Mat Howell > Mat's Quotes

“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, Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices

“1. What is our mission? 2. Who is our customer? 3. What does the customer value? 4. What are our results? 5. What is our plan?2”
― Peter F. Drucker, The Five Most Important Questions You Will Ever Ask About Your Organization: An Inspiring Tool for Organizations and the People Who Lead Them

“To sell well is to convince someone else to part with resources—not to deprive that person, but to leave him better off in the end.”
― Daniel H. Pink, To Sell Is Human: The Surprising Truth About Moving Others

“Greatness and nearsightedness are incompatible. Meaningful achievement depends on lifting one's sights and pushing toward the horizon.”
― Daniel H. Pink, Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us

“When the reward is the activity itself--deepening learning, delighting customers, doing one's best--there are no shortcuts.”
― Daniel H. Pink, Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us

“Anytime you're tempted to upsell someone else, stop what you're doing and upserve instead.”
― Daniel H. Pink, To Sell is Human: The Surprising Truth About Moving Others

“The purpose of a pitch isn’t necessarily to move others immediately to adopt your idea. The purpose is to offer something so compelling that it begins a conversation, brings the other person in as a participant, and eventually arrives at an outcome that appeals to both of you.”
― Daniel H. Pink, To Sell Is Human: The Surprising Truth About Moving Others

“We live in a culture where everything tastes good but nothing satisfies.”
― Daniel Pinchbeck

“Stop looking for an epiphany, and start looking for weak points. Stop looking for angels, and start looking for angles.”
― Ryan Holiday, The Obstacle Is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph

“Man does not simply exist but always decides what his existence will be, what he will become the next moment. By the same token, every human being has the freedom to change at any instant. —VIKTOR FRANKL”
― Ryan Holiday, The Obstacle Is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph

“Discipline in perception lets you clearly see the advantage and the proper course of action in every situation—without the pestilence of panic or fear.”
― Ryan Holiday, The Obstacle Is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph

“But thinking about and being aware of our mortality creates real perspective and urgency. It doesn’t need to be depressing. Because it’s invigorating.”
― Ryan Holiday, The Obstacle Is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph

“While others obsess with observing the rules, we’re subtly undermining them and subverting them to our advantage.”
― Ryan Holiday, The Obstacle Is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph

“An entrepreneur is someone with faith in their ability to make something where there was nothing before. To them, the idea that no one has ever done this or that is a good thing.”
― Ryan Holiday, The Obstacle Is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph

“How we interpret the events in our lives, our perspective, is the framework for our forthcoming response—whether there will even be one or whether we’ll just lie there and take it. Where the head goes, the body follows. Perception precedes action. Right action follows the right perspective.”
― Ryan Holiday, The Obstacle Is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph

“Where one person sees a crisis, another can see opportunity. Where one is blinded by success, another sees reality with ruthless objectivity. Where one loses control of emotions, another can remain calm. Desperation, despair, fear, powerlessness—these reactions are functions of our perceptions. You must realize: Nothing makes us feel this way; we choose to give in to such feelings.”
― Ryan Holiday, The Obstacle Is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph

“Our perceptions determine, to an incredibly large degree, what we are and are not capable of. In many ways, they determine reality itself. When we believe in the obstacle more than in the goal, which will inevitably triumph?”
― Ryan Holiday, The Obstacle Is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph

“Failure really can be an asset if what you’re trying to do is improve, learn, or do something new.”
― Ryan Holiday, The Obstacle Is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph

“With a business, we take most failures less personally and understand they’re part of the process.”
― Ryan Holiday, The Obstacle Is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph

“Welcome to the power of perception. Applicable in each and every situation, impossible to obstruct. It can only be relinquished.”
― Ryan Holiday, The Obstacle Is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph

“First, when we are busy, we naturally believe that we are achieving. But busyness does not equal productivity. Activity is not necessarily accomplishment. Second, prioritizing requires leaders to continually think ahead, to know what's important, to know what's next, to see how everything relates to the overall vision. That's hard work. Third, prioritizing causes us to do things that are at the least uncomfortable and sometimes downright painful.”
― John C. Maxwell, The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership: Follow Them and People Will Follow You

“anyone can steer the ship, but it takes a leader to chart the course. Leaders who are good navigators are capable of taking their people just about anywhere.”
― John C. Maxwell, The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership: Follow Them and People Will Follow You

“The higher you want to climb, the more you need leadership. The greater the impact you want to make, the greater your influence needs to be.”
― John C. Maxwell, The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership: Follow Them and People Will Follow You

“A reliable way to make people believe in falsehoods is frequent repetition, because familiarity is not easily distinguished from truth. Authoritarian institutions and marketers have always known this fact.”
― Daniel Kahneman, Thinking, Fast and Slow

“Regrets are illuminations come too late.”
― Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces

“Where you stumble and fall, there you will find gold.”
― Joseph Campbell

“We're not on our journey to save the world but to save ourselves. But in doing that you save the world. The influence of a vital person vitalizes.”
― Joseph Campbell

“You must give up the life you planned in order to have the life that is waiting for you.”
― Joseph Campbell

“If the path before you is clear, you're probably on someone else's.”
― Joseph Campbell

“The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek.”
― Joseph Campbell