John Maxwell: Getting a Return on Your Failures

Click the link below to come see me speak live and use promo code "ED30" for 30% off! ⁠https://lifesurge.com What if the very thing you’ve been avoiding your entire life… is actually the key to unlocking your greatest success? In this conversation with John Maxwell, we go deep on something every single one of you deals with, but almost nobody has mastered… failure. And I’ve got to tell you, this one hit me personally. John has been a mentor, a friend, and someone I look up to in a way that’s hard to even put into words. So when we sat down to talk about his new work on failure, I knew this wasn’t going to be surface-level. This is the real stuff that defines your life. John breaks down why most people never even get in the game. It’s not a lack of talent. It’s not a lack of opportunity. It’s that they haven’t gotten over themselves. That fear of looking bad, of being judged, of failing publicly… it keeps people stuck in the bleachers. And one of the most powerful distinctions we talk about is this idea of a “good miss” versus a “bad miss.” Because failure itself isn’t what defines you… your response to it is. That alone could change your entire life if you really take it in. We also unpack something I’ve never heard explained this way before. Success and failure are meant to be together. You separate them, and you lose. When you’re winning, failure keeps you humble. When you’re struggling, success gives you resilience. That balance is where growth actually happens. And John shares how reframing failure from a liability into an asset completely transformed not just his career, but his entire perspective on life. This episode is also about leadership. About how you lead your family, your team, and yourself through setbacks. John made it clear that when successful people talk about their failures, it gives everyone else permission to keep going. It encourages people. It lifts them. And I had to check myself in this conversation too… because the truth is, when we only show our wins, we might actually be discouraging the very people we’re trying to help. If you’ve been holding back, playing it safe, or letting the fear of failure control your decisions… this is the episode you need right now. This isn’t just about failure. It’s about freedom. Key Takeaways: Why fear of failure is really about ego and how to break free from it The difference between a “good miss” and a “bad miss” and why your response matters most How keeping success and failure together builds both humility and resilience Why failure should move you, not define you or make you comfortable How great leaders use their failures to inspire and develop others The mindset shift that turns failure from a liability into your greatest asset 👉 SUBSCRIBE TO ED'S YOUTUBE CHANNEL NOW 👈⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ → → → CONNECT WITH ED MYLETT ON SOCIAL MEDIA: ← ← ← ➡️ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠INSTAGRAM⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ➡️⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠FACEBOOK⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ➡️ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠LINKEDIN⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ➡️ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠X ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ➡️ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠WEBSITE⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Ed Mylett?

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• 0:42Ed Mylett?

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• 1:03Speaker 01

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• 1:34Speaker 02

  This is the Ed Marlin Show.

• 1:37Ed Mylett?

  Welcome back to the show, everybody. So today is obviously my favorite day of the year. About once a year, I get a chance to have this man on our show, and hopefully that'll happen more and more in 2026. But let me just tell you about this man. Number one, y'all know his accolades. He's the premier leadership expert in the world. The last fifty years of my life.

• 1:58John Maxwell?

  That means I'm old.

• 1:59Ed Mylett?

  Number one, well, it means I'm old, fifty years. But he sold, I don't know, what did he sell, thirty-five million books? He's written a hundred different books, and that's not what I love about him, even though he's the best in the world at what he does. I'll just tell you all personally that, you know, since my father's passed away, which was about four or five years ago, this man sort of fulfills that role for me in my life of the man that I look up to the most. And he's my hero. He's the person that I'll never, ever live up to the shoes that he's walked in, but they're the ones I would love to try to fill in my life. I admire him tremendously. He's as good a human being as I've ever met in my life. And so today, we're going to talk about his new book, which I specialize in this thing called failure. So I'm really glad you wrote this book.

• 2:43Ed Mylett?

  It's called How to Get a Return on Failure. Fail Smarter, Return Stronger with this man, John Maxwell. Welcome back to the show, my friend.

• 2:51John Maxwell?

  Oh, my gosh, yeah, that's so good to be with you. I love you so much. You know, I wish everybody could have the relationship that we have. You know, everybody needs to have somebody that they care for and that they learn from and grow with. And that's, I think, when I think of you and I, we just get, we're better together.

• 3:10Ed Mylett?

  Thank you. Well, I'm certainly better. My life's changed since I've known you. You know one thing I want to tell you, just tell the audience too? You know, when I make decisions, I used to think, obviously, I know we have Christ-centered in our lives, but I'm talking about men that I know. I used to think, how would my dad handle this? And since my dad's passed away, the biggest compliment I could give you is I always think, how would John handle this? That's sort of my, my barometer. I just want you to know that.

• 3:34John Maxwell?

  Well, I want to handle it well, my friend. Although, how would John handle this? We're going to talk about failure, which is my spiritual gift, so.

• 3:41Ed Mylett?

  It's your spiritual. So I want to, that's the one thing I want to know. It is the number one thing, would you agree, that probably holds people back from even making an effort in the first place? So let's frame, when I say failure, just that word, what comes to mind for you when you hear that first?

• 3:57John Maxwell?

  Well, for everybody, it's negative.

• 4:01John Maxwell?

  Very seldom will you ever run into a person that you put the word failure in front of them and they think good things. Right. And so it's already a weight. It's a weight mentally, it's a weight emotionally, it's a weight psychologically on people. And so I wrote the book really to help them understand that it doesn't have to be a liability, it truly can be an asset. But it cannot be an asset until we change the way we think about failure and embrace it. And when you think of mentors, Ed, Robert Schuler, who was the pastor of Crystal Cathedral, when I was thirty-three, he found me. And he called me and he said, I want you to come into the Crystal Cathedral, I want to meet you, I want you to speak for me, I'm hearing a lot about you. So I'm just a kid. And we're having our first dinner and he asked me, he said, what's your greatest challenge?

• 4:45John Maxwell?

  I said, well, I said, I don't think I always take enough risk, I think that I'm holding back a little bit. So we talked about failure and he said to me that day, John, if failure were not possible, what would you attempt to accomplish? Well, if failure's not possible, that just takes the whole lid off and will you try anything? Yeah. Now, I don't think it's a great question because failure's very possible. So I think it's not a realistic question, but it's a, it was a good question that led me to a great question. You know, you don't get to great until you get to good. It's kind of a, it's a process. Mm-hmm. So after about nine months of asking myself if failure were not possible, would I do this? Yes, and so I went it.

• 5:26John Maxwell?

  I came, I came back with the, if failure were possible, but you knew if it happened, it was going to help you. That's a great question. That's a great question. And, and I started asking myself that question, I've done that now for many, many years. This, this would have been, watch, thirty-three, I'm seventy-eight, so, you know, do the math. So this has been a long time ago. But when I changed the question, I found I changed the frame of mind. Yeah, you've reframed it. Yeah, I reframed the question. Now, now you can get the mind where it needs to be. And so how to receive a return on failure is really about, let me give you the right perspective, because how we view things is how we do things. You and I both know that perspective is everything. And I mean, outside of sharing my faith, if I could do one thing for any person,

• 6:11John Maxwell?

  I would help them with perspective because that's going to really make them or break them. And I think it's true with failure, too. My perspective of failure determines whether it's an asset or a liability. And return on failure is all about the perspective, the right perspective of failure. Now it becomes an asset.

• 6:26Ed Mylett?

  Wow.

• 6:26John Maxwell?

  Not a detriment.

• 6:28Ed Mylett?

  I have to tell you, when you do interviews like this, you're supposed to go, this is such an important topic. But it is so important. So my son Max is here today. Last week, I was with my daughter and she's graduating college and she's going to get into sales. And probably real estate. And she's very talented. She's a closer. She can persuade. She's good with people. She has all that stuff. And she says, then daddy, why are you not completely sure that this is for me? And I said, honey, I'm going to be honest with you. I don't know how you'll deal with failure.

• 6:55John Maxwell?

  Yeah.

• 6:56Ed Mylett?

  And I think that more than anything, almost, in someone's career and in life defines them. Maybe even more than talent, maybe even more than skills. I don't know how you're going to deal when you miss six sales in a row, or four people stand you up, or you embarrass yourself to some extent. And I said to her, and I want your perspective on this, I said, ironically, I kind of think people that are really afraid to fail are almost like egomaniacs. It's just the flip side of the coin.

• 7:21John Maxwell?

  Yeah.

• 7:22Ed Mylett?

  Meaning they've made so much of it about them.

• 7:24John Maxwell?

  Yeah.

• 7:24Ed Mylett?

  And you write about that in the book. What's your perspective on it? Because I think most people think, oh, no, egomaniacs are very confident people who aren't afraid to fail.

• 7:31John Maxwell?

  Not true. Not true at all. In fact, I tell people, it's very simple. Until you get over yourself, you're never going to be a high successful person. Because it's not about me. You're a great communicator. Get over yourself. It's all about the audience.

• 7:46Ed Mylett?

  That's right.

• 7:47John Maxwell?

  So when you look at failure, the reason people don't do failure is because they haven't got over themselves well. The other day,

• 7:54Ed Mylett?

  This is so true.

• 7:55John Maxwell?

  I started writing this the other day, so it's brand new, so it's fresh. So I hope it's good, but I don't know if it's good because I'm just working on it.

• 8:01Ed Mylett?

  I'll tell you.

• 8:02John Maxwell?

  But, okay, thank you. Here's what I think. When I think of failure, I ask myself, Do you want to get in the game and fail? Or do you want to sit in the bleachers and fail?

• 8:15Ed Mylett?

  Wow, that is good.

• 8:15John Maxwell?

  And, and, and so it's, it's kind of like, do you want to watch yourself fail? Because you, because you're not in the game, because sitting in the bleachers has already disqualified you. There's, there's no win. There's, no one ever had a beer and a hot dog and won. You know what I'm saying? So, so, so, but the reason we don't get into the game is because we don't want to lose.

• 8:37Ed Mylett?

  Hmm.

• 8:37John Maxwell?

  Because we want to look good in the eyes of people, and so we, we want that kind of favor. So, anytime I'm concerned about how I look to others.

• 8:49Ed Mylett?

  Yes.

• 8:50John Maxwell?

  I'm in trouble.

• 8:50Ed Mylett?

  Hmm.

• 8:51John Maxwell?

  Not, not, not because I'm, I'm not trying to give a total disregard for just doing anything you want to do. I, I'm not saying that. I'm just saying that I have to realize that with one trifling, small exception in this world, the world's composed of other people. This is, just, there's John, but then there's billions. And, and I gotta get off of John and onto the billions to, to, to be able to now, to now be comfortable with the fact that I'm not always going to hit it. Linda, who's been with me at Edgar's for thirty nine years, is my personal assistant. All the way up, I drove up from where I lived up here for this. And so we had about an hour and a half conversation, and she said something very interesting.

• 9:36John Maxwell?

  She said, John, I think your secret sauce. She says, I, I look at her, she said, your secret sauce is that you don't have to win, but you do have to learn. And she said, you jump the fence very quickly. You, you, what, what's over there? You're curious. I'm gonna, well, you know, I gotta find out what I don't know yet, because, you know, when you know you don't know, the thing you know is you need to know more than you know. So, a, a, and so, but she said, your ability to, uh, to, to, not, and she said, and you do it first. She said, you, for anyone else.

• 10:08Ed Mylett?

  Yes.

• 10:08John Maxwell?

  But she said, you do it first because you just, it's not about you. And, and, and she said the, and that's your secret sauce. Well, I don't know if that's my secret sauce, but I do know this. I do know this, that when people hold back. Almost every time, they don't hold back because what's the right decision? They hold back because what's going to happen to me?

• 10:29Ed Mylett?

  Right, or what are people going to think about?

• 10:31John Maxwell?

  That's exactly right.

• 10:32Ed Mylett?

  Essentially, you say that because I was with, just so timely this book is. And by the way, make sure you guys go get the book and we're going to talk about it again at the end, specifically the book itself. I was working with one of the PGA Tour players that I work with, a golfer.

• 10:45John Maxwell?

  Yeah.

• 10:46Ed Mylett?

  And he literally said to me, I'm afraid I'm going to miss the putt. And I said, no, you're not. He goes, what do you mean? He says, no, I'm afraid I'm going to miss the putt. And I said, I can promise you, you're not afraid of it. It's just a ball not going in a hole. It's not the end of your life. I said, you're afraid of what people are going to think about you if you miss the putt.

• 11:03John Maxwell?

  Totally.

• 11:04Ed Mylett?

  Right?

• 11:04John Maxwell?

  And here's the deal. If you're on the putting range all by yourself.

• 11:09Ed Mylett?

  Right.

• 11:10John Maxwell?

  And you're putting, do you have, oh, my gosh, I'm afraid I'm going to miss this. That doesn't even enter your mind.

• 11:14Ed Mylett?

  Correct.

• 11:15John Maxwell?

  It's like, I was in the Pro-Am at Pebble Beach for six straight years. And my brother and I were talking one day, he said, John, doesn't it make you nervous? I mean, you've got thousands of people out there. They're watching you play golf. Doesn't it make you nervous? I said, not at all. He said, why not? I said, because they didn't come to watch me play golf. Get over yourself. There wasn't one person that went to Pebble Beach and said, boy, I'd like to see Fat Man John swing.

• 11:39John Maxwell?

  They came to see, they came to see the pros. They came to see, you know what they're wanting from Fat John? Would he putt and get out of the way so I could watch a real putt?

• 11:49Ed Mylett?

  Watch the real player.

• 11:49John Maxwell?

  I want to watch somebody can really hit a golf ball. Well, that's a different mindset. But if a person says they're afraid of missing the putt, they're afraid of what people will think because when they were on the putt in green by themselves, they weren't afraid of missing the putt.

• 12:04Ed Mylett?

  1,000%. So what does it mean? Help me frame this so I can help people, even in my coaching. One of the things in the book, I think it's chapter two, is keep failure and success together? Is that what it says? What does that mean?

• 12:18John Maxwell?

  Well, first of all, I've never heard anybody talk about it.

• 12:20Ed Mylett?

  Me either.

• 12:22John Maxwell?

  The thing, one thing I'm very excited about this book. First of all, this is my third failure book. You understand. I wrote Failing Forward, which was a million seller. It was my first failing book. Then I wrote Sometimes You Win, Sometimes You Learn. And then I wrote this one. And somebody said, well, why'd you write three? I said, because I'm really good at it. You know, there's some, please let me talk to you about failure. Success, I'm not sure, but failure, I'm really good. I'm really good at failure and the process. So I've never heard anybody talk about this. Failure and success are meant to be very close together. But our culture separates them. Succeed, don't fail, do it right, don't mess it up. And we put them as far apart as we possibly can. One's good, one's bad, one you gotta do, one you don't wanna ever do.

• 13:06John Maxwell?

  And we separate them, but think about it. There's no reality that at all. In my life, in your life, Ed, in everybody that's part of this podcast. They, they've never had a, a time where they had three days of all success. And then on Thursday, they had two days of all failure. Success and failure are intertwined in everything that we do. And every, every month, you know, I've done this for over thirty years. I have a learning lunch where I sit down with somebody bigger, better, faster, smarter than me. And I ask them seven questions. And one of the questions I ask them is what's the most important lesson you've ever learned in your life? Now, I've done that for over thirty years. Do the math. That's three, four hundred people, different people I've talked to.

• 13:47John Maxwell?

  Every time I ask them, what's the most important lesson you've ever learned in your life? Every time, not sometimes, not most time. When they tell me their story, failure is in that story. Incredible. I, I've never heard a success, most important lesson I've ever learned. Without some kind of a miss, a loss, oh my gosh, I woke up, I didn't have any idea. It's always in there. So, even at the core of your greatest moments. Failure is there. So, here's why you gotta keep them together.

• 14:17John Maxwell?

  You need to keep success and failure together because, Ed, they balance each other out. That's so good, yes. So, I'm over here and I'm just on a roll. I'm Midas touch, it's all gold, success, woo, touchdown, here we go. I better keep failure right beside that because you know what? Bill Gates said, success is a lousy teacher. It makes people think they can't lose. So, when I'm on this winning streak, oh, I, I better keep, I better keep failure right. Because if I keep failure close to my success when I'm on a roll.

• 14:48John Maxwell?

  It will give me humility. Yeah. And you've gotta have humility to learn and be taught. That's true. So, with my success, I keep failure together because in my success, I have humility. Let's go over to the, I'm in the ditch now, I'm failing, I'm screwing this whole thing up. I gotta keep success right beside that failure in my worst days because it gives me resiliency.

• 15:10John Maxwell?

  You separate them and you lose humility and you lose resiliency. You put them together, now all of a sudden it's a beautiful thing, regardless of what state you're in.

• 15:18Ed Mylett?

  That is tremendous. By the way, that is, that could be an entire book, like just that philosophy. Seriously, you guys. I'm thinking, I'm watching you right now. I think you're better than I've ever seen you. I'm talking about like your articulation, your communication, the, the, the tactical stuff.

• 15:35John Maxwell?

  It's about time.

• 15:36Ed Mylett?

  That, no, that's, no, actually, the, the, the truth is, that's a pretty high compliment, given you are considered by everybody I know, the world's greatest leadership expert for the last half century or more. To say that you're better now, and I want to ask you, I'm framing that as a true compliment, but around failure. You said something to me a couple of years ago, that is, you said a lot of things in life that have stuck with me, but one of them that just blew my doors off. You said, Ed, my capacity to grow is greater than it's ever been before. Meaning, not only am I growing more than I've ever grown before, and this was, you're probably 75 at the time, I don't know, probably around there. And you said, not only am I growing more, but my capacity to grow has been expanded.

• 16:19Ed Mylett?

  Is part of that because your perspective is your learning? And that, that allows you to view failure differently than most people? In other words, are those things, two things connected?

• 16:28John Maxwell?

  Oh, they're very connected. I'm, and, and I'm in love with learning.

• 16:32Ed Mylett?

  I know.

• 16:32John Maxwell?

  I had somebody the other day say, because they said, what do you love best? I mean, you're a communicator, you're a writer, you're a networker, you're, you're, you're a leadership guy. They, they threw out about seven, which, which others? And I said, you didn't name any of my favorite things. I said, my favorite thing's learning.

• 16:48Ed Mylett?

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• 17:31Ed Mylett?

  Go to ro.co/mylet to see if you qualify. That's R-O dot C-O slash my let to get started on Ro. For side effects of GLP-1 medications, including boxed warning, go to ro.co forward slash safety. R-O dot C-O slash safety. So when I went in and buy in the island, we had to do all of our outdoor decorating and I spent a fortune in the first half of the place and I'm like, I don't want to do this anymore, but I want the best stuff. And that's where Wayfair came in. My wife wanted to get this new garden bed and Wayfair was the place that offered the perfect solution. Wayfair also helps you create a home that stands up to real life with quality products, great value and trusted reviews. Wayfair verified products are hand vetted by product specialists. They use a 10-point quality inspection system. Here's what I can tell you. The stuff has lasted over time.

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• 18:48Speaker 04

  Wayfair, every style, every home.

• 18:53John Maxwell?

  Honestly, and I, there's a game I play. It takes three minutes. I play it probably six times a day.

• 19:02John Maxwell?

  I'll have a moment or I'll have three minutes on it. It's called word seek. And I'm really good with words because I mean, that's my, I mean, I'm good with words. And I'm always in the top 5%. Sometimes I've been a half dozen times number one in the world. And I mean, just playing this game, you know, oh, here's your rank. Anyway. The reason I love it is it's a three minute game. And when it's done, if I have a good game and puts me in the expert level, I only got about twenty five percent of the words.

• 19:34Ed Mylett?

  What are you trying to do? Figure out a word that's a synonym or something?

• 19:37John Maxwell?

  No, no, it's it's it's scrambled letters and you make words out of it.

• 19:40Ed Mylett?

  Find the words.

• 19:41John Maxwell?

  How many words can you?

• 19:42Ed Mylett?

  Okay, got it.

• 19:42John Maxwell?

  It's called word C. Now, here's what I love about it. And I keep asking myself, why am I so drawn to this game? And I'll tell you why I'm drawn to this game. I'm never going to get there.

• 19:51John Maxwell?

  And never going to get there is highly appealing to me.

• 19:55Ed Mylett?

  I know it is.

• 19:55John Maxwell?

  I I want to tell you something.

• 19:56Ed Mylett?

  I know it is.

• 19:57John Maxwell?

  You show me a person that wants wants achievement.

• 20:04John Maxwell?

  But they don't want to be stretched in their life. They're gonna they're gonna be in trouble. And so I I love the fact that when I'm done, there's no expert at all. I'm twenty two percent and and and and and I was ranked top, but I'm not top. There's eighty, there's eighty percent, there's seventy five percent that I never even got off of that. There's something very appealing of never having arrived.

• 20:31Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 20:31John Maxwell?

  That it's a journey and it's not a destination. And and I can remember one of my books I wrote many years ago was called The Success Journey. And and my publisher wanted to call it The Destination to Success.

• 20:44Ed Mylett?

  You're like, no way.

• 20:44John Maxwell?

  And I say, no, no, no, no.

• 20:45Ed Mylett?

  Yeah, you wouldn't do that.

• 20:45John Maxwell?

  There's no destination. It's it's a journey. There's you you never. And so I think there's a lot of that. If you want to constantly grow and learn, I think you look at failure as a terrific asset and and not a not a liability at all.

• 21:00Ed Mylett?

  This is this is a tremendous conversation we're having right now. You've that thing you said about there's really not a finish line.

• 21:07John Maxwell?

  None.

• 21:07Ed Mylett?

  And that you're constantly learning and growing. You've really, in in my own life, you've challenged my own thinking about that. I began a business career and a pursuit with an idea of finishing.

• 21:19John Maxwell?

  Of course.

• 21:19Ed Mylett?

  Truly. And then as I got around you. It challenged my perspective about that to where not only have you inspired me not to think that way anymore, but it's freed me up almost.

• 21:31John Maxwell?

  Oh, it's beautiful. You can fly.

• 21:33Ed Mylett?

  You're right.

• 21:34John Maxwell?

  Oh, no, no. You fly. See, and I've started off same way. I thought, go out, do really well. Make your money.

• 21:41Ed Mylett?

  Yes.

• 21:41John Maxwell?

  Build your house on the hill.

• 21:43Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 21:43John Maxwell?

  Retire, live happily ever after. You have no needs, no worries. So I think we all start off that way. And then I began to understand the fallacy of that whole process. And see, I used to think you do, you do the hard thing. So then it gets easy. And what I discovered is that's not true at all.

• 22:02Ed Mylett?

  It isn't.

• 22:02John Maxwell?

  You do the hard thing. And if you do it really well, guess what you get? Something harder. You do, you do the, you finish hard and you get, oh, my gosh, harder. And you keep climbing harder. And here's what happens. Respect is only earned on difficult ground.

• 22:17Ed Mylett?

  So true.

• 22:18John Maxwell?

  Significance is only taken on difficult ground, Ed. And if you don't have it. So therefore, the fulfillment, the joy, the, ah, the adrenaline stuff that you want in your life, happens in the fact that you're going where you've never been before. You're learning things you've never known before. You're doing things that you've never tried before. And you know, you know, you aren't going to do it all right. You know that you're going to have to take detours. You know, you're going to have setbacks. But it doesn't matter because you're out there where you're supposed to be. Greatness is designed for somewhere out there that calls for a pioneer.

• 22:58Ed Mylett?

  Gosh.

• 22:58John Maxwell?

  Not for somebody who sat there and said, you know what? I got it figured out. I tell people, when you think you got it, you're going to get it.

• 23:10Ed Mylett?

  I can absolutely attest that that's true.

• 23:12John Maxwell?

  Is that true?

• 23:13Ed Mylett?

  I've watched it with my friends over and over. You know, We're having, this is, this is a conversation I've not heard on a podcast before. And it's so important. This is one of these things where if you're listening to this, you should go back and listen to this again. Even those of you that are, are doing, you think you're doing well. That's why, don't you think so many people get to that exit in their company or that point and they're like, it's, it's not what I thought it would be. It's because it's, there isn't really a finish line for these things and it is disappointing to get there. I don't think it causes you to maybe make poor decisions if you think it's going to end. You know, you might cut corners or do things like that unless, instead of being in a pursuit of something. Do you agree with that?

• 23:50John Maxwell?

  Well, totally. I, I, I could, I'll tell you what disappointment is. Disappointment is thinking that there's a place where there's happiness. It's not a destination.

• 24:01Ed Mylett?

  It's not a place.

• 24:01John Maxwell?

  It's not a place. It's not, it's not something I did. It's not some place I arrived. It's what I'm doing. You know, I mean, is there anything more boring than a person that has that been there, done that mindset? Oh, been there, done that. You just look at it and say, dear God, let me leave you as quick as I can. Because you, immediately, this whole, it's like expert, it's like expert. I mean, when people talk to me about your leadership expert, I say, I'm not an expert. The more you know, the more you know you don't know. And the more you know you don't know, the more you know you need to know. And no matter how much you know, there's more out there. And when I, I remember when I wrote my first leadership book, I thought, I'll write a very good leadership book and I'll, I'll have done leadership.

• 24:45John Maxwell?

  Well, I wrote that leadership book. It wasn't that good, to be honest with you. And, and I thought, oh, man, there's more that I could write about leadership. Again, once you keep that mindset of learning and growing, it's kind of like you think you're going to figure it out and you think you're going to get to the end, but you're not going to figure out and you're not going to get to the end. And then one day you wake up and say, I never want to figure it out. I never want to get to the end because it's in the chase.

• 25:11Ed Mylett?

  A million percent this is right, by the way. I've just lived it. But you were the first person that came along. You guys, I think every one of my eyes thinks I work very hard. I think I do. You're another level. You're another level. We've flown around together. I've been fortunate to fly with him. The way he flies is very nice. But when you get on the plane with him and there's other people around, it's like, okay. What are you working on? What do you need help with? This is what I'm working on. These are my questions. And he and I are the two weirdos because at some point inevitably, everybody else eventually crashes out. And it's John and I together going back and forth. And I'm just, I'm just learning. But I guess the thing that, I think on failure, maybe you cover it in the book, so I'd like you to talk about this.

• 25:56Ed Mylett?

  How do you, because you know, not all failure is good, is it? So like, how do you know or is all good? Meaning, you have this chapter in the book, challenge my thinking on this, or explain it to me. You say, know the difference between a good miss and a bad miss.

• 26:07John Maxwell?

  Huge.

• 26:08Ed Mylett?

  What's that mean?

• 26:09John Maxwell?

  Oh, my gosh. I'm so glad you brought it up, Hen. Again, just like keeping failure and success together, I never heard anybody talk about it, read about it, until I wrote it.

• 26:16Ed Mylett?

  Yeah, I have not either.

• 26:17John Maxwell?

  I'm gonna tell you something. I've never heard anybody talk about this.

• 26:19Ed Mylett?

  Okay.

• 26:21John Maxwell?

  But there is a difference between a good miss and a bad miss.

• 26:25John Maxwell?

  A good miss is still a miss. But you got a little closer. A bad miss, you got a little farther. It's like this. A good miss is when I have a failure. And by the way, you never know whether you have a good miss or a bad miss based on what the failure is. It's your response to the failure that determines the good miss and bad miss. Nobody talks about this, but watch this, watch this. So let's say, I messed something up. So what do I say? Wow, that didn't work. I gotta make adjustments. Good miss. Now I'm saying, oh, I've learned that. Don't do that anymore. Change here. I make adjustments. That's a good miss. A bad miss. I make excuses. That's a bad miss. What do you do with excuses?

• 27:09John Maxwell?

  Except make more excuses. I've never known anybody go from excuse to success. I've never had. I know they go from failure to success.

• 27:19John Maxwell?

  But not, because excuses takes awareness. When I make excuses, I personally say, I don't want to be aware of what could be out there. And you can't fix. What you don't know needs to be fixed. And so therefore, we muddle and that's a bad miss. We're staying that. We stay in that. But it's the response to the failure that determines whether the miss is a good one or a bad one. So when people say I failed, okay, I got it. I failed a lot of times. Let's talk about your response. What's your response? Because when these guys are saying the greatest lesson I ever learned had failure in it, it's because they had good misses.

• 28:01Ed Mylett?

  Outstanding.

• 28:02John Maxwell?

  When people say, I'm done, it's over, it's terrible, it's because they had bad misses.

• 28:09Ed Mylett?

  Outstanding.

• 28:10John Maxwell?

  Doesn't that make sense?

• 28:10Ed Mylett?

  Yes. There's a part of the book, which I'm gonna let you guys read in the book, about kind of the victim identity that we take on that goes down this road also.

• 28:19John Maxwell?

  Totally.

• 28:20Ed Mylett?

  It's earlier in the book than this part. Yeah, I've had some bad misses too.

• 28:24John Maxwell?

  Yeah.

• 28:25Ed Mylett?

  I've had some bad misses where I pointed fingers and didn't learn from it. And a lot of times you end up repeating that mistake in another form if you don't take something from it.

• 28:32John Maxwell?

  You either, you either learn from the failure, which is a good miss, or you leave the failure, which is a bad miss. And most people, they want to leave the scene as quick as they, oh my gosh, what happened? It wasn't me. And so, but the moment you leave, you learn nothing. You, leaving is a bad miss because it doesn't let you, you didn't stay around long enough to learn.

• 28:51Ed Mylett?

  That's so good.

• 28:52John Maxwell?

  And you just have to, I tell people all the time, you gotta hang with your failure awhile. This is, this is good. There's a lot to learn here. You know, don't, don't, don't get off the operating table too quickly. Let the surgeon do the work.

• 29:03Ed Mylett?

  The other thing you don't do, at least in my observation, I need to do better at this. But I want to talk about leading other people through failure, meaning.

• 29:11John Maxwell?

  Yeah.

• 29:12Ed Mylett?

  One thing I've watched, we've, you know, I'll just leave it at that, but I don't see you, when you course correct or coach, my observation of you, you don't seem to be judging the person's failure. And even when some of them have been some, you know, failures, you know, judgment failures, we'll say, right? So how do you lead somebody, whether that be business or a child of yours? And maybe it's different in those two, and take your time on either one. But what's your philosophy on leading others through a failure?

• 29:42John Maxwell?

  Well, first of all.

• 29:45John Maxwell?

  All I have to do is look at my failures. And it takes me off the judgment roll real quick. I mean, my gosh, I have had. In fact, I think highly successful people probably fail more than unsuccessful. I agree with that. Because they keep trying. They're out there attempting. And so if you're, hey, if you attempt a thousand times, you're going to have several hundred misses. If you attempt ten, you may only have six or seven. So I think the, the effort creates a lot of possibilities for failure. But when I look at that failure, what I, what I understand is, and, and trying to help other people through it is two things. One is, nothing helps people handle failure more than me to talk to them about my failures. Okay. I mean, Ed, I've heard you talk. And when you, when you do some of your teaching,

• 30:30John Maxwell?

  you're a master at talking about the hard lessons that you learned in that process that they brought. So you do, to, to tell people you have failed, and then them to look at you and see where you are. Yes, that's great. Now, here's what I tell, when successful people talk about their failures, then failure gets tagged with successful people. This guy is just crazy good. But watch this. But when you, but, but when you watch people that have failed, talk about their failures, oh my God, don't want to do that. That's a loser for sure. And so, so what I say is, when you're successful, the more you talk about failure, the more

• 31:11John Maxwell?

  you help people see it from a perspective of positivity. And so you, you do a great effort. Because here's what happens. Okay. Ed, I joined your team, and you're, you're highly successful, and I'm just starting out, I'm a newbie, and I hope I do it right. You're talking about all your successes. And then I go out, of course, I don't do it right. You're never good the first time. You're never good the second time. It's like your daughter. What happens when you have five calls and they're all no's? So, so you're, you're not good. Well, immediately, I look at you, and I thought, well, look at Ed. Oh my gosh, he's so good. And then what do I do? I disqualify myself. Amen. I just said, well, I, I just, I don't have his gifts. I don't have his, I don't get his opportunity. And so what happens is, when you talk about the success, you discourage people.

• 31:55John Maxwell?

  When you talk about failure, you encourage people. Especially when you're a successful failure.

• 32:01Ed Mylett?

  Gosh, that's so true.

• 32:02John Maxwell?

  It's so encouraging. It just, it lifts because, guess what? When you talk about your failures, but I see that you've overcome them. So when I fail, I say, well, Ed did that. But look, he overcome, I can overcome them too. It's a whole different mindset. And I wish that successful people. I wish they would talk about their failures more.

• 32:21Ed Mylett?

  So do I.

• 32:22John Maxwell?

  Uh, because, because that's where the learning and the growing is. And I'll tell you what else. I'm seventy eight and people see me kinda like the highlight of my life. I wish they could see me at twenty eight. My great, if I could have one genie wish, it would be, I wish you could have seen me communicate at twenty eight. I wasn't that good. I wish you could, I, because they would be greatly encouraged. What they're doing is they're seeing a man who has done fifty plus years of personal daily growth every day. And so, yes, I'm on, it's kinda like in the beginning, you're not as bad as people think you are. But in the end, you're really not as good as people think you are either. And, and I have this great desire to let everybody know. I wasn't really that good. And you just have to understand, I, I, I, I made a commitment to intentionally grow and develop myself. But I wasn't that good.

• 33:07John Maxwell?

  I, I wasn't, and, and if they would have seen me, they would have seen, then they would see, not the end result, but they would see what growth will do for a person that, you know.

• 33:15Ed Mylett?

  But John, I've watched it in the last ten years that I've been your friend. I've actually watched it at, at this stage of your life. You are getting better. Is there, in those fifty years, is there a particular situation where you failed that you could maybe share that did cause you to grow or make a pivot? Or look at failure differently? Do you think of one? I mean, I'm sure there's a lot, but I mean, is there one that stands?

• 33:37John Maxwell?

  When I was forty, I did inventory, kinda that midlife kinda do, halftime thing, you know. And I got a little discouraged because I thought, I'm not quite as far as I thought I would get. And so I did the personal inventory. Why am I not as far as I got? And I, I came to a conclusion about three days later. That I really, I had spent a lot of time on my personal growth and development, but I hadn't spent enough time on developing my team. And I said, Maxwell, you, if you don't grow your team, they can't go with you.

• 34:07Ed Mylett?

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• 34:52Ed Mylett?

  the Quince app for app-exclusive offers, or go to quince.com/ed for free shipping on your order and 365-day returns. Now available in Canada and the UK, too. That's Q-U-I-N-C-E dot com slash ed. So you know, I've been trying to take my health and my morning routine to the next level, and I used to do a whole bunch of different stuff, tons of different supplements, and then I found all-in-one in a drink with IM-8. IM-8 is the way to simplify your supplement routine, finally, once and for all. 16 supplements replaced 90 ingredients across nine major organ systems in one drink. You can have all these supplements for $2.61 a day. I've changed my mornings. The whole IM-8 routine has changed my mornings.

• 35:35Ed Mylett?

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• 36:08John Maxwell?

  And so I made a pivot, and I said, I'm going to really... Work on growing and developing my team and that was one of the best decisions I ever made, but it was one of those times at halftime where I had to come and ask myself, am I willing to now make this big transition?

• 36:24Ed Mylett?

  Right.

• 36:24John Maxwell?

  And what it goes back to the law of the inner circle, the 21 laws, those closest to you determine the level of your success. And and it was at that moment, I thought, I will never hit my level of success unless I have great people around me. So I had better, I had, I had better, you know, we can only grow so much in personal capacity, but we can grow a lot more in team capacity.

• 36:46Ed Mylett?

  Hmm.

• 36:46John Maxwell?

  And so the the idea of partnership and teamwork, there's something really beautiful about developing a great team until that one and one doesn't really after a while equal two, it equals three. There's a comp, there's a compounding there of that.

• 37:00Ed Mylett?

  Do you wish your last book, we're talking about, you know, more like public leaders and stuff and do you feel like if I'm a leader, I want you to give advice to leaders out there and you have had a failure or a setback or a mistake. One of the things I wish for, like in our public discourse, like our politicians, is for a leader to say, made a mistake, I got this one wrong, I apologize, I'm gonna course correct this, my intent wasn't to do this, but I, I, I blew it, I call, I missed the call there and we're gonna get it right next time. It's almost like, it seems like in our culture today, failure is such a bad thing, that if you even admit one, you're, you're, you know, somehow you're disqualified forever. I wish, do you feel that way too? I wish more of a, and so if you're speaking to someone who runs a company or leads a

• 37:45Ed Mylett?

  family, which is a leader, a mother that's listening to this, it's okay to acknowledge you've had a failure or a setback or made a mistake and that's a redemptive thing to do, an important thing to do.

• 37:55John Maxwell?

  For both you and the person's hearing you. It's, it's a two-way redemptive thing. When I admit my failures, I get in touch with my humanity, which allows me now to be able to really grow. So it, it's, it's good for me, but it's also good for the other person. You know, it was funny, cause I, I remember last year when I was, when, when we had a couple of candidates running for president. I told Margaret before the first presidential debate, I, I, I said, I, I know who I'm gonna vote on. And she said, well, who are you gonna vote on for? I said, the first person in the debate that looks in the camera and said, I did, I made a mistake.

• 38:33Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 38:34John Maxwell?

  I, I didn't do that right. Oh, I wish I, I wish I could have that. I wish I could do that decision over again. I said, the first person that shows any kind of authenticity, any kind of in touch with who they are, that doesn't blame the other person for all the problems in the world. I said, I'm just gonna, and I just sat there and I thought.

• 38:51Ed Mylett?

  It'd be a long wait.

• 38:52John Maxwell?

  All right. Just, I'm voting for you, just, just, just one time, just tell me, one time. Of course, there was no, there was no, and, and you and I both know that is, first of all, untrue. We're all human. And number two, it's unhealthy. It's unhealthy because we set a standard.

• 39:10Ed Mylett?

  Yes.

• 39:11John Maxwell?

  That is not livable by anybody. And now we're, instead of us having freedom, we're under incredible bondage and stress. And it does all kind of emotional things that people don't want.

• 39:20Ed Mylett?

  That is such an important thing because it's not modeled. You're not seeing that from most public leadership right now. Yet the leaders that I've worked with in my life that I admire the most have done exactly what you say to do. I, I messed that up. I'm so sorry. Please forgive me. I'm gonna get it right next time.

• 39:35John Maxwell?

  And, and people just can hardly wait to forgive you.

• 39:38Ed Mylett?

  I actually think ironically, kinda like what you said about overall failure. I actually got much closer to that person as a leader. It almost as if that setback or mistake, the decision they made that didn't go the right way, was actually an odd blessing long-term because their acknowledgement of it built a level of trust that didn't exist when everything was perfect.

• 39:57John Maxwell?

  In my inner circle, they know my strengths and they know my weaknesses. They know my best victories and they know my biggest losses. And I wanna tell you, they're close to me because they know my biggest losses.

• 40:10Ed Mylett?

  Yep. You also told me when I got to know you better, which just for what it's worth, I just wanna say this back to you, just so much I am listening. You told me, hey Ed, you know, reveal your imperfections to people. You'll become much closer to them if you try to appear to be perfect all the time. And I really have, I've, I've really heeded that advice that, that, by the way, it's so freeing. To not try to have to live up to some standard that I know's not accurate, right? I, I know that it is. I've got a hard question for you on failure. So we're talking about this whole failure thing. Sometimes, do you worry at all that as we embrace failure? That, and I think you'll know what I mean when I say this, I want you to speak to it. There's this whole book you've written, it's gold. And obviously, just even the nuggets that we've talked about today.

• 40:51Ed Mylett?

  But can you go a little too far on that where you accept failures in your life? Do you know what I'm saying?

• 40:57John Maxwell?

  Totally.

• 40:57Ed Mylett?

  Where, you know what I mean? Like, I want to have the, I want to have a guardrail on this to some extent. Cause some people take this and just go, well, then, I don't have to have any successes. I don't have to have any breakthroughs. You know what I'm saying? That does become part of a culture, so speak to that.

• 41:10John Maxwell?

  Well, what I say all the time is, failure should move you. And when we, when we become comfortable with failure, we're in trouble. So, failure, failure should move you. Failure is your friend, not because you had the failure. It's your friend because it says you better change something. And people change when they, when they hurt enough, they have to. When they learn enough, they know how to. And when they receive enough, they're able to. And so, that, that's the change pattern of people. So, so when I fail, I have, I'm embracing failure as a friend. Because it raised its hand and said, John, wrong way.

• 41:54John Maxwell?

  You, you don't, you don't want to go here. And now, it, it, it creates awareness. Failure treated correctly makes me aware of changes I need to make. Failure prospectively incorrectly is when I look at it and instead of saying, I'm aware and I must change. I look at it, I say, I just can't do any better and make excuses. And, and so, but it's a catalyst. Failure is a catalyst to either have a person change for the better. Or it's a catalyst for a person to say, I, I'm a victim and that's, this way it's going to be. And that's my life and I can't help it.

• 42:28Ed Mylett?

  What's the Bible say about failure?

• 42:29John Maxwell?

  Well, the Bible's beautiful about failure. I mean, think about it. First of all, the Bible never hid failures. There are only two people in the Bible that, there's nothing about their life in failure. There's only two great ones. And, and, and that's Joseph and Nehemiah.

• 42:49John Maxwell?

  They're the only two biblical characters where you look at their life and you know, every other biblical character, David. Well, there's some murder and adultery going on there. And remember this. God looked at David and said, you're a man after my own heart. Now, David's frontline people in his kingdom didn't say that. God said that. God looked at a guy that we would look and say, he's not even fit to be in this thing. And he said, you're a man after my own heart. I mean, look at, look at Moses and the, the great men and women of leaders, honestly.

• 43:27John Maxwell?

  They all had failure in their life. The Bible doesn't try to cover that. The Bible's, you know, one thing that's beautiful about God's word and God is, is he's not transactional at all. I love about, I mean, God doesn't say Maxwell measure up and I think we're gonna let you in.

• 43:44Ed Mylett?

  Right.

• 43:45John Maxwell?

  He's transformational. He doesn't work on a transactional. He's, it's, I don't earn anything. The very fact of forgiveness is a fact that God knows how to handle failure well.

• 43:58Ed Mylett?

  Come on, you guys, this is so good.

• 44:00John Maxwell?

  In, in our lives. And it's so beautiful. It's so beautiful. That's very comforting to me.

• 44:07Ed Mylett?

  Same here, brother. Makes me emotional as you're saying it.

• 44:10John Maxwell?

  Me too.

• 44:11Ed Mylett?

  I know.

• 44:11John Maxwell?

  It's because we have a wonderful God, that's why it makes me emotional.

• 44:15Ed Mylett?

  Thank God for God's grace.

• 44:18John Maxwell?

  Hey. Somebody says, if I don't have God's grace, I don't think I can make, I should explain something. If you don't have God's grace, you don't make it.

• 44:26Ed Mylett?

  You do not.

• 44:27John Maxwell?

  I thought for a moment you were entertaining a possibility.

• 44:32John Maxwell?

  Remove that possibility out of your life, sir. It isn't gonna happen.

• 44:36Ed Mylett?

  You, um, you're just such a treasure in my life and I'm, I, something happens when we do this. I don't know what it is, but like.

• 44:45John Maxwell?

  Ed, I do interviews, you do interviews, we all do interviews. You're the best interviewer.

• 44:50Ed Mylett?

  Oh, my God.

• 44:50John Maxwell?

  Now, listen to me. The first time, I remember the first time we did it out in Los Angeles, we sat down and and it clicked.

• 44:56Ed Mylett?

  Yes.

• 44:57John Maxwell?

  And I walked away and I said, it clicked because this man, you have, you have a great gift of intuition and discernment. And when you're with people, you see the person, but you see what's behind. And you are a great interviewer because you don't say the obvious. You go behind the curtain and you pull out the best in people. And I think the better people that you interview, the better interviews you get because it's all inside, but you have the ability to, to dig for that gold and get it. You're a great interviewer.

• 45:29Ed Mylett?

  You know, I don't mean to say this, we're going back and forth, Colin. You do that to me. You do that for me, myself, like I, you know what, one thing about leadership, you guys, is when you know someone truly believes in you.

• 45:42John Maxwell?

  Oh, totally.

• 45:43Ed Mylett?

  It's so, I, like, I feel that from you.

• 45:46John Maxwell?

  It's a game changer.

• 45:47Ed Mylett?

  Right? It's, it's one of those elements, it's different. I even think with our children, loving our children is obviously its entry into the game. I mean, that's, you're supposed to love your children, but believing in them and them knowing you believe in them, or as a leader in a company, that's a different thing.

• 46:01John Maxwell?

  Oh, it's the greatest gift we could ever give anyone is the same gift that God gave us. Unconditional love.

• 46:12John Maxwell?

  While we were yet sinners.

• 46:14Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 46:16John Maxwell?

  God loved us, not when we got our act together, not when we all of a sudden made a better presentation, while we were yet sinners, while we were already screwed up, while we were already, you see, God, God doesn't, God doesn't fix us to change us, he changes us to fix us. Woo, there's a lot of difference between those two.

• 46:40Ed Mylett?

  You know, when you have the camera guys going, hey, man, they're nodding, you know, you're, you're spitting at truth. Can I ask you one more thing? Cause we're gonna wrap it up. I just want to ask you about this one thing that is another thing you have, it's not in the book.

• 46:51John Maxwell?

  Yeah, okay.

• 46:53Ed Mylett?

  You. Want others to succeed. Were you this way when you were young? Let me tell you what I mean. I want everyone to understand this. One time he gave a speech that I thought was just incredible. Every time he speaks. But I was with him afterwards. I said, that was just mind blowing. And he goes, oh, here's a note. You should give this speech. You do it better than I would.

• 47:10John Maxwell?

  Oh, I remember that. And you did it better than me, too.

• 47:13Ed Mylett?

  Absolutely untrue that I did it better than you. However, there's a lot of this kind of protection thing with leaders or just people in life. Because I think they think if you succeed, I'm going to fail. So I want to wrap this part at the end around failure. You look at it completely differently than that. How do you look at it?

• 47:32John Maxwell?

  I want more for you than I want from you. And when I remember, in fact, we were in Nashville.

• 47:38Ed Mylett?

  Yes.

• 47:38John Maxwell?

  And I just finished talking and you were sitting, we had me sitting beside, and I just kind of put the speech together and really.

• 47:44Ed Mylett?

  It's unreal that you did that.

• 47:46John Maxwell?

  Well, and I think, I looked at you and I thought, here, you have it. You'll make it better. And can I tell you, I know you will make it better. And here's why. If you gave me one of your speeches, I could make it better. And it's not because I'm better. It's because you already gave me a foundation. It's, I already got what you got. Now, if I get one little, one more thing, it just got better. But I wouldn't have had that one little thing if you wouldn't have given me the foundation. And so, I, when I was young, Ed, I played ball. And I was, I was very competitive. And, and I think, I think there's a lot of things about competitive people that's a real advantage to them. So I'm not anti-competitiveness. But here's what I wanted to say. In my own heart,

• 48:29John Maxwell?

  I had a major life change when I lost that competitiveness and decided I would rather help other people succeed. Because if I win, it's only one. If they win, it's a whole bunch.

• 48:43Ed Mylett?

  Very good.

• 48:44John Maxwell?

  And I just, at this stage of my life. Yeah, I I get more joy out of out of out of someone else's success.

• 48:53Ed Mylett?

  You do.

• 48:54John Maxwell?

  I mean, God's, I've got a lot. I've got stuff on my, I'm okay. But but I just.

• 48:58Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 48:59John Maxwell?

  I like to see people do well.

• 49:00Ed Mylett?

  I know you do, and I love you for it. By the way, the the lesson there is that if someone else is succeeding, it doesn't mean you're failing. And that's the one of the topics of failure that I wanted to make sure we we covered. I just want to thank you. This is such a tremendous conversation. Real rare when I do the show that as we're doing it, I'm thinking of people that I want to share the episode with. I always tell the audience, make sure you share this with someone you care about. I'm thinking right now of the people that I want to share this with, beginning with my daughter, who we talked about in the very beginning. So I love you.

• 49:29John Maxwell?

  Love you.

• 49:30Ed Mylett?

  God bless you. By the way, the book you guys is How to Get a Return on Failure. You know you're getting it now. Fail Smarter, Return Stronger. It is, uh, it's tremendous. He's he's just, he's the best. Thank you. God bless you, everybody. Share this episode. Max out.

• 49:50Speaker 02

  This is the Ed and Myron Show.

• 49:56Speaker 05

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