The Leader Who Had No Title: A Modern Fable on Real Success in Business and in

by Robin Sharma

Natural Power # 1. Every one of us alive in this moment has the power to go to work each day and express the Absolute Best within us.

Natural Power # 2. Every one of us alive today has the power to inspire, influence, and elevate each person we meet by the gift of a great example.

Natural Power # 3. Every one of us alive with life can passionately drive positive change in the face of negative conditions.

Natural Power # 4. Every one of us alive to the truth about leadership can treat all stakeholders with respect, appreciation, and kindness—and in so doing raise the organization’s culture to best of breed.

“I’d defined who I was by the rank that I had. I’d allowed my formal authority to become the measuring stick for my moral authority. And so when I returned to civilian life and lost my military title, it felt like I’d lost everything. Without a rank to identify myself by, I had no identity.

there’s a large difference between being alive and knowing how to live.

stop pretending to be a victim and to start presenting yourself as a leader.

victimhood or leadership.

The I in IMAGE will remind you about the importance of Innovation.

Customers and all the people around you want fresh value and novel forms of excellence—not a repackaging of old goods.

‘What can I improve today?’

making everything they touch better than they found it.

“Develop an innovation mind-set. So making your present better than your past is just the way you think. Also remember that if you’re not chasing excellence and passionate innovation, mediocrity is already on its way to get you.

the best way for you to get to your next level of excellence in your work isn’t by some revolutionary idea or some radical initiative. Great careers and great businesses are built by evolution. By slow and steady improvements that actually don’t look like much when you view them in isolation. But over time, these small, incremental, evolutionary improvements amount to massive gains.

Nothing fails like success, because the higher you rise, the easier it becomes to stop pushing the envelope, challenging the status quo, and keeping your focus.

“Mastery,” Anna offered. “Committing yourself to mastery at what you do, mastery at your craft—whether

“A FMOB is someone who is devoted to being the First, the Most, the Only, and the Best.

Expect more from yourself than anyone around you could ever expect from you.

‘What would the person who is the best in the world at what I do be doing in this very moment?’

being extraordinary in your work is one of the true secrets of happiness.”

Few things feel as good as the pride you feel on a job masterfully done.

you will never behave in a way that’s inconsistent with your self-image. Your thought choices determine your performance results.

mastery takes time, effort, and patience. And too many among us just don’t make that commitment.

look at any pro athlete. They’ve spent the best hours of the best years of their lives making the sacrifices demanded by BIW. They got up early. They trained relentlessly. They practiced ferociously. While others watched television, they watched game tapes. While others ate pizza, they ate salads. While others were in warm beds, they were out running on cold days. But they were willing to do it. For their chance at greatness.

all these ideas need to be acted on instantly if you are interested in seeing excellent results. Ideas are ultimately worthless unless you activate them with focused and consistent action. The best leaders never leave the site of a good idea without doing something—no matter how small—to breathe some life into it. Lots of people have good ideas. But the masters become masters because they had the courage and conviction to act on ideas.

a mediocre idea excellently acted on is more valuable than a genius idea poorly performed.

the A in IMAGE.” “Which stands for?” “Authenticity.

your ability to have an impact and make a contribution comes more from who you are as a person than from the authority you receive by your placement on some org chart.

those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind.’

It’s about being real, consistent, and congruent so who you are on the inside is reflected by the way you perform on the outside.

To be authentic isn’t just about being true to your values. Being authentic means being true to your talents.

“Leaders Without a Title check their egos at the front door every morning before they walk into work.

The G simply stands for the need to have Guts in business.

you will have to be unrealistically persistent and wildly courageous. You’ll need to dare more than the reasonable person and risk far more than the ordinary man.

Setbacks will happen. Things will go wrong. Competitors will try to knock you down. And even the people around you will try to discourage you. Those who are clinging to the old way of doing things and frightened of change will join hands and become your loudest critics.

Criticism is the defense reaction that scared people use to protect themselves against change.”

What does the E in IMAGE stand for, Anna?”

“Ethics,”

Too many cut corners. They go for the cash grab. They think only about themselves.

the way we do anything is the way we’ll do everything. And even one breach against our ethics will pollute everything we touch.”

“Nothing is more precious in work than staying consistent with your values and protecting your good name.

“Turbulent Times Build Great Leaders,”

hard conditions are nothing more than chances to become heroic.

Just when you think you have everything figured out, a mountain of change sideswipes you and blows you off your feet.

the bigger the ego, the weaker the performance.”

no matter what we do in business, we all need to be entertainers inspiring our customers to love doing business with us. Anyone in business is in show business, as far as I’m concerned, and when we go to work, we’re onstage.

If I don’t lean into the change that’s coming at me and instead try to protect myself by pulling back into my old way of operating, I’ll end up frozen on the mountain, so to speak. And suffocated under that avalanche of change

The fear you move through when you go to the edge of your limits actually causes your limits to expand.

Being bold and embracing opportunities that fill you with fear actually turns that fear into power and introduces you to your strengths.

“What you resist will persist, but what you befriend you begin to transcend,