John C. Maxwell is a No. 1 New York Times bestselling author, coach and speaker who has sold more than 24 million books in 50 languages. Maxwell has been called the country’s He has trained more than 5 million leaders in 180 countries. Each year Maxwell speaks to Fortune 500 companies, presidents of nations and many of the world’s top business leaders.
Recently, I have been going on some hikes, and I have realized that hiking does not only offer great exercise and some great scenery. There are a few things about hiking that relates to team work and how to be a better leader.
We all have the ability to do great things. Every human being on this planet, has the chance to change the world. We hold the power to create the future of the world. We are builders. We are explorers. We are extraordinary. I hope you think differently about yourself after you realize that every human is born with the extraordinary gene.
Elon Musk is a South African-born American entrepreneur and businessman who founded X.com in 1999 (which later became PayPal and was bought by eBay for $1.5B in 2002), SpaceX in 2002 and Tesla Motors in 2003. Elon has paved the way for the future of transportation and air travel. He is a true inspiration for innovators.
Innovation. It is a word that companies strive for. They want to have the most innovative product on the market. But what makes something innovative? If you take an old idea and improve on it, is it considered innovative, or is it just an improvement?
I just went on a fishing trip to Alaska with Alaskan Adventures and it was an amazing trip. The crew couldn’t have been better and the place was absolutely beautiful. While I was sitting in a boat, I thought about how fishing offers a great analogy for how to live life. Just because I fish, it doesn’t mean that I am an expert on life, however, fishing does shed light on a lot of things.
You probably think you know what you want to do, but trust me, you really don’t. Even as I write this, I still don’t think I know what I want to do. Your future self does not have his shit together like you thought he would.
Malcolm X was a minister, human rights activist and Black nationalist leader who served as a spokesman for the Nation of Islam during the 1950s to 1960s. He grew the Nation of Islam from 400 members at the time he was released from prison in 1952 to 40,000 members by 1960. He was a naturally gifted orator. He believed that blacks should fight racism “by any means necessary”. In 1965, Malcolm X was assassinated at the Audubon Ballroom in Manhattan, where he had been preparing to deliver a speech.
As a leader, you need to check your biases. We have to try hard to avoid them because if we don’t, then it keeps us from seeing the full picture. Checking our biases could keep us from making the wrong decision even though in our minds, the idea sounds extremely logical.
Katherine Johnson had a love for numbers. From a young age, she had to figure out how to get the right education during times when education opportunities were limited for African Americans. She performed the calculations that sent astronauts into orbit in the early 1960s and to the moon in 1969 for NASA. She was honored with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2015. Her story was also told in the movie Hidden Figures where Johnson is played by actress Taraji P. Henson.