789 Learning to Lead with John Maxwell

KEEP REINVENTING YOURSELF. We all go through times of uncertainty. There are periods we don’t understand what’s happening to us, and we feel unsure of our direction. It can make you want to give up. But it’s often when you feel the most lost that you are forced to find your purpose. Once you know your “why,” you can weather any storm. You’ll still feel the wind and the waves, but you don’t lose your course. Use the uncertainty to find your direction. For this Five Minute Friday, I revisited a conversation I had with John Maxwell where he shared how a difficult time taught him how to be a leader. John C. Maxwell is a New York Times bestselling author, coach, and speaker who has sold more than 25 million books in fifty languages. In 2014 he was identified as the #1 leader in business by the American Management Association and the most influential leadership expert in the world by Business Insider and Inc. magazine. Learn how to use tough times to your advantage in Episode 789. In This Episode You Will Learn: The moment in John’s adult life had the most uncertainty (3:00) The book that changed John’s life (3:30) How scarcity mindset makes for bad leaders (4:00) What gave John purpose (4:30) Get more from Lewis! Get my New York Times Bestselling book, Make Money Easy! Get The Greatness Mindset audiobook on SpotifyText Lewis AIYouTubeInstagramWebsiteTiktokFacebookX

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

• 0:00Lewis Howes?

  This is Five Minute Friday.

• 0:10Lewis Howes?

  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.

• 0:53Lewis Howes?

  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.

• 1:16Lewis Howes?

  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. 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, what had, 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?

• 1:56Speaker 01

  Well, it would have been in my early twenties. I started off my career as a pastor, okay?

• 2:02Lewis Howes?

  Yep.

• 2:03Speaker 01

  And, and, and so I was in, in my first church. And I was kind of finishing up my first year and I just fell out of place. I guess, I guess I missed my calling. I guess this is, you know, cause I, you know, I really didn't want to just go visit people all the time. I wanted to grow 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 called Spiritual Leadership by, uh, Oswald Sanders. Basically that book said, uh, that you could be a person of faith and yet be a, a, a great leader. That just lit my fire. I, I just said, oh my gosh, I, I, okay, I'm, I'm going to continue pastoring, but I wouldn't be a, a pastor who leads. And so I've always been a leader from that point on.

• 2:48Speaker 01

  I've, whatever occupation I've been in, I, I, I'm a leader. And it was kind of like permission and I, I grew up in an, an organization that didn't have good leaders. Had a kind of a scarcity mindset, so I was really kind of lost and, 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 guessed myself against it. I'm, I'm a leader for the first time. What I do is I, so people say, what do you do? I lead. Now, I had to, you know, for 25 years, I had to be a pastor and, you know, now I have five companies, I'm a business person, but, but I'm a leader. I'm, 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, the why I'm here and, and so as I got that, uh, then,

• 3:34Speaker 01

  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, you know your purpose, you feel the winds and you, you can feel the heat, the whole process, but you, you don't get tossed, you, you know who you are, you know what you're supposed to do.

• 3:57Lewis Howes?

  Hey guys, if you enjoyed this inspirational clip from a past episode of the show, then you'll love the free book I'm giving away right now. It's called The Millionaire Morning. It includes some of my best tips for starting off your day with a millionaire mindset. Get your free copy at themillionairemorning.com and just pay shipping. Again, check it out right now, themillionairemorning.com.