Top 100 Inspirational Quotes

Kevin Kruse 

Inspirational quotes and motivational quotes have the power to get us through a bad week, and can even  give us the courage to pursue our life’s dreams. In my book, 4 Keys to Happiness and Fulfillment at Work, I share surprising research into the true triggers of workplace motivation. So in the spirit of self motivation, here are 100 inspirational quotes.

1. Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve. –Napoleon Hill
2. Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value. –Albert Einstein
3. Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.  –Robert Frost
4. I attribute my success to this: I never gave or took any excuse. –Florence Nightingale
5. You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take. –Wayne Gretzky
6. I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed. –Michael Jordan
7. The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity. –Amelia Earhart
8. Every strike brings me closer to the next home run. –Babe Ruth
9. Definiteness of purpose is the starting point of all achievement. –W. Clement Stone
10. The past is a ghost, the future a dream. All we ever have is now. –Bill Cosby
11. Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans. –John Lennon
12. We become what we think about. –Earl Nightingale
13. Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do, so throw off the bowlines, sail away from safe harbor, catch the trade winds in your sails.  Explore, Dream, Discover. –Mark Twain
14. Life is 10% what happens to me and 90% of how I react to it. –Charles Swindoll
15. The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any. –Alice Walker
16. The mind is everything. What you think you become.  –Buddha
17. The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now. –Chinese Proverb
18. An unexamined life is not worth living. –Socrates
19. Eighty percent of success is showing up. –Woody Allen
20. Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. –Steve Jobs
21. Winning isn’t everything, but wanting to win is. –Vince Lombardi
22. I am not a product of my circumstances. I am a product of my decisions. –Stephen Covey
23. Every child is an artist.  The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up. –Pablo Picasso
24. You can never cross the ocean until you have the courage to lose sight of the shore. –Christopher Columbus
25. I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel. –Maya Angelou
26. Either you run the day, or the day runs you. –Jim Rohn
27. Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right. –Henry Ford
28. The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why. –Mark Twain
29. Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it.  Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. –Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
30. The best revenge is massive success. –Frank Sinatra
31. People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing.  That’s why we recommend it daily. –Zig Ziglar
32. Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage. –Anais Nin
33. If you hear a voice within you say “you cannot paint,” then by all means paint and that voice will be silenced. –Vincent Van Gogh
34. There is only one way to avoid criticism: do nothing, say nothing, and be nothing. –Aristotle
35. Ask and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock and the door will be opened for you. –Jesus
36. The only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be. –Ralph Waldo Emerson
37. Go confidently in the direction of your dreams.  Live the life you have imagined. –Henry David Thoreau
38. When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left and could say, I used everything you gave me. –Erma Bombeck
39. Few things can help an individual more than to place responsibility on him, and to let him know that you trust him.  –Booker T. Washington
40. Certain things catch your eye, but pursue only those that capture the heart. – Ancient Indian Proverb
41. Believe you can and you’re halfway there. –Theodore Roosevelt
42. Everything you’ve ever wanted is on the other side of fear. –George Addair
43. We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light. –Plato
44. Teach thy tongue to say, “I do not know,” and thous shalt progress. –Maimonides
45. Start where you are. Use what you have.  Do what you can. –Arthur Ashe
46. When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life.  When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up.  I wrote down ‘happy’.  They told me I didn’t understand the assignment, and I told them they didn’t understand life. –John Lennon
47. Fall seven times and stand up eight. –Japanese Proverb
48. When one door of happiness closes, another opens, but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one that has been opened for us. –Helen Keller
49. Everything has beauty, but not everyone can see. –Confucius
50. How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world. –Anne Frank
51. When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be. –Lao Tzu
52. Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away. –Maya Angelou
53. Happiness is not something readymade.  It comes from your own actions. –Dalai Lama
54. If you’re offered a seat on a rocket ship, don’t ask what seat! Just get on. –Sheryl Sandberg
55. First, have a definite, clear practical ideal; a goal, an objective. Second, have the necessary means to achieve your ends; wisdom, money, materials, and methods. Third, adjust all your means to that end. –Aristotle
56. If the wind will not serve, take to the oars. –Latin Proverb
57. You can’t fall if you don’t climb.  But there’s no joy in living your whole life on the ground. –Unknown
58. We must believe that we are gifted for something, and that this thing, at whatever cost, must be attained. –Marie Curie
59. Too many of us are not living our dreams because we are living our fears. –Les Brown
60. Challenges are what make life interesting and overcoming them is what makes life meaningful. –Joshua J. Marine
61. If you want to lift yourself up, lift up someone else. –Booker T. Washington
62. I have been impressed with the urgency of doing. Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Being willing is not enough; we must do. –Leonardo da Vinci
63. Limitations live only in our minds.  But if we use our imaginations, our possibilities become limitless. –Jamie Paolinetti
64. You take your life in your own hands, and what happens? A terrible thing, no one to blame. –Erica Jong
65. What’s money? A man is a success if he gets up in the morning and goes to bed at night and in between does what he wants to do. –Bob Dylan
66. I didn’t fail the test. I just found 100 ways to do it wrong. –Benjamin Franklin
67. In order to succeed, your desire for success should be greater than your fear of failure. –Bill Cosby
68. A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new. – Albert Einstein
69. The person who says it cannot be done should not interrupt the person who is doing it. –Chinese Proverb
70. There are no traffic jams along the extra mile. –Roger Staubach
71. It is never too late to be what you might have been. –George Eliot
72. You become what you believe. –Oprah Winfrey
73. I would rather die of passion than of boredom. –Vincent van Gogh
74. A truly rich man is one whose children run into his arms when his hands are empty. –Unknown
75. It is not what you do for your children, but what you have taught them to do for themselves, that will make them successful human beings.  –Ann Landers
76. If you want your children to turn out well, spend twice as much time with them, and half as much money. –Abigail Van Buren
77. Build your own dreams, or someone else will hire you to build theirs. –Farrah Gray
78. The battles that count aren’t the ones for gold medals. The struggles within yourself–the invisible battles inside all of us–that’s where it’s at. –Jesse Owens
79. Education costs money.  But then so does ignorance. –Sir Claus Moser
80. I have learned over the years that when one’s mind is made up, this diminishes fear. –Rosa Parks
81. It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop. –Confucius
82. If you look at what you have in life, you’ll always have more. If you look at what you don’t have in life, you’ll never have enough. –Oprah Winfrey
83. Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck. –Dalai Lama
84. You can’t use up creativity.  The more you use, the more you have. –Maya Angelou
85. Dream big and dare to fail. –Norman Vaughan
86. Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter. –Martin Luther King Jr.
87. Do what you can, where you are, with what you have. –Teddy Roosevelt
88. If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always gotten. –Tony Robbins
89. Dreaming, after all, is a form of planning. –Gloria Steinem
90. It’s your place in the world; it’s your life. Go on and do all you can with it, and make it the life you want to live. –Mae Jemison
91. You may be disappointed if you fail, but you are doomed if you don’t try. –Beverly Sills
92. Remember no one can make you feel inferior without your consent. –Eleanor Roosevelt
93. Life is what we make it, always has been, always will be. –Grandma Moses
94. The question isn’t who is going to let me; it’s who is going to stop me. –Ayn Rand
95. When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it. –Henry Ford
96. It’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years. –Abraham Lincoln
97. Change your thoughts and you change your world. –Norman Vincent Peale
98. Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing. –Benjamin Franklin
99. Nothing is impossible, the word itself says, “I’m possible!” –Audrey Hepburn
100. The only way to do great work is to love what you do. –Steve Jobs
101. If you can dream it, you can achieve it. –Zig Ziglar

Why Leaders Should Share Ownership of Their Companies

Many of my columns have focused on how to build a great company and how to inspire people. My leadership team and I would like to focus this week’s column on the why. Why do we build great companies? We often say that it is for the people, for our communities and for the greater good. I believe that leaders have good intentions and set out to do great things.

Yet I wonder: If a company accepts millions of dollars in venture capital (debt), answers to an external board, and creates something that is designed to be sold to a bigger fish, does this really help the people who work there more so than a small business?

In the short term, perhaps the answer is yes. The company creates jobs for a time that can support and grow the local economy. But today, I am wondering about the ripple effect to the people and the community when a company is built primarily with the goal of being eventually sold.

It is my opinion that it is desirable and even imperative that great leaders not only manage their companies for the long term, but are also willing to share the ownership of their companies with their employees and staff. How does this help their businesses?

Consider the data: The National Center for Employee Ownership (www.NCEO.org) reports that among U.S. companies that offer stock, about 36 percent of the workforce owns stock in their employers’ company, representing some 28 million employee owners nationwide. This number represents an astonishing growth rate over the past 40 years–in the 1970s, estimates indicated a mere 1 million employees owned stock.

NCEO’s considerable research extends to companies’ willingness to not only share the company’s profits and earnings, but to create a “culture of ownership” for its members as well. Both factors contribute positively and significantly to business success:

“Research consistently shows that the companies that combine significant annual contributions to an ownership plan with regular, structured opportunities for employees to participate in decisions affecting their jobs, and who routinely share information about company financial performance with employees, perform far better than those who do not.”


 We are not perfect at Fishbowl (in fact, you can read about all of our imperfections, including my own, in the upcoming book The 7 Non-Negotiables of Winning, due out from Wiley in August). 

We are human beings, and inherent in the process of being human, we live and learn through mistakes. But here are two of the important things I believe our company does right:

1.    Employee Ownership. We share our company with the employees who express a desire for ownership and demonstrate the same values and ideals as the company. We have encapsulated these in the 7 Non-Negotiables. Our employees must walk the talk of respect, belief, trust, loyalty, commitment, courage and gratitude for at least 12 months to qualify to be an owner.

2.    Committing to never sell our company. I have stated that we would never sell Fishbowl. How can employees be sure we will always remain true to this promise? Every employee received a special edition copy of the book The 7 Non-Negotiables of Winning, which declares this commitment on the very first page.

This week I completed our second round of stock distribution with my business partner, Fishbowl President Mary Michelle Scott. Of our 100 employees, there are now 71 owners of Fishbowl.

We believe these 71 individuals are a much better investment in the future and legacy of our company than a business model that is designed to flip, or one that creates ownership opportunity for only a select few at the top. Each person who received stock also accepted an ownership stewardship in addition to their daily responsibilities. We created the stewardship from the dreams each of them shared with us in their presentation to us about what is most important to them as we protect and grow our company.

Mary and I also celebrated with our leaders the 103^rd-year anniversary of Theodore Roosevelt’s Daring Greatly quote that speaks to the heart of getting in to the arena.

Teddy’s quote means as much today as it did a century ago.  We only made one small change and we don’t think he would mind: Companies do better, we believe, when the TEAM (Together Everyone Achieves More) is the arena.

For many years in my life, I stood alone in business. Sometimes I soared and sometimes I crashed and burned. Today, winning and losing are just a part of the game at work.  These days I don’t get caught up in the wins and losses. I’m more interested in a smooth and steady ride with the team that gets in the arena with me every day. I am also thankful for the “home” team – my family who stands by my side through thick and thin.

In light of this occasion, I encourage every company in the U.S. and worldwide to have the courage to share ownership with their employees. To the 71 owners of Fishbowl, we open our arms this week and say with gratitude and respect, “Welcome to the Arena.”

To the TEAM

 THE MAN IN THE ARENA
23 April, 1910

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.

 (Commemorating the 103^rd Anniversary of Theodore Roosevelt’s ‘Man in the Arena’ Speech)

Thank you for considering the employee ownership model.  As always, we welcome your ideas and thoughts.

Additional reporting for this article provided by Fishbowl President Mary Michelle Scott.
Author: David K. Williams | Google+

35 Quotes To Transform Yourself Into A Leader

Leadership is a tricky thing. Is it innate or learned? Who needs it the most? What traits define a strong leader?

 

The fact of the matter is that everyone needs leadership. Entrepreneurs and business leaders of all industries must have sound leadership abilities. Even if you have a strong team driving your business forward, it won’t get you anywhere without the proper leadership, guidance, and principles. Even if you don’t currently hold a managerial title, an affinity for leadership is likely to take you far in your career.

Maybe some leaders are born, but the rest of the population must learn and grow throughout their careers. The transformation into an effective leader doesn’t happen overnight -- it takes various experiences and often the guidance of others.

Not everyone has someone directly influencing their transformation into a better leader. This is why I find quotes from some of the most influential leaders to be beneficial to the process.
In need of a bit of inspiration? Use the following quotes to transform yourself as a leader:

1. "To lead people, walk beside them ... As for the best leaders, the people do not notice their existence. The next best, the people honor and praise. The next, the people fear; and the next, the people hate ... When the best leader's work is done the people say, 'We did it ourselves!”— Lao-tsu

2. "Leaders must be close enough to relate to others, but far enough ahead to motivate them.” — John Maxwell

3. "Dictators ride to and fro upon tigers which they dare not dismount. And the tigers are getting hungry.”— Winston Churchill

4. "Control is not leadership; management is not leadership; leadership is leadership. If you seek to lead, invest at least 50% of your time in leading yourself—your own purpose, ethics, principles, motivation, conduct. Invest at least 20% leading those with authority over you and 15% leading your peers." — Dee Hock, Founder and CEO Emeritus, Visa

5. "All of the great leaders have had one characteristic in common: it was the willingness to confront unequivocally the major anxiety of their people in their time. This, and not much else, is the essence of leadership.”— John Kenneth Galbraith

6. "If a rhinoceros were to enter this restaurant now, there is no denying he would have great power here. But I should be the first to rise and assure him that he had no authority whatever." — G.K. Chesterton to Alexander Woollcott

7. "The task of the leader is to get his people from where they are to where they have not been.” — Henry Kissinger

8. "The task of leadership is not to put greatness into humanity, but to elicit it, for the greatness is already there." — John Buchan

9. "Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it.” — Dwight D. Eisenhower

10. "The best is he who calls men to the best. And those who heed the call are also blessed. But worthless who call not, heed not, but rest." — Hesiod, 8th Century BC Greek poet

11. "Never give an order that can't be obeyed." — General Douglas MacArthur

12. "Leadership must be based on goodwill. Goodwill does not mean posturing and, least of all, pandering to the mob. It means obvious and wholehearted commitment to helping followers. We are tired of leaders we fear, tired of leaders we love, and of tired of leaders who let us take liberties with them. What we need for leaders are men of the heart who are so helpful that they, in effect, do away with the need of their jobs. But leaders like that are never out of a job, never out of followers. Strange as it sounds, great leaders gain authority by giving it away.” — Admiral James B. Stockdale

13. "Great leaders are almost always great simplifiers, who can cut through argument, debate, and doubt to offer a solution everybody can understand." — General Colin Powell

14. "Men make history and not the other way around. In periods where there is no leadership, society stands still. Progress occurs when courageous, skillful leaders seize the opportunity to change things for the better.” — Harry Truman

15. "Leadership is intentional influence." — Michael McKinney

16. "The leader is one who mobilizes others toward a goal shared by leaders and followers. ... Leaders, followers and goals make up the three equally necessary supports for leadership." — Gary Wills, Certain Trumpets: The Call of Leaders

17. "All Leadership is influence.” — John C. Maxwell, Injoy, Inc.

18. "You cannot be a leader, and ask other people to follow you, unless you know how to follow, too." — Sam Rayburn

19. "Your position never gives you the right to command. It only imposes on you the duty of so living your life that others may receive your orders without being humiliated." — Dag Hammarskjöld

20. "The final test of a leader is that he leaves behind him in other men, the conviction and the will to carry on." — Walter Lippmann

21. "The function of a leader within any institution: to provide that regulation through his or her non-anxious, self-defined presence." — Edwin H. Friedman, A Failure of Nerve

22. "People ask the difference between a leader and a boss. The leader leads, and the boss drives." — Theodore Roosevelt

23. "Humans will probably always need the help of especially gifted moral leaders in order to extend the bonds of caring and trust beyond the easy range of the family and the face-to-face community. Such bonds have become essential to the future of humanity." — Paul R. Lawrence, Driven To Lead

24. "You don't lead by pointing and telling people some place to go. You lead by going to that place and making a case." — Ken Kesey

25. "The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The last is to say thank you. In between, the leader is a servant." — Max DePree

26. "Management is efficiency in climbing the ladder of success; leadership determines whether the ladder is leaning against the right wall." — Stephen R. Covey

27. "As a leader, you're probably not doing a good job unless your employees can do a good impression of you when you're not around." — Patrick Lencioni

28. "Leadership is not magnetic personality, that can just as well be a glib tongue. It is not ‘making friends and influencing people,’ that is flattery. Leadership is lifting a person's vision to higher sights, the raising of a person's performance to a higher standard, the building of a personality beyond its normal limitations." — Peter F. Drucker

29. "Leadership is the ability to establish standards and manage a creative climate where people are self-motivated toward the mastery of long term constructive goals, in a participatory environment of mutual respect, compatible with personal values." — Mike Vance

30. “Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity.” — General George Patton

31. "A leader is a dealer in hope." — Napoleon Bonaparte

32. "Lead and inspire people. Don't try to manage and manipulate people. Inventories can be managed but people must be lead." — Ross Perot

33. "When the conduct of men is designed to be influenced, persuasion, kind, unassuming persuasion, should ever be adopted. It is an old and a true maxim, that a "drop of honey catches more flies than a gallon of gall." — Abraham Lincoln

34."My own definition of leadership is this: The capacity and the will to rally men and women to a common purpose and the character which inspires confidence." — General Montgomery

35. "High sentiments always win in the end, The leaders who offer blood, toil, tears and sweat always get more out of their followers than those who offer safety and a good time. When it comes to the pinch, human beings are heroic." — George Orwell



About Ilya Pozin:
Founder of Ciplex. Columnist for Inc, Forbes & LinkedIn. Gadget lover, investor, mentor, husband, father, and '30 Under 30' entrepreneur. Follow Ilya below to stay up-to-date with his articles and updates!

35 Quotes To Transform Yourself Into A Leader

Leadership is a tricky thing. Is it innate or learned? Who needs it the most? What traits define a strong leader?

 

The fact of the matter is that everyone needs leadership. Entrepreneurs and business leaders of all industries must have sound leadership abilities. Even if you have a strong team driving your business forward, it won’t get you anywhere without the proper leadership, guidance, and principles. Even if you don’t currently hold a managerial title, an affinity for leadership is likely to take you far in your career.

Maybe some leaders are born, but the rest of the population must learn and grow throughout their careers. The transformation into an effective leader doesn’t happen overnight -- it takes various experiences and often the guidance of others.

Not everyone has someone directly influencing their transformation into a better leader. This is why I find quotes from some of the most influential leaders to be beneficial to the process.
In need of a bit of inspiration? Use the following quotes to transform yourself as a leader:

1. "To lead people, walk beside them ... As for the best leaders, the people do not notice their existence. The next best, the people honor and praise. The next, the people fear; and the next, the people hate ... When the best leader's work is done the people say, 'We did it ourselves!”— Lao-tsu

2. "Leaders must be close enough to relate to others, but far enough ahead to motivate them.” — John Maxwell

3. "Dictators ride to and fro upon tigers which they dare not dismount. And the tigers are getting hungry.”— Winston Churchill

4. "Control is not leadership; management is not leadership; leadership is leadership. If you seek to lead, invest at least 50% of your time in leading yourself—your own purpose, ethics, principles, motivation, conduct. Invest at least 20% leading those with authority over you and 15% leading your peers." — Dee Hock, Founder and CEO Emeritus, Visa

5. "All of the great leaders have had one characteristic in common: it was the willingness to confront unequivocally the major anxiety of their people in their time. This, and not much else, is the essence of leadership.”— John Kenneth Galbraith

6. "If a rhinoceros were to enter this restaurant now, there is no denying he would have great power here. But I should be the first to rise and assure him that he had no authority whatever." — G.K. Chesterton to Alexander Woollcott

7. "The task of the leader is to get his people from where they are to where they have not been.” — Henry Kissinger

8. "The task of leadership is not to put greatness into humanity, but to elicit it, for the greatness is already there." — John Buchan

9. "Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it.” — Dwight D. Eisenhower

10. "The best is he who calls men to the best. And those who heed the call are also blessed. But worthless who call not, heed not, but rest." — Hesiod, 8th Century BC Greek poet

11. "Never give an order that can't be obeyed." — General Douglas MacArthur

12. "Leadership must be based on goodwill. Goodwill does not mean posturing and, least of all, pandering to the mob. It means obvious and wholehearted commitment to helping followers. We are tired of leaders we fear, tired of leaders we love, and of tired of leaders who let us take liberties with them. What we need for leaders are men of the heart who are so helpful that they, in effect, do away with the need of their jobs. But leaders like that are never out of a job, never out of followers. Strange as it sounds, great leaders gain authority by giving it away.” — Admiral James B. Stockdale

13. "Great leaders are almost always great simplifiers, who can cut through argument, debate, and doubt to offer a solution everybody can understand." — General Colin Powell

14. "Men make history and not the other way around. In periods where there is no leadership, society stands still. Progress occurs when courageous, skillful leaders seize the opportunity to change things for the better.” — Harry Truman

15. "Leadership is intentional influence." — Michael McKinney

16. "The leader is one who mobilizes others toward a goal shared by leaders and followers. ... Leaders, followers and goals make up the three equally necessary supports for leadership." — Gary Wills, Certain Trumpets: The Call of Leaders

17. "All Leadership is influence.” — John C. Maxwell, Injoy, Inc.

18. "You cannot be a leader, and ask other people to follow you, unless you know how to follow, too." — Sam Rayburn

19. "Your position never gives you the right to command. It only imposes on you the duty of so living your life that others may receive your orders without being humiliated." — Dag Hammarskjöld

20. "The final test of a leader is that he leaves behind him in other men, the conviction and the will to carry on." — Walter Lippmann

21. "The function of a leader within any institution: to provide that regulation through his or her non-anxious, self-defined presence." — Edwin H. Friedman, A Failure of Nerve

22. "People ask the difference between a leader and a boss. The leader leads, and the boss drives." — Theodore Roosevelt

23. "Humans will probably always need the help of especially gifted moral leaders in order to extend the bonds of caring and trust beyond the easy range of the family and the face-to-face community. Such bonds have become essential to the future of humanity." — Paul R. Lawrence, Driven To Lead

24. "You don't lead by pointing and telling people some place to go. You lead by going to that place and making a case." — Ken Kesey

25. "The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The last is to say thank you. In between, the leader is a servant." — Max DePree

26. "Management is efficiency in climbing the ladder of success; leadership determines whether the ladder is leaning against the right wall." — Stephen R. Covey

27. "As a leader, you're probably not doing a good job unless your employees can do a good impression of you when you're not around." — Patrick Lencioni

28. "Leadership is not magnetic personality, that can just as well be a glib tongue. It is not ‘making friends and influencing people,’ that is flattery. Leadership is lifting a person's vision to higher sights, the raising of a person's performance to a higher standard, the building of a personality beyond its normal limitations." — Peter F. Drucker

29. "Leadership is the ability to establish standards and manage a creative climate where people are self-motivated toward the mastery of long term constructive goals, in a participatory environment of mutual respect, compatible with personal values." — Mike Vance

30. “Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity.” — General George Patton

31. "A leader is a dealer in hope." — Napoleon Bonaparte

32. "Lead and inspire people. Don't try to manage and manipulate people. Inventories can be managed but people must be lead." — Ross Perot

33. "When the conduct of men is designed to be influenced, persuasion, kind, unassuming persuasion, should ever be adopted. It is an old and a true maxim, that a "drop of honey catches more flies than a gallon of gall." — Abraham Lincoln

34."My own definition of leadership is this: The capacity and the will to rally men and women to a common purpose and the character which inspires confidence." — General Montgomery

35. "High sentiments always win in the end, The leaders who offer blood, toil, tears and sweat always get more out of their followers than those who offer safety and a good time. When it comes to the pinch, human beings are heroic." — George Orwell



About Ilya Pozin:
Founder of Ciplex. Columnist for Inc, Forbes & LinkedIn. Gadget lover, investor, mentor, husband, father, and '30 Under 30' entrepreneur. Follow Ilya below to stay up-to-date with his articles and updates!