In his book, Leadership Gold, John C. Maxwell x-rayed the leadership secrets he learnt in his over 40 years of teaching leadership. Here are some of his nuggets:

1. “One is too small a number to achieve greatness. No accomplishment of real value has ever been achieved by a human being working alone.”

2. “Leadership develops daily, not in a day.”

3. “Being who you really are is the first step to becoming better than you are.”

4. “Find something you like to do so much that you would gladly do it for nothing; then learn to do it so well that people will be happy to pay you for it.”

5. “People’s purpose in life is always connected to their giftedness.”

6. “I believe success is: Knowing your purpose in life, growing to your maximum potential, and sowing seeds that benefit others.”

7.  “To gain credibility, you must consistently demonstrate three things: Initiative: You have to get up to go up. Sacrifice: You have to give up to go up. Maturity: You have to grow up to go up. If you show the way, people will want to follow you. The higher you go, the greater the number of people who will be willing to travel with you.”

8. “Progress does not occur without change.”

9. “Cats do what cats do, Ducks do what Ducks do, and Eagles do what Eagles do. If you take a Duck and ask it to do an Eagles’ job, shame on you. As a leader, your job is to help your Ducks to become better Ducks and your Eagles better Eagles – to put individuals in the right places and help them reach their potential.”

10. “You will never change your life until you change something you do daily.” 

11. While one person hesitates because he feels inferior, the other is busy making mistakes, learning from them, and becoming superior.”

12. The secret to success can be found in people’s daily agendas. If they do something intentional to grow every day, they move closer to reaching their potential. If they don’t, their potential slowly slips away over the course of their lifetime.”

13. “Thank God for the tough times. They are the reasons you are there – to be the leader. If everything was going well, the people wouldn’t need you!”

14. “The only thing we can control is what we do in the present. The more we replay yesterday, the further we get from today’s opportunities. And the further we move away from opportunities, the tougher the road is to get back. Opportunities never look as good coming as they do going, and they wait for no one. We need to be highly attentive to spot them. And we must be focused on our present capabilities, not past regrets.”