My friend Andy sent me this video and it blew me away. I aspire to be a great speaker, a great teacher, and a great motivator, this kid is all those and more. Please watch this and be inspired as I was, and still am. Send it on if you like and give someone you know the joy of believeing in them. I believe in you all and I will blog more shortly…there are no limits! cg
http://www.dallasisd.org/keynote.htm
When you have the opportunity to spend time with someone that is your idol, your mentor, your life guide, your teacher, your guru in the area of life that you want to succeed at the most, IT IS AWESOME! I had just that opportunity on Tuesday with world famous, bestselling author and leadership expert, John Maxwell. Last year at Keller Williams Mega Camp, Mary Tenant and Mark Willis, President and CEO of KW International gave me the opportunity to attend a lunch with John and about 25 other leaders from our company. I got to sit next to him and we talked a bit about my dream to positively impact the lives of millions of people worldwide, what he was doing in life, an event he puts on that I go to every year called Exchange, several other items, and I also shared with him that I wanted him to mentor me. He said he only mentors about 5 people at a time and he was full right now, but he would possibly consider it in the future (HE WILL BE MY MENTOR). Well that was a year ago. This year he came back to Mega Camp and I asked Mary if they were going to have another lunch and if so if I could attend again. I was told I could. On Monday, however, I was called by Mary’s assistant and she left me a message that there had been a conflict with John’s lunch and I needed to call her. I called her back very concerned that I would be cast out from the Maxwell lunch. To my amazement and glee when I called her back she said that she needed me, if I could, to pick up John and escort him to lunch from the hotel. SWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEET! Well the bottom line was that when I went to pick him up on Tuesday, I ended up getting to spend an hour and a half just with John and I talking and having lunch. What an excellent opportunity. I know that God had his hand in this and that John is starting to realize that I am very serious and focused on my mission to positively impact the lives of people and that he will help me to do that. John is incredibly wise and thoughtful and every time I get to spend time with him, it makes me realize, he is just like me. Meaning, he is just a simple, plain, one pant on at a time kind of guy that just happens to have devoted his life to his mission of adding value to leaders and that I can do it too. Let me share with you some other wisdom that I gleaned from John that Day. We talked about writing a lot because as you all should know; I am writing a #1 New York Times bestseller!! I will share what I got from our conversation on leadership for you though.
1. All great leaders connect with people.
a. You must practice to get good at connecting and you must understand what it takes to connect.
b. It is difficult to connect with people while pursuing your own selfish agenda. By nature connecting is giving others your experience.
c. Life’s most urgent and persistent question for leaders is, “what are you doing for others?”
d. And lastly: Great leaders don’t expect their people to move forward and latch on to them. Instead, they reach out to people, no matter where they are, and work to make a connection.
2. If you can effectively influence people the world is yours.
3. His greatest leadership days were not when things were great; it was when things were tough. That is where he grew the most and became a stronger and more solid leader. The greatest leaders are birthed out of the most challenging times.
a. It is our time now to make an impact on our lives. Do not buy into the thinking of the country that you cannot make major strides right now, build your leadership.
4. There are more successful people than there are successful leaders. Being a successful person is much easier than being a successful leader.
a. In order to be a leader people have to want to follow you. you have to care for them, nurture them, add value to them and you have got to be able to take them to a higher place.
5. The Leadership Edge-In your organization you want to layer your leadership levels. You want leaders at every level, not just on top.
a. We should be focusing on always attracting new leaders and developing the leaders we have.
b. In order for you to touch a mind you must touch a heart, believe in people and help them to grow beyond where they ever thought that they could, and they will stick with you forever.
Wow, these are all incredible thoughts for me. Someone asked me yesterday, “If you could contribute one aspect of your life to your current success what would it be?”. My answer; “The emphasis that I have put on becoming the greatest leader that I can be.” The John Maxwell of my generation, that is a vision that I keep in my mind at all times. I want to become the greatest communicator that I can be, so that I can add value to all of your lives. I promise you one thing right now, to all of you I say this; I will devote my life to filling my mind with the greatest information so that I may add value to you. I will devote my life to becoming the greatest speaker that I can become so that when we share time together that I may give you not only great information, but great energy, great steps to take, and great entertainment so that we may laugh together, learn together and grow together. I will always be me in every way, genuine, caring, fun, and concerned for you and your life as well as mine. I will develop my skills and the gifts that God has given me so that wisdom will flow from me like a river. I will give you my 10,000 mega watt energy and inspire you to greatness in your own life. I will be true to my ultimate mission; my ultimate vision to positively impact the lives of millions of people worldwide. And I will become the best that I can be.
I say that to you and everyone right here and right now, forever to be on this amazing world wide web. Hold me accountable, push me, and make me become the person I know I can become. I appreciate all of you that give me the opportunity to positively impact your life in just some small way. I thank you; it is what I live for. Thank you to John Maxwell for giving me his time and his energy so that I can learn and grow. When you get to spend time with those that are your idols, your mentors, your teachers, your gurus, your life changes forever. Thank you to Mary Tenant for changing my life forever.
Make it an awesome day, there are no limits! cg
Are you living your life in line with a DEFINITE MAJOR PURPOSE? If not you are missing out on what can be an incredible opportunity for you to master your future. In Napoleon Hills book The Master Key to Riches, he states it this way:
“It is one of the great tragedies of civilization that 98 out of 100 persons go all the way through life without coming within sight of anything that even approximates definiteness of a major purpose!”
When I read that I thought wow, that is a very powerful statement and a very true statement. Do you ever stop and wonder, “Why am I here? Why am I on this Earth? What am I supposed to be doing?”, if you do then you are a lot like me and a lot like those 98 out 100 people that Napoleon Hill was talking about when he wrote that back in 1965.
Why am I here? I believe that this question alone, if answered, can change the course of your future and the happiness with which you receive life. You must take time and meditate, contemplate, pray, think, and focus on this question and the answer will come. It may not hit you over the head like a ton of bricks, but the answer will come. It may be that your purpose is to be a great mom to your children, it may be that your purpose (like part of mine) is to provide great service to people looking to buy and sell homes, it may be that you are to be the greatest teacher to children, it may be whatever excites you and it does not matter what it is because it will be YOUR PURPOSE! When you live your life with this in mind, it get’s exhillerating! When you know what you are to do, when you are passionate about getting up in the morning and making it happen you will see results that you may have never seen before. This is success, I have heard it said that;
“Success is waking up in the morning, whoever you are, wherever you are, however old or young, and bounding out of bed because there’s something out there that you love to do, that you believe in, that your good at-something that’s bigger than you are and that you can hardly wait to get at it again!”
Now that is how I want to live my life and that is how I live my life, with Passion, Enthusiasm, Positivity, and Strength! We must find our purpose and go after it with everything we have and become that which god intended us to become. Spend some time and find your purpose and then write it down and look at it every day to remind yourself why you are here. My purpose is this; To positively impact the lives of millions of people worldwide! I now know how, I want to write New York Times best selling books, and become the greates speaker and teacher that this world has ever seen. To do that, and for you to fullfill your purpose, I believe we must study, learn and grow everyday. We must commit ourselves wholly, to that which we are here on Earth for.
You CAN DO IT! I know you can, I believe you can, now look at yourself and say to yourself, “I CAN DO IT! I CAN LIVE MY LIFE ON PURPOSE! IT IS POSSIBLE!”
Go out and make it an awesome day! cg