Kindle Notes & Highlights
These three little words, “do it first,” house one of the most important concepts of leadership. On every winning team, in sports or business, it’s easy to recognize the team captain. He’s the one who comes in early and stays late. He’s the one who keeps on working and keeps on believing during the worst crises. He’s the one who does everything first, before he asks his team members to do it.
If you want your people to perform, you have to turn in a performance yourself that’s as good — or better — than the one you ask for.
nothing is cheaper than a good idea.
Push-Up Principle People will follow whatever example they have — good or bad.
The easiest way to set a good example is to work harder than anyone else on your team. Do that, and the battle to be a good leader is half won.
There are no office hours for leaders.”
Push-Up Principle Ultimately, you must win.
nobody wants to follow a loser.
Winning legitimizes all of your talk.
You can’t drive a car that you can’t afford and expect people to believe you’re successful.
Push-Up Principle People need to see “local success” to keep them motivated.
Push-Up Principle Your people need to see your winning spirit.
The top players just hate to lose,” she said. “A champion hates to lose even more than she loves to win.”
If it doesn’t matter whether you win or lose, why do they keep score?”
Management Mistake Many managers are in such a hurry to build their business that they do things the quick way instead of the right way. Leadership Solution Never sacrifice quality; there’s no substitute for building it right.
Quality is important in all areas of your business, for one big reason — quality lasts.
Push-Up Principle Never let your desire for rapid growth take the place of your common sense.
Your people are your greatest resource. Don’t treat the hiring process casually. It’s one of the most important things you do.
Push-Up Principle Work with those who deserve it, not just those who need it.
Push-Up Principle Give your efforts time to compound.
When your business is going good, don’t decrease your efforts. Keep moving ahead. In fact, intensify your efforts or you’ll lose the advantage of the compounding effect.
everything you’re doing today will pay off for you in the future — with interest.
Push-Up Principle Always be willing to start over.
One characteristic that I’ve observed in winners is that they are capable of starting over, if they have to.
It’s a fact of life that people learn very little when everything is going well.
Be willing to start over rather than compromise your principles.
In my opinion, the only way to build it big is to build it right.
Management Mistake Some managers get fired up for a few months, then slack off, depending on how their business is going. Leadership Solution A good leader keeps moving ahead constantly, regardless of whether conditions are good or bad.
that’s the time to become even more intense in your purpose.
If you ever allow activity to come to a standstill, it’s three times as hard to get it going again.
Push-Up Principle Always keep your activity up.
“Keep them coming and going.”
You must have 90 percent organized confusion to constantly grow.”
One of the most important things to develop as a leader is a sense of urgency. You’ve got to tell yourself that this is the time to do things in a big way — not tomorrow, not next week.
Why wait? Your competition isn’t waiting.
Push-Up Principle Think big. Don’t major in minor things.
Don’t worry about administration. I never saw anyone fail because of administration, but I’ve seen hundreds of people fail because of lack of activity.
I’ve been in the business fifteen years, and I still can’t read a pay statement.
But the people who spend hours each week, checking and rechecking their pay statements to make sure they haven’t lost a dime, are losing hundreds of dollars in sales that they could be making during those few hours. That’s majoring in minor things.
Push-Up Principle Your people don’t have time for a lot of meetings. Neither do you.
Meetings are the single greatest time wasters in the business day.
But having a meeting just for the sake of having a meeting is dumb.
I’m a firm believer in emergency meetings.
Push-Up Principle To keep your organization moving, you’ve got to keep track of your people.
You’ve got to spend time with your people, eyeball to eyeball.
If you’re having problems with activity, think about how much eyeball to eyeball contact you have with your people. It could be the problem.
Push-Up Principle You can’t do it all; teamwork is essential to an active business.
No one person’s strengths are enough to make an organization run well and succeed.
Encourage friendly competition among your people.
Nothing adds new life to a group of people like new blood. The excitement and enthusiasm of a new person, experiencing your organization for the first time, will remind all the “old-timers” of the way they felt when they first joined the company.
