Book Review #1

"Developing the Leader Within You" by John Maxwell

Now that I have been acquainted with THE John C. Maxwell for a couple years, I thought it was time to actually read one of the books he always talks about.

Here's what I got out of it:
-Realize your potential.
-Care for people and not just your personal agenda.
-Be a person of excellence. Go the extra mile.
-Success is achieved by planning and sticking to the plan!
-Separate the good from the best.
-Be a person of integrity. People won't follow you if they don't trust you. (This doesn't just apply in the leadership arena. Integrity is important to God.)
-If you want to grow, expect change. You're not going to grow without it.
-Nobody likes a bad attitude. Don't let it get in the way of your growth.
-Leaders see potential in others and encourage them to go for it.
-Learn how to be a problem-solver. People always have problems.-
-"The size of the person is more important than the size of the problem."
-"Life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it."
-Motivate people. Your dreams aren't going to come true without them.
-People buy into the leader before they buy into the leader's vision.
-"All great leaders possess two things: one, they know where they are going, and two, they are able to persuade others to follow."
-Be a model for people to follow.
-"God's gift to me is my potential. My gift back to God is what I do with that potential."
-Learn self-dicipline. Conquer yourself before your conquer the world.
-Take responsibility and accept accountability.
-Become character-driven instead of emotion driven. Commitment vs. convenience.

Those are just a few of the things I got out of the book. I encourage you to read it if you plan on being a leader of something somewhere in your life. You'll get a lot more out of reading the real thing than reading my really really brief Cliff's Notes version.

I give it a B.