity is Hugh Mungus it's like going to the gym. Hey, you increase physical pass It's it's like reading you increase mental capacity Well, I've increased growth capacity my growth capacity is much larger than most people's not because I'm smarter than most people It's because I've been doing it for 50 years. I got it. I've got a long runway now So my growth capacity allows me to grow more faster and compounded more than other people Because consistency compounds.
Yeah, so at this stage of the game everything I touch gets bigger and better But it's because my capacity is growing now put on top of that. I don't think there's a finish line So I'm not running a finite game. You know Simon said he wrote a great book called the infinite game It's a phenomenal book. He's a good friend and and it's a great game and basically Simon I'm gonna write a book and I was right before Simon's and I told Simon I'm gonna write it and just make it better than his but But but I'm gonna write a book.
I'm kidding. He's a phenomenal writer. I'm gonna write a book entitled is there a finish line and for and and and For most people the answer is yes Most people have what I call a self-imposed finish line when I get to this age I'm gonna quit when I make this much money. I'm gonna quit and so they they put their lines out there now If I put a finish line out there, you know, I'm 74.
I'm gonna quit. I'm gonna work anymore Okay, whatever what people don't understand is when you cross that self-imposed finish line guess what you're finished you're finished It's over But if you live with no finish line It's never over. What does that do that keeps me in the game? It keeps me excited about what's happening because I'm never gonna finish I'm gonna die but I'm gonna die when I came into the game the game was already started I didn't start the game and it's not it's certainly going to not end when I leave it I mean, you know, I tell people when they think that they're indispensable I say die and just find out how good we get along without you I Despensible so it's okay.
So but what this allows me to do is that allows me to stay fresh? It's that allows me to ask questions allows me to stay curious Because I understand my growth capacity is great and I'm playing in a game that never is finished I got to tell you John in my career doing this. That's one of my favorite answers of all time of anything I've ever asked somebody and for all of you leaders out there Well, not having a finish line I put a couple in my life on myself self-imposed finish lines and as I got closer to me just evaporating I just quit doing it Not sort of decided to be the way that you are but the other thing that gives you hope is that as you work on growing yourself You increase your capacity to grow even more. I've never heard that said before I've never heard that said before but I doubt More fire because I have experienced that, you know, what trying to keep my humility But I've experienced that in my own life like my capacity to grow Exponentially as much greater now than it was even ten years ago because I've been growing and I never really thought I think we think the reverse Why've grown so much there's just not that much more to go but that's it's the reverse that's brilliant It's only the more you grow the more you have to grow the more it's like the more you know, you know, you know The more you know, you know, you don't know that's so true the only people that don't think they know something or people who know nothing They think that they've all stopped growing up people that never grew.
It's so true. Is there something you're missing a very hard question Go ahead. That's your hard question. Well, I may not be able to answer but you can ask it What did you all through all this growth?
Is there something that you used to believe about leadership to be true that you no longer do that you've evolved out of that belief system? Is there you make your face like there's a lot we could do an hour let me tell you something if you really are growing You know Gandhi talked about a false position and his false position basically was that you try to hold on if you're growing growth means change Which means you can't hold on to things that you one-time thought were true or you believed because you're evolving and you're getting bad I let's put this way when I was 25. I had a lot of certainties at 74. I have very few interesting Yeah, because because life has taught me that it's not always black and white.
It's not either or it's not it's many times Combination and but now here's what's beautiful. I have less if I had a thousand certainties at 24 at 74. I have 10 Okay, okay, I said about those 10 I'm more certain about those 10 than I ever have been before They've been tested and can I tell you something a certainty that hasn't been tested can't be trusted. Oh And so and so this whole process of growth means I am not the second so people that knew me 20 years ago It's like it's like the guy who came up to me.
I was speaking at the conference and he said oh my gosh This was amazing. He said I wish you I could have heard you 20 years ago and I smiled I said no, you know I said oh no no, I wish I could heard you know I said well if I would have heard 20 years ago what I heard today He said it would have changed my life. I said if you'd heard me 20 years ago, you would have heard what you heard today. That's awesome That's so good growing.
I'm growing. I'm evolving. I was it I didn't come out of my mother's room with the 21 Irrefutable also leadership, right, right? It's a process Does that make sense totally make sense and I think everyone listening They should be gaining hope from this that if you start on this journey of establishing your values and getting people sitting at the table With you and being a possible list and committing to be in a grower and getting to that place where people believe you can help them And that they can trust you and these things are priceless and for me to hear about the finish line today There's something that I needed to evaluate.
There's just so many things. Go ahead. Can I tell you a quick story? Yes, please Oh, okay It's about the finish line because you said something about you had a couple of things that were kind of self-opposing they got there And they faded let me tell you because I could tell you see what I really love was what I have time is to talk about all the mistakes Failures and stupid things that I've done because I I've often said if you want to hear my success We do that today to hear about my stupidity.
This will be a week series And so I'm gonna tell you I'm gonna take let me tell you a real I had read this story about this guy that was a radio ham Operator and he said something about he'd taken the last marble out of his basket and the basic story was that he put like five years of Marbles for every week and every week he'd go take a marble out and he was in a countdown and this morning I took my last marble out of my basket and I thought oh my gosh I think because I was wanting to turn the companies over to mark coal and I was wanting to pass on a lot of stuff I said I want to get me a jar so that you could and you could see these marbles And I put in like three and a half years of marbles and I told mark I told the whole company in three and a half years I'm gone. So just understand this it's over okay, and and so every week I'd say mark you take a marble out of that you know here come the marbles start going smaller and smaller how stupid stupid stupid can you be It was true. Can I taste I'll tell you what I was losing my marbles okay? I literally get in front of a lot of the people who knew me well, and I had this big jar of Marbles up here, and they'd heard the marble story Hmm, and I said I just want you know I was so stupid.
I was so wrong I mean who wants to live their life like Cape Canaveral in a countdown you know what I mean who wants to do it And I picked up that I'll never get I took that jar of marbles and I just threw them on the floor And they just bounced everywhere and I told him I said I'm never gonna do this to me again I'm not in a countdown. I'm only in a make-your-life count mode and I People today, I'll never forget the day you lost your marbles There's no finish line. There's no I'm gonna live till I die and not get too confused. Oh gosh.
I love you I wish there was no finish line for this conversation I don't want there to be there isn't for you and I but there will be for the audience and I just I just love you And I just think you're incredible you make me think you make me laugh you make me passionate you increase my faith I want to be more like you. I'm gonna ask you a final question Um, but before I do I just want to say this again guys go get this book change your world John Maxwell Maxwell Rob Posskins and you just can see We've touched on we've scratched the surface of what's in this book and it will change your world if you do the things in this book I can't express that enough what I'd like you to do last John is I know everybody's hearing these things and we've covered a lot of very Practical things to do but I think lastly people listening to this are saying, you know, I need a little hope I need you talk about hope a great deal in the book by the way and I heard you saying to begin anybody can change your life But I want to go back to that lastly is there some if I walked into you I ran into you in a Starbucks and I said mr. Max while I I've lost my business the last year I've lost my family. I've lost all my money.
I've gained a bunch of weight I I'm a little bit in despair right now and but I'm a good man or I'm a good woman And I'd like to make a difference in my world and maybe eventually the world What would you say just lastly parting words to someone who asked you that question? That's a great question. I said it the first part of the book yet I wrote these words that the people will read when they pick it up hope has two beautiful daughters anger and courage Anger the way things are Encourage to make a difference. I would tell people hope has to have anger You have to be discontented with where you are you you can't be in no change happens in a comfort zone In fact everything covert was wonderful COVID-19 was wonderful in the fact that it got everybody out the comfort zone Everything a person wants or everything a person needs but they don't have is outside of a comfort zone It was in their comfort zone.
They don't really have it and so so this is huge. So is this you you've got to have anger? You've got to say I'm disturbed. I'm not where I want to be.
I don't like this position This is that's a healthy anger That's a healthy anger because that's that's stirs you out of the comfort zone And then you have to have courage to go into new territory where you've never been before and walk That's why I love the book I'm taking people on a tour with this book in other words if you'll have the courage to change your voice I've never changed anything about that. I already changed my bed Okay, if you're willing to walk in this new virgin territory for you I will walk with you and I'll make sure that you get to the end and for the first time maybe in your life You'll say I did something that was really positive that made a difference in someone else's life And that's where fulfillment comes in so it takes it takes anger and courage and you can't if anger without courage You curse the darkness courage with anger is you won't you won't pay the price. You got to have a move. I love you today was miraculous And remember you still you are supposed to know sometime to play golf with me and Jack Nick Well, once we get these vaccines all out there.
I'm uh, I can't express to you how much I'm looking forward to that I'll hold a place for you next year, but I love you and thanks for having me again. Hey, let's do it again We will I can't I can't imagine wanting somebody to come back on more than I want you to come back on a third time So thank you and everybody today share this you know today you want to share this one So share this with people that you love that you care about that you're leading that inspire you and that you want to inspire And so God bless you all max out This is the end millet show