The School of Greatness - 239 John Maxwell on Leadership, Living Big and Choosing a Life That Matters

Episode Date: October 12, 2015

"Most people don't lead their life; they accept their life." - John Maxwell If you enjoyed this episode, check out show notes and more at http://lewishowes.com/239

This is episode number 239 with number one New York Times best-selling author John Maxwell Welcome to the school of greatness My name is Lewis Howes a former pro athlete turned lifestyle entrepreneur in each week We bring you an inspiring person or message to help you discover how to unlock your inner greatness Thanks for spending some time with me today. Now let the class begin. We're going on a book tour. We're going on a book tour. I'm going around the country. What's up, everyone? Welcome to this episode. I'm very excited. Before I introduce our guest, I want to give you a couple announcements. The book is coming out in 15 days.

That's right, 15 days of the day this episode is being released, and I'm doing a book tour around the country. I want you to go to lewishouse.com slash events to check it out. And if you are in the Los Angeles area, the New York City area, the Las Vegas area, Indianapolis, Columbus, Ohio, Cleveland, Ohio, Denver, Colorado, Miami, Florida, Chicago, Illinois, Charlotte, North Carolina, Austin, Texas, San Diego. If you're in any of those cities, then go to lewishouse.com slash events and make sure to register ASAP because tickets are selling out. They're filling up and you must RSVP to these events to make sure you get a ticket to go in because some of them have limited seating, limited books, all these different things. So go to lewishouse.com slash events because the book tour is happening very soon.

And I want to see all of you at the events that I go to. I want to give you all a high five and a hug and just thank you so much for listening to the podcast and for buying copies of the book and all that you do to spread the message of greatness. So make sure to go to lewishouse.com slash events. Also, we are doing some incredible things. There's a big bonus page right now. I'm offering craziness.

If you want to have me speak at your event, you can buy a certain amount of books and I'm doing a number of speaking gigs next year for those that want me to speak at their event for books. I'm also doing a dinner with some of the most inspiring, powerful leaders in the industry, and I'm super pumped about this. I'm hosting a mastermind dinner with leaders from the industry, and let me just list off some of these names. This is called the Greatness Influencer Dinner.

People like Jim Quick, Adam Braun, New York Times bestselling author, Ryan Blair, CEO of a multiple $100 million company, Chalene Johnson, who is a powerhouse, one of the top fitness instructors in the world, Ramit Sethi, Mastin Kipp from The Daily Love, Matthew Hussey, Tom Bilyeu, CEO of Quest Nutrition, Stacey London from The View. Drew Canole from FitLife TV. Rob Bell, who has been on Oprah a number of times, one of the top spiritual leaders, and many, many more. If you want to have dinner with all of us one night, then make sure to check out greatnessbook.com slash bonus with a capital B. You're going to see all these bonuses of how you can have a day long training sessions with me,

how you can get a retreat with me and my team, how you can get a speaking gigs from me, all these different things. When you buy multiple books, go to greatness book.com slash bonus with a capital B and check out all the goodies, the events page and the bonus page. We'll have it all linked up with the show notes as well at lewishouse.com slash 239.

And one more thing. I want to give a quick shout out and thank you to our sponsor, onnit.com. That's O-N-N-I-T dot com. If you guys are busy and you're hustling and you're growing your business and you've got a dream, if you've got a passion and you want to stay focused and healthy at the same time, then make sure to check out Onnit.com. They've got some of the best fitness foods, supplements to enhance your mental and physical performance. And I'm using some of their stuff on a daily basis. I love the hemp force for my smoothies. I love the immune tech when I'm busy traveling and I want to make sure my immunity is on

check and I've got everything under control. Alpha brain when I want to stay focused throughout the day. So make sure to check out on it.com and you can use the checkout code greatness to get 10% off on all supplements. They've been a huge supporter of mine and this podcast from early on, and they're an incredible partner of mine. So make sure to check out onit.com, that's O-N-N-I-T.com, and get yourself upgraded. Now, let me introduce you to today's guest. He is an incredible human being. His name is John C. Maxwell. He's a number one New York Times bestselling author, coach, and speaker who has sold more

than 25 million books in 50 languages. And in 2014, he was identified as the number one leader in business by the American Management Association and the most influential leadership expert in the world by Business Insider and Inc. Magazine. He's also been voted the top leadership professional in the world on leadershipgurus.net for six consecutive years. He's trained more than 5 million leaders.

In 2015, he reached the milestone of having trained leaders from every country in the world. He is the recipient of the Mother Teresa Prize for Global Peace and Leadership from the Luminary Leadership Network. And he speaks each year to Fortune 500 companies, presidents of nations, and many of the world's top business leaders. Five big things you're going to learn from this episode today. The power of compounded consistency to create greatness in your life. Why you're never good the first time you try something, John's secrets to selling 25 million books, what moment in his adult life he had the most

uncertainty for him, and the power of knowing your purpose to get through adversity. There's a lot covered in this. I feel like John really opened up big time in this interview, and I think you're going to really connect and appreciate how he shared and what he shared. So without further ado, let's go ahead and dive in this episode with the one, the only John Maxwell. Welcome everyone back to the School of Greatness podcast. Very excited about our guest today.

He is a legend in the leadership space and the author world and the coaching world and a living a better life world. His name is John Maxwell, and thank you so much, John, for being on today. Hey, it's my joy. It's so good to be with you. I'm looking forward to our time together. Yeah. You know, I've heard about you for a while now.

Obviously, you've got a big name. You speak all over the world. You're helping Fortune 500 companies. You're helping people all over the place. You're in every bookstore, anywhere you go traveling, you're in the airports. So it's great to connect because I've always wondered who the man is behind all these books and all the messages. So I'm excited about this. I'm delighted. Let's get acquainted. I've been, hey, I've wanted to meet you too. Awesome, awesome. So let's take advantage of this time and meet each other and know each other a little bit better

and help some people. What do you say? I'm in. And I'm curious, John, did you, because I don't know too much about your backstory when you were a kid growing up. I'm curious, did you play a bunch of sports when you grew up by any chance?

Yeah, I played ball. I sure did. I played mainly basketball. I got injured. I loved football probably a little bit more, but I got hurt, so I stuck with basketball and played it in high school and played it in college and just loved the game and played it until one day the ball came to me. My mind said fake left and dribble right. My body said, who, me?

I realized that that was the day I kind of gave it up. I loved sports then to play, and I enjoy it now. In fact, every once in a while I get to do some fun things. I've done the Indianapolis 500, the Super Bowl, the All-Star Games. I do some things once in a while, I get to do some fun things. I've done the Indianapolis 500, the Super Bowl, the All-Star Games. I do some things once in a while. My time doesn't allow me much, but I still do enjoy sports a lot. What's the one physical activity you enjoy doing the most? Do you have a workout routine or running or do you still play something or golf?

What do you love doing? Well, I love the most golf. I love to play golf. It's just a game you can never conquer. If you think you have got it down, the next time you go out you get humbled.

I love the game of golf because it's a management thing. You've got to learn how to manage your game. You've got to manage the course. It's a metal game. Really, if you make a bad shot, you can't say, somebody threw me a bad pass. The club's in your hands.

It takes a lot of concentration and focus, which is good for me. It gets me away from the stuff I've got to handle. I love golf the most. I don't get to play a lot, but I get to play at some wonderful places. I got to play at Augusta several times.

I play the AT&T Pro-Am every year out in Pebble. So that's really, in fact, two years ago I made the cut on that one. So that's all the fun. But every day I try to swim and work out a little bit with weights. So I do that in a moderate way, but I love golf. That's great. And I'm curious, you know, from your basketball playing days and football playing days and now golf, what would you say are the top two or three biggest things you've learned about yourself over the years from playing these sports?

The biggest lessons you've learned that really opened you up to something new? Well, in team sports, what I learned very quickly was that the more I add value to the other players on the team, the more valuable I became. And so it was a lot about just, if you're on a team, you're there to make everybody else better too.

And then I had a coach who was a great coach in basketball, If you're on a team, you're there to make everybody else better, too. I had a coach who was a great coach in basketball. He basically would put the starting five. The first scrimmage of the year, he would take us, the world of starting five, and he would give us a different position than what we regularly played. Then he'd take the second team and let them play in their position. He'd always put me under the basket with a six, and I'd be starting six-nine.

So the center was just loving it. He didn't have to jump to score me. And so we'd play to 20, and we'd lose like 20 to 12, and then he'd sit us down, and he'd say, no matter how good you are, if you're out of position, people that are less than you will always win. Wow. And it was a phenomenal lesson on just knowing your place

and finding your niche in life and that whole deal. So team sports were great in that area. When you get to an individual sport like golf, it's just the fact that you have to constantly work on your game. That's my big challenge today is I don't have that kind of time. I've tried a couple times to get down into eights or nines, single digits, and it takes too much time. It's tough. It's a lot, yeah. Here's what's interesting in golf and what I've learned is in golf,

if you want to be a 12 handicapper and you have some talent, you play the game a little bit, you really don't have to practice much and you can just go out and do that. But if you want to become a, you want to drop that three strokes, four strokes max,

you've got to get 20 hours a week to do that. At least. And it just shows you that the effort you have to put in between good and excellent. It's another level. I think a lot of people really settle for good

because there's just too much of a price to pay for excellent. You and I both know that if you can get in the top 10% of anything in life, life gets good for you. I mean, almost everybody that excels, excels because they do something they do really well,

and they do it in the top 90% of the tile. So they get the return out of it. So anyway, I think sports just has a lot to teach anybody about life. Hey, you win. In fact, I just did a book a year anybody about life. Hey, you win. In fact, I just did a book a year ago called Sometimes You Win, Sometimes You Learn. And that was basically the whole issue. You know, you don't win all the time. But when you lose, the question is not did you lose.

The only question you have to ask yourself is what did I learn from that loss? And if you learn from the loss, you have less losses. And if you don't learn from the loss, you just keep losing. I know some people that it's kind of like a spiritual gift in their life. They just keep losing all the time. You can just tell they haven't sat back and not only learned, but haven't changed what they need to change to improve themselves. In golf, is it just constant learning then because you could never win?

prove themselves. But in golf, can you actually, is it just constant learning then? Because you could never win. Well, you know, what makes golf difficult is even when you mentally understand the game, physically to repeat the same rhythm and under different conditions, it's just a very difficult thing. That's why if you even look on the best of golfers, the pro golfer, very seldom will you ever see a pro golfer win three matches in a row. Yeah. You know,

and why? It's because it's just impossible. In fact, when I played the pro and the last time, it was, um, it was very interesting. Uh,

the pros were, I was playing with pros and they said, the reason they have a four day tournament is if you only a one-day tournament, every pro that enters can win. But if the tournament goes two days, half of them are eliminated. If you go three days, three-fourths are eliminated. Why is that? Well, it's because they can't consistently put four rounds. Not every golfer can.

It takes just a very, very good golfer to put four great rounds together. And so they play four rounds to eliminate the guy that would get lucky one day. And I thought, isn't that the way life is? You know, everybody wants to have one day where they get lucky and hope that lasts the rest of their life. And yet life's

not that way. Life doesn't let you get lucky and live off of lucky. They say, no, no, you got to go out and do it again tomorrow. And I'm 68 now. It was one of the things I just realized in the last couple of years that

if you are consistent, continually consistent, just good, just, you know, every day you get up and you hit the ball and you just do it consistent. There's an amazing compounding with consistency. When people talk about

they're consistent, sometimes that's not even like a compliment. You think, can't you say something better than I'm consistent? What I've learned at 68 is consistent really is good. It's not even like a compliment. You think, well, can't you say something better than I'm consistent? What I've learned at 68 is consistent really is good. It's very good. If every day you make every day a masterpiece and you do that week in, week out, month in, month out, year in, year out, there comes a day when all of a sudden there is, and I'm there.

I'm there in my life. There's a compounding of consistency that will blow you away. I imagine. Too many times we want magic and we want instant and we want microwave and we want all that stuff. Yeah.

You've sold 25 million books, I'm assuming. That's the stat I have. And I would bet that you didn't do that in your first book in the first week of launch. It's taken probably 30 years or more to make that happen, right?

Oh, my gosh, yes. My first book, you know, my mother bought 10 copies, and that was about as good as it got. In fact, I have another teaching, though, that is that you're never good the first time. Oh, that's true. And, you know, when people say, you know, well, I've never spoken before, so I really want to work hard on this speech, so I do a good job. And I always smile and say, well, don't work so hard, Nick, because you're not going to do any good. You know, nobody said first time.

We didn't start talking fluently. We didn't start walking. We'd get up one day and say, I think I'll walk a mile, and you'd have to take a step. The whole process of starting, the first time you do anything, isn't to do it well, it's to do it so that you can try it again, to do it a little bit better than you did the last time, to constantly improve. So yeah, my first book, it's still in print.

I can't even believe that. In fact, the lady brought it the other day, and she had to read it. She said, I love this book. I looked at it and said, oh my gosh, this is my first book. And I said, you love it? It's kind of a shocker. She said, yes. I said, well, what do you love about it?

She said, oh, I love the short chapters. It's only 100 pages, and it has like 30 chapters. It's three pages of chapters. And she said, well, that's such a neat idea. Where did you ever think of a, you know, three-page chapter? I said, maybe it was my first book. I ran out of gas after three pages. Some of them are two pages too long, you know.

But, you know, so, but no, you know, 25 million. And that's what people, they all say, well, what's the secret of selling 25 books? And the secret is that you've got to do two things. You've got to keep writing and write something people want to buy. But secondly, you've got to live long enough. You know, it takes a while to sell 25 books. It's a lot of people. You know, that means I'm an old man.

Yeah, well, you've got a lot of great lessons to still share. So I'm curious, how old were you for that first book when it came out? Well, I wrote it in, let's see, 79, 47. I was 32. Wow, that's how old I am, and my book is coming out in a couple weeks as well. So that's pretty cool. That's an opening. I am betting $100 right now

that your first book was better than mine. And since I know how bad my first book is, just send me the $100. Yeah. Well, congratulations. You're going to love it when you hold it the first time. When somebody gives you your book, you hold it. I've written 80-some you a book you wrote and you hold it.

You know, I've written 80-some books now. Wow. But here's what I know. Every time I get a book, whenever somebody hands me my book, I see it for the first time, I've never lost the thrill of it. I really haven't. I just say, oh, my gosh, I worked hard for this. Wow.

And now it's going to help people. And, yeah, I'm still kind of like a teenager. I'm still a kid when it comes to, you know, you got your book out. And it doesn't get, it's never gotten old to me. So, like, 83 isn't like a lot less than the first one. It's just like when I got my, you know, my new book, Intentional Blue, it just came out yesterday. But, I mean, when I held it, you know, about 10 days ago in my hands for the first time, I just looked at it and, you know, felt it and opened up the pages and read a little bit. And, you know, it's just very special to me.

So, anyway, that's the way it will be with the book right now. Yeah, yeah. I'm curious, you know, you've had a lot of experience and you've had a lot of lessons. You've met a ton of people. curious, you know, you've had a lot of experience and you've had a lot of lessons. You've met a ton of people. You've probably had to reinvent yourself from teenage years to college and beyond and everything you've done. I'm curious, what was the moment in your life, let's say after 16, that had the most uncertainty for you, where you didn't understand what was happening? that had the most uncertainty for you, where you didn't understand what was happening.

Maybe there was an extreme adversity where you were confused about, and you really had no clue what was in store or why it was happening. I'm curious, what was that uncertainty point for you? And what did you learn about that? Well, it would have been in my early 20s. I started off my career as a pastor, okay? Yep. And so I was in my first church,

and I was kind of finishing up my first year, and I just fell out of place. I guess I missed my calling. You know, because I really didn't want to just go business people all the time. I wanted to grow something. I wanted to build something. I wanted to build something. I wanted to develop something. And they kind of wanted me to be a shepherd, and I felt more like a rancher.

And I read a book. I read a book called Spiritual Leadership by Oswald Sanders. Basically, that book said that you could be a person of faith and yet be a great leader. And that just lit my fire. I just said, oh my gosh, okay, I'm going to continue pastoring, but I want to be a pastor who leads. And so I've always been a leader from that point on.

Whatever occupation I've been in, I'm a leader. And it was kind of like permission. And I grew up in an organization that didn't have good leaders and had a kind of a scarcity mindset. So I was really kind of lost and kind of just saying, wow, I don't think this is where I should be. And kind of second guessing myself, read that book, never second guess myself again. I'm a leader.

But what I do is I, so people say, what do you do? I lead. Now I have to, you know, for 25 years, I've been a pastor What I do is, so people say, what do you do? I lead. Now, I have to, for 25 years, I've been a pastor and now I have five companies. I'm a business person, but I'm a leader. I'm still a leader. That's what I do. I lead. And it just kind of, it gave me my

purpose or my why, why I'm here. So as I got that, then, you know, you still go through adversity, but the difference is when you go through adversity and you don't know your purpose, then you get tossed around a lot. When you go through adversity and you know your purpose, you feel the winds and you can feel the heat, the whole process. But you don't get tossed. You know who you are.

You know what you're supposed to do. Right, right. I'm curious. You know, 25 million books. You speak to hundreds of thousands of people all the time, all over the world. You've been doing it for decades. in your head or abuse things with, you know, the people that really love and support you and feel this deep impact from your message and your work. How do you stay grounded?

Well, first of all, I know me and I'm not that good. And, you know, so, you know, I have a saying, you might as well laugh at yourself because everyone else is. But, you know, I have a saying, you might as well laugh at yourself because everyone else is. And so I've never taken myself seriously. I take my calling very seriously. But I'm human and I mess up and I know that. And I don't think anybody wants a perfect leader.

I think they want an authentic one, though.. So I came to grips very early that I was going to have a lot of misses because I'm going to take a lot of risk. I had to be able to get back up quick and had to be able to say I was sorry and had to be able to look at myself or look at others and say, missed that one. I keep people around me

that are that way. We're not position conscious, title conscious, money conscious. My mentor that really got not position conscious, title conscious, money conscious. My mentor that really got me writing books, I asked, his name was Les Perry, I asked him one day before I ever wrote, I said, why do you write books? He said, I want to influence and add value

to people that I'll never see or know. And that lit a fire within me. And I became a writer because I had a desire to write. I became a writer because I had a desire to influence people I'd never see or know. And then the other word about it is, you know, don't write books to make money.

They said you won't. And so I never did. And I don't today. I've made a lot of money, obviously. You can't sell 25 million books. You know, just do the math. But that isn't the point. The point is I'm still writing books because I just love adding value to people.

And, you know, I've written 80 plus books, but this book, Intentional Living, is coming out right now. It's the most important book I've ever written. And I've known that for the last three years as I've been kind of working on the book. This is, you know, to a certain extent, this is kind of

like a legacy. Because it's... I love this book for a lot of reasons. I love this book because it's within reach of every person. It's a book on significance. And how do you make your life count? How do you get to the place where your life really matters?

And I think everybody wants that. I think every person that is following you, Lewis, they want to make their life count. And yet I think most people are not sure how to do that. When they think of significance, I think they're intimidated because they think, my gosh, that's way out there. I'm not old enough, smart enough, wise enough, don't have enough money, don't have enough influence.

But someday I hope to do something that would be major significant. The whole book is about the fact that you can be significant today. And when the reader reads this book, that's what they're going to see. I mean, if they're 36 or if they're 16, it doesn't matter. If they're 86, I have a whole chapter in the book on start small, believe big. And it's just all about the fact that you have to be intentional. It's impossible to be significant consistently without, first of all, being intentional. So, you know, most people I know, they have good intentions.

I mean, they really do. They're good people. They have good intentions. They want their life to matter. But they don't understand that good intentions has never done anything for anybody. I mean, there's never a person that's ever been successful. And you ask, why were they successful?

Well, you know, I've just had a life full of good intentions. You know, good intentions are nothing. It's got to become good actions. And the bridge between good intentions, you know, and good actions is intentional. You've got to be intentional. You've got to be intentional. You've got to say, okay, I'm going to do this on purpose. And I love the book because it's a book for people who really want to just add value to

others because that's who I am. When people just say, John, who are you? I'm a person that every day lives to add value to people. I'm loving being on your show for one reason, Lewis, is I hope I'm adding value to you. I hope I'm adding value to the people that, you know, and so I got up today and I thought about you. I'm in New York. I'm doing a

media tour and I thought about everybody I was doing media with today and I just asked myself, you know, how can I help them? And, you know, intentional living, this book, you know, most people don't live, most people don't lead their life, they accept their life. Will you say that again?

And because they, most people don't lead their life, they accept their life. And if you lead your life, you're intentional. If you accept your life, you're letting someone else determine your life for you. And yet 99% of people get up every day and they say, well, I hope something good happens to me.

I hope something wonderful is good. But they're not intentional. And so I wrote the book to say, okay, here's what's beautiful. Every person can be intentional, and here's what I mean by that. If somebody said, John, I really want to be successful. I want to be significant in my life, and I really want to make my life matter. What do I need? What's the quickest, easiest way to do that?

I would just look at it and say, you have to become intentional. What does it mean for you to become intentional? It means that I do this on purpose. I choose to take action on what I already feel. You see, the greatest gap in life is the gap between knowing and doing. Most people don't lack

knowledge of success that keeps them from success. They just don't do it. And intentional living means I take my good intentions and I act them out. The word intentional means deliberate.

It means consistent. It means consistent. It means willful. I mean, deliberate means I do this on purpose. Consistent means I do it on purpose all the time. Willful means it's a choice I have made for myself. I've willed this. And in the book, I talk about this is how you live an intentional life, and this is how you begin to add value to people.

Let me tell you a story. This is probably the most important thing I want to share because this is what happened to me, because why I wrote the book, and why I want to happen to the readers of this book. I was in my 20s, and my assistant, she was my secretary, but for Christmas she gave me a book, and I unwrapped the book,

and the title was The Greatest Story Ever Told. And I loved it. I said, boy, thank you. This is going to be a great book. I mean, my gosh, The Greatest Story Ever Told. Are you kidding me? And I mean, before I even opened the book, I'm already thinking, what's the greatest story ever told?

And, you know, here we go. And I opened the book, and much to my surprise, the pages are blank. we go. And I open the book, and much to my surprise, the pages are blank. And Eileen Beavers, up in the corner of that first blank page, wrote these words, John, your life is before you. Fill these pages. The kind deeds, matters of your heart, things that matter. Live a life of significance. And I'm telling you, Lewis, I said, okay, I got this. I'm not going to read my life. I'm going to write my life.

I'm not going to be passive about this. I'm not going to let somebody else write my story. I'm going to write my own story. And I literally took that book with the blank pages and I started writing just thoughts that I had. And it wasn't my first book, but it was really my, it was when I began to say, I'm going to become the author of my life.

That totally changed me. That day I woke up and I said to myself, my life is going to be recorded. That is the question. The question is, am I going to control that life? Am I going to be intentional with that life so that it really matters? Am I going to be intentional with that life so that it really matters? Am I going to make every day my masterpiece?

So when I wrote this book, Intentional Living, I started off in the first chapter, I talk about everybody has a story. You have a story, Lewis, I have a story. Everybody has a story. That's not the question, do you have a story? The question is, is it the story that you really want for your life? The only way it's going to be the story you really want for your life is you don't have to write it.

You can't let someone else write this story. And so I challenge people throughout the book, go begin doing acts of significance and significances about others. So be intentional. Do something intentionally every day for others. And then tell me what happened. And so this book is like the beginning of a movement for me. I believe

I'm going to start a significance movement. You know, mass movements don't begin with the mass, they begin with a few people. And the people that read this book, they're going to begin to be the part of the few people that begin, I think, a significance movement, which basically says,

I'm saying, read the book and then tell me your story. And I'm believing and hoping and planning that in two years, within two years, I'll have a million stories. And I would like to start a chicken soup of the soul for significance. Wow.

And so I'm saying to the reader, tell me your story. Come on. And tell me the story now. Just what did you do intentionally for people? And so a lot of times people say, okay,

I'm not sure how to do this. So for all those that follow you, Lewis, I want them to go online to Start7Day.com. Start7Day.com? Yeah, Start7Day.com. I want them to start right there.

And at seven days, I do a video every day for about three minutes of which I give them an idea. I give them a suggestion of how to get started and make that day significant. I just had a mother who had two children. She said, John, we started day one. And I sat down with my children. I think one was like 16, one was maybe 12. And she said, we watched we started day one, and I said, now my children, I think one was like 16, one was maybe 12. And she said,

we watched this three-minute video, and then we stopped, and we said, okay, what are we going to do, the three of us, what are we going to do as a family today that's significant, that we can do that's simple, that can add value to people? And she said, we did that, and the next day we did another. And so it's, and the reason it's seven days is I want to get people practicing intentional acts

of significance. And I'm not asking for all 24 hours I'm just asking can you give me can you give me four or five minutes a day to I give you the idea and then can you maybe take 10 or 15 minutes and go do this act and and the the start seven day.com is just a way to get people started it's and it gets a free resource and I. I'm believing in the next couple months, there'll be literally hundreds and hundreds of thousands of people get going on this. Now, once they start this and they get in this routine with me, obviously, behind that is a 30-day journey,

and that includes a book, and it becomes pretty awesome because 30 days it takes to get a habit. But here's what I want. When they start reading a book and they go with me through the 30-day journey i want them to start i say okay now give me your story get that story out for me i want to you know hey to me i'm going to gauge the success of this book on one thing how many stories of significance did i get because think about it if i can get and think I can, I think in two or three months, by Christmas time, if I can get a couple hundred thousand people doing something intentionally every day to add value to other people, this is going to be a good...

It's going to be a great thing you're doing. Yeah, it really is. So I'm very excited. And so the book is just kind of like my catalytic thing that I put out there to teach people how to live intentionally so that they'll become intentional and they'll go out and practice it off of, like, starting with, you know, start7day.com. And then they'll tell me their story. And so when I get the story, it's kind of like touchdown. So I've told my companies and my teams, everybody. I mean, I've got a coaching company with 8,000 coaches in 120 countries in the world. I've told

all my coaches, I mean, they're ready. I mean, they're literally getting the word out right now as I talk. And I've told them all, well, we've got to have stories of significance. So I want everyone that gets the book, Intentional Living, to start reading it, go practice it, and then send me a story. I love that. And where should they send the story? I'm sending the story as far as where to go, as far as once they get the story written. Yeah, do they send it online? Yeah, once they start 7Day, when they go to Start7Day.com, right on that link, it'll tell them where to send the story.

Gotcha. Okay, cool. Awesome. Yeah, we'll make sure. We're guided. Hey, we're not going to miss that one because we want the story. Yeah, I'll make sure to have all that linked up here as well in the show notes. Thank you, my friend.

Yeah, yeah, of course. I want to make sure we get a lot of people doing that. And, you know, it's interesting. You know, my book, we're talking about your book, but my book has eight principles of greatness from all the individuals I've interviewed like yourself on all walks of life, from Olympic gold medalists to doctors and scientists to spiritual leaders to number one New York Times bestselling authors to billionaires. I've had them all on. I'm sure you've met many, many more of these people than I have. But, uh, the final chapter that I talk about in my book, the final principle of greatness is to live a life of service.

Because for me, everything that I've done from playing, you know, sports at a high level to building businesses and the people I've interviewed, they, the ones who really make it to the top and sustain it, they come from such a deep place of service and giving back.

And they all say that's the reason why they've been able to sustain their momentum. And I think it really speaks into what you're talking about is this intentional living where you're living a life of significance. If we're not living a life of significance for others, and it's only for ourselves, I feel like that's going to burn out very quickly. Wouldn't you agree? Oh, totally. In fact, I'm getting that's going to burn out very quickly. Wouldn't you agree? Oh, totally. In fact, I'm getting so excited about your book.

Lewis, would you do me a favor? I know it hasn't come out yet for a couple weeks or whatever, but when it comes out, will you sign one and send it to me? Absolutely. Yeah, I'll get your information after this. I'm telling you, I love that because here's what I found about your last chapter on service. Let me tell you something. Success.

I was in Tony George who owned the Indianapolis 500 and he'd had me come up and I'd talk to the drivers on race day. It's just the owners. We went to a sweet one race day to have lunch before the race. He said, John, what's the difference between success and significance? I said, well, I said, Tony, success is usually about me. You know, I'm trying to get a career going. I'm trying to make some money,

trying to get an aim and establish. Success is about me, but significance is always about others. And see, that's exactly what you're saying in the last chapter of your book. And what I learned a long time ago is selfishness and significance aren't incompatible. They just aren't.

You can't show me a selfish person selfishness and significance aren't incompatible. They just aren't. You can't show me a selfish person that does significant acts on a consistent basis. But once we understand that when we add value to people, once you have tasted significance, success will never satisfy you again. Trust me on this. Trust me. And that's what intentional living is all about. I've said Trust me on this. Trust me. And that's what

the intentional living is all about. I've said, just taste this. You know, get on the start7day.com with me

and just taste Significance for a few days and you'll never be satisfied with the success. And that's exactly what you're saying,

Lewis, on your book. I could not agree more. So I'm really excited. See, this is your book. You're a kid. You're a kid. And you already have big. See, this is your kid. You're a kid, and you already have big thoughts. I didn't have those. You're having these kind of thoughts at 30,

at 31, 32. I was like 60 before I had those kind of thoughts. That's good. Well, I've gone through a lot of adversity and a lot of pain that's helped me learn a lot of lessons. And I've been interviewing people like yourself for many years where I learned those lessons. So it's, uh, it's all from taking an action, getting results. And, you know, I talk about failure, not as failure, but as feedback, you know, when I didn't achieve what I wanted to in sports or in my business, and I felt like I failed, I was really just started looking at it as like, well, this is just information telling me what's working and what's not working. And when I started shifting that, I didn't feel like a failure. I just said,

cool, this is just part of the process. I think you talk about that as well, right? No. When you fail, you do one of two things. Everybody knows. You either learn from the failure, which is your feedback stuff, or you leave your failure. That's what you try to get away from. Actually, you deny it.

And if you leave your failure, your failure finds you try to get away from. Actually, you deny it. If you leave your failure, your failure finds you and comes again to you. You've got to learn. When you learn, then you build off of it. You're right on. Totally right on. I want to ask you a couple questions. One about relationships

because you've got a big platform. You've got big dreams. You're still going hard and strong. It sounds like you're just scratching the surface with what you're creating in your life, even after the decades you've been impacting the world. I'm curious, how does someone, a man with a big vision to change the world, to inspire millions and millions of people, world to inspire millions and millions of people. How does someone like that also have a very intimate, loving relationship, a marriage that that person feels like they're getting what they need as well and where it works

for both of them to move forward to achieve both their goals? Well, it's a constant challenge, first of all. You know, I love it when people ask me how to balance their life i say it's impossible i can't balance like i mean life life is not balanced why should you get balanced i mean life hits you right up it slaps you you know what i mean i mean you say oh i didn't see that one coming well there's nothing balanced about life how can how can you expect to be balanced in a life that you know in a world that's not balanced itself? So I don't talk about balance. I talk about seasons of life and the fact that you've got to know what season you're in.

But when it comes to relationships, you know, when I was, it would have been 85, 86, 87. So when I was in my late 30s, maybe 40, I came up with this definition of success. I came up with this definition of success, and that is success is the fact that people that are closest to you, know you the best, love and respect you the most. And that will really work for you, my friend. If the people that are the closest to me don't respect me, don't love me, and I don't respect and love them, and I'm in a world as you're in a world where you need to be very superficial.

You're speaking to crowds and you go to the green room and you get on the jet and you go home. And so when the masses love you, but the people that are around you don't love you or don't respect you, then there's a huge character flaw there. So I said, I'm going to treat people well. there. So I said, I'm going to treat people well. And one of the challenges with success and growth is that you grow past people. One of the hardest things for me was the fact that I've had people I really cared for, but I grew past them. I just did. I did. And one day, our worlds were totally different. And so I just determined that even though I might grow past some people,

I would always treat them with great love and respect and not forget my old days. And I still, we have a little summer place up in the islands. So the guy that was building a little addition on our cottage up there in the mountains wanted me to speak for the little Rotary Club of Highlands, which would have about 85 people there. And I surprised him. I said, yeah, Ronnie, I'll do that for you. And I gave him a date.

And the hotel was excited. And someone spoke to him. And I had a very successful friend who was up there at that time. And he said, John, why did you do that? I'm like, gosh, you know. And I looked at him and I said, because I always want to remember where it came from.

And I never want to get so high that my feet are still on the ground. And so I have also committed to growing the people with me. And so in all of our companies, Mark Poole, who got me on this call, I have five companies, and he's the CEO of all five companies. And he continually nurtures that culture

of mentoring and growth, and so our people keep growing. But all my key people, truly, my assistant has been with me for 23 years, Charlie Loveson-Wright's been with me 20 years, Mark Charlie who helps me write has been with me 20 years. Mark's been with me 16 years, 17 years. Most of my key people have been with me a long time. But to keep them with you, you've got to have people that have capacity to grow.

Because what you can't do is you can't have people that you love in key positions in your companies if they can't grow. Because you'll outgrow them and then you're starting to carry them. And that's not a good thing for anybody. What about, you know, it sounds like you talk about in the book abundance mindset versus scarcity mindset. And is it making sure that you find people who have that abundance mindset already, whether it be your partner in an intimate relationship and people on your team? Do they need to have that? And how do you know that they have it?

Well, my whole thing is that you don't have to have the same vision that I have, but you do have to have the same values. I can always form the vision so that you and I can both buy into it. But values, that's who you are. That's your DNA. And so, you know, I don't do it at all. I haven't done it for years. But, again, for Mark and the presence of my organizations and stuff,

they just understand that, you know, we have what we call a John Maxwell DNA. What are your core values, would you say? Well, you know, adding value to people, exceeding expectations, finishing well. You know, we have probably eight or nine of them that we really press. In fact, in our coaching company, every six months we bring in new coaches.

We have, my gosh, 1,500, I think, in Orlando. We took those 1,500, and I do a thing called the DNA. I do usually a two-and-a-half, three-hour teaching to the coaches. I say, now this is who we are. This is us. You've got different personalities. I love diversity, but this is who we are. When I get up teaching this,

if this isn't either who you are or who you're very quickly wanting to become, then hey, we'll give you your money back. You need to go find somebody that you're more compatible with because we don't budge on values. This is us. I think that's very essential because then if you are with like valued people, 90% of the battles you have to do in building a company will the battles you have to do in building a company will be taken care of.

It's almost always a values issue when you have problems in a company. Sure. I'm curious, with all the amazing things you and your company and your team have done, what's something you're really proud of over your life that most people don't know about you? Oh, my gosh. life that most people don't know about you? Oh my gosh. I think I'm, well, I'm proud that I haven't lived off of my reputation. Because I could.

In the first six months of pastoring, I realized that I was a good communicator. And I also realized that I could wing it and people wouldn't really think I was good. Yep. So I had this kind of this dilemma for a few months. Am I going to wing it or am I going to work on every message? Am I going to get two thoughts and get up and just thrill everybody or am I going to truly build something? and get up and just thrilled by everybody or am I going to truly build something? And I determined to work on every message I preached and not take shortcuts.

And I've never taken shortcuts. I don't take shortcuts today. And I've been blessed and had a lot of wonderful honors. But to be honest with you, I thank the people who have ended up sticking somewhere out somewhere and they go right back to doing what's made me do it. People who get successful fall out quickly when they stop doing what got them there.

I'm in love with the journey much more than I am with the rewards or the honors. That whole process has never done a lot for me. It's nice. with the journey much more than I am with the rewards or the honors or the, you know, that whole process that has never done a lot for me. It's, you know,

it's nice, but it's not, I've never lived for that. Sure. I'm growth oriented. I'm growth oriented, not goal oriented. That's great.

If you're goal oriented, you hit the goal and then you celebrate and you get useless for three months. But if you're growth oriented, you hit the goals, but you keep on growing.

Your goal wasn't the goal. The goal was to grow. That's a whole different mindset. I love that. What's the non-negotiables for you every single day? The habits or the rituals or the routines that you follow

in the morning to set you up for success for the day or at night before you go to bed? Is there a specific routine that you need to follow? Or when you follow, you see that you get better results? Yeah, I basically, every morning, do three things. I declare my love to God. I, every day, ask Him to

help me to add value to people. And then, every day, I try to give everybody my best. Because I think that what I do may not be great, but it has to be my best. If it's not great, it's because I'm not

gifted or I'm not talented enough. And so I can't always be great. But I really can. I can give a person 100%. And look them in the eye and say, I gave you my best shot. So in the evening, I just go back out

and check in my relationship with God and look and say, did I add value to people today? And check that one off and that whole process. And, you know, did I make this day my masterpiece or did I kind of take some shortcuts here? If I go yes, yes, yes, even today I go to bed. Right. That's great. A couple final questions for you.

First one is, what are you most grateful for in your life recently? What I'm most grateful for recently is the people I have around me. It's about intentional living. I mean, the technology that has gone in to get it up so that people can go online and do all this stuff. It's way beyond my gifts and my talents. And I just have dozens and dozens, truthfully hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people that every day work hard to help me.

And that's very humbling. And I don't deserve that, but I'm grateful for that. and I don't deserve that, but I'm grateful for that. So, you know, my greatest joy today isn't what I accomplish. It's really my greatest joy is what the people around me that I've mentored and poured into what they accomplish. And what I found is that what they accomplish is they make me better. I mean, it's kind of like as I'm making them better, it just comes back to me tenfold.

So I'm in a great time. I'm in a great time because, you know, I've got all these people that literally live, literally live to make my life a great life. Amazing. And the least I can do for them is to give them everything I've got. I love that. them is to get from everything I've got. I love that. And how do you, I'm assuming there are days where you might have some off moments or some breakdowns, or you just may not be at your best.

And because, like you said earlier, you're a human being, and sometimes you're not at your best. How do you handle a breakdown, or if there's a moment of uncertainty or waveringness, how do you handle that, and how do you suggest other people listening handle their breakdowns? What I'm about to tell you, you've never read, but it's true. A person that wants to be 100% all day, every day will break down. Because humanly, we're not geared for that. We can't do that. We don't have that kind of capacity. because humanly we're not geared for that.

We can't do that. We don't have that kind of capacity. And so we're a little delusional when I say, okay, I'm going to every hour, every minute, every second, we're going to make it all count. All right, cool. Hours, times when nothing's counting much. So first of all, it's a mindset of how do I approach my day. So when I look at my day, I ask myself, okay, where do I have to be at a hundred percent? I've got to be a hundred percent right now. You don't want me on. If I want to give you 50%,

you don't want to hang up with me and say, boy, John's got an off day today. So I don't have a choice. I got to be a hundred percent. Every time I've been with me a day, I got to be a hundred percent. Nobody understands when you have to perform and Excel for them. Nobody understands. So, best. But guess what? I had lunch with three of my team members today, and I didn't have to be 100% at lunch. Isn't that beautiful?

I could lay back and let them carry conversation and laugh with them and spill my food on my lap. I don't have to be 100% at lunch. And so I pick my spots. And I think the successful people, you look at sports, you know, the clutch players, they made the baskets,

they hit the ball right when it really counted. But they didn't hit the ball all the time, and they didn't make their basket. Right. And so I think that what we do is we don't try to live 100%. We just try to figure out where we do that 100%. Yeah. And so I think that what we do is we don't try to live 100%. We just try to figure out where we do that 100%. And then we give ourselves permission to be a little bit of a screw-up and whatever. And when we do, we just kind of laugh and go, I'm sure glad that wasn't my 100% time because I was about 22% there. So I live so. know, and that's, so I live,

so I really don't have, and I've got to be very careful because this would not, this may not sound right unless I put it in the context I've tried to put it in. I really don't have meltdowns right now.

Sure. But, but it's because every day I allow myself to do stupid things and, and every day I, and every day I forget myself.

I say, okay, John, you know, you're human and you didn't do very well there. Learn from it, grow from it. I'm my best friend and I think if you're your best friend, you give yourself some slack. I think choosing when you've got to be good and making sure you're good then and then allowing yourself to not be 100% is really vital. That's great. I love that answer.

Okay, two final questions, John. The first one is, you know, you've written, I think you said 83 books you've written with 25 million sold and spoken all over the world. spoken all over the world. If you had one final piece of paper to write down something, and everything else you've ever written has been deleted, erased, for some reason it was just gone from the world, but you had one piece of paper that you could write down three simple truths about everything you've learned in life and relationships and business, about the world, and this was the only thing you got to leave behind to give to the world was these three simple truths,

what would you say they would be for you? Well, the first truth would be because I have a person of faith, I tell people God loves you, so love him. And just experience his unconditional love because he's got a lot of it for you. Second thing I'd write down is every day add value to people. You will always be loved and you will always be valued if every day you just add value

to people. And the third thing I would say is live intentionally every day because that's the way you maximize your life. And maybe that's why the book is so important to me because I want to get that message out. You don't need to be brilliant. You don't need to be smarter than anyone else. But you do have to be intentional.

And if you're intentional intentional you're going to win you just are because most people are not intentional so you'll just win because front end thinking is 10 to 1 more important than back end thinking and front end thinking is intentional back end thinking is reaction

and just be intentional every day and love God because he loves you. I love those truths. Thank you. Well, before I ask you the final question, John, I want to acknowledge you for a moment. I want to acknowledge you for

the incredible consistency of giving and adding value to the world over the decades. It's such an inspiration to see an example of consistent love and intentional living. And I want to acknowledge you for not having to be perfect all the time and setting an example as a leader who isn't perfect, but is constantly giving their best to serve people, to live big and to have a big heart. So I acknowledge you for everything

you've created and everything this book is about to do for even more heart. So I acknowledge you for everything you've created and everything this book is about to do for even more people. So thanks for all you do. And my final question is, what's your definition of greatness? That was very, your words of acknowledgement were very humbling. I mean, thank you, Fred. I know this, the more you and I get together, the more we're going to be great friends. Yes, sir. You're a beautiful person. That's very obvious and very gifted. When you ask

what my definition of greatness is, for me, I want to be bigger on the inside than I am on the outside. Bigger on the inside means I want to be a person of character. I want to be a person that has good values.

I want to be a person that has made good decisions. A person of courage, a person of resolve. All that. That's all inside stuff. I think, again, the danger, the real danger of people like me is to start

not only living off of their reputation, but believing it. And here's what I believe. I believe if I'm growing, greater on the inside means I'm continually growing. If I'm greater on the inside, over time I'll become greater on the outside. But if I'm greater on the outside than I am on the inside, over time I'll become greater on the outside. But if I'm greater on the outside than I am on the inside,

I'll sabotage myself and blow it up before it's all over. Yeah. And so, you know, as a person thinks in their heart, so are they. So I just think that we need to work more on the inside. I think I need to lead myself before I lead others. That's what I think greatness starts on the inside. I love it. Well, John,

we'll make sure everyone goes and picks up a copy of your new book, Intentional Living, Choosing a Life That Matters. I firmly believe in this book. I want you guys all to go pick up a copy and also the website link. Again, if you want to say it one more time for the storytelling is? Go to Start7Day.com.

And once they start the 7Day.com with me, they will have the link on how to send their story. And I want a million stories, but I want your story. I want your story. So you send me yours. And after a million people do that, I'll have my million stories. Amazing. John, thank you so much for being here and sharing your years of wisdom and leadership. Thank you.

It's my joy. Thanks, Chris. Very much. There you have it, guys. Thank you so much for tuning in. Had a blast connecting with John. Make sure to go to the show notes, lewishouse.com slash 239. Please share this with your friends.

Please pick up a copy of John's new book. It's incredible. You want to make sure you check this out. Continue to learn and grow and educate yourself. While you're at it, pick up a copy of my book. Go to lewishouse.com slash book and pick up a copy right there. It'll take you right to the Amazon page. Pick up both of our books at the same time and then tweet me at Lewis house with a little note or receipt image that you take from

a screenshot from your computer and let me know that you bought both of our books. Also make sure to share this episode with your friends at lewishouse.com slash 239. Post it over all over online and let your friends be inspired by John as well. Big shout out to our sponsor and partner over at onit.com. Again, if you're looking to take your health, your mindset to the next level to be optimized and upgraded in life, then make sure to check out onnit.com. That's O-N-N-I-T dot com. They've got some of the best foods, supplements, workout training gear, educational programs around

to really enhance your performance mentally and physically and upgrade your life for total human optimization. You get 10% off when you use the checkout code greatness. So make sure to head over there to on it.com right now and get some awesome goods for your body and your mind. I appreciate you guys so much. If you are curious about any other links, go back to the show notes,

Lewis house.com slash two, three nights. I'll learn more about the bonus, to learn more about the events. And I want to see you and high five you and hug you. So make sure to come out and RSVP. Bring a few friends. Tell your friends to come as well to the events I'm going to because I'm going to be traveling a lot over the next couple months.

And I want to see you all come out and say hi. So thank you all so much. You know what time it is. It's time to go out there and do something great. Outro Music