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1 John Maxwell

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The Art of Leadership

by John Maxwell

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2 John Maxwell


Wow. Come on, now. We’re gonna have some fun, huh? We’re gonna learn a little bit. Yeah. I am so glad that you’re here and just welcome. And not only here in our local site here in Atlanta, but we are on 300 sites in 30 countries. And I just got to take a moment to tell you I’m really proud. I’m really proud about this leader cast that I’m glad you’re here at L2. But I’m really proud because three years ago I started a John Maxwell team of coaches and we have coaches, 300 of them, around the world hosting this site today. And I am so proud of my coaches because they’re learning how to lead, they’re learning how to teach, they’re – we’re learning how to help people in corporate life and I’m just really proud. So would you do me a favor because I’m ready to teach because we really want to learn a lot, but would you just – let’s give a hand to the John Maxwell team and the coaches that are in all of our simulcast sites today. Give them a hand. They’re just beautiful people. Come on. And I am so glad you’re here. I want to talk to you right now about the key that unlocks the door to success. And I’m excited because this is gonna really be life changing for some of you, okay? So I want you to look at your neighbor and I want you to tell them, “Take really good notes because this is gonna help you, okay?” This is gonna help you, okay? Okay. Now, hang on. Hang on. Hang on. Some of you have gone way beyond what I asked you to do. Some of you, you’re just now really enjoying the whole issue of – let me tell you some other keys that you need to have in your life because there’s a key that I want to talk about today and it’s from my latest book, Good Leaders Ask Great Questions. And the key to unlock the door to success, the key is called questions. And the better questions you ask, the better doors of opportunity you unlock. And I’m committed today, along with Tim and Linda our other speakers, I’m so excited I have this all-star team with me today. We are committed to your success and I am committed to talking to you about how to ask the right questions and questions you need to ask yourself, which will be at another session. And in this session, I want to talk to you about the value of questions because this is so huge in our lives that when we being to understand what questions will do for us and the value in return we get from them, we’re gonna become committed to asking questions. When you think of leadership, you think of direction. You think of vision. You think of somebody pointing the way and say, “This is the way I want you to go.” Isn’t that true? But what I want you to understand today is behind every vision that is cast, behind every pointed finger that gives a direction saying let’s go this way, behind all of that impetus of leadership are good questions. In fact, I’ve been asking questions, I learned the value of questions 35 years ago and I’ve been asking questions all my life and I came to a point where about two years ago I said, “I’ve got to write a book on questions. I got to help people really learn to ask the right questions because it’s the key to success.” And so my newest book that just came out two days ago, Good Leaders Ask Great Questions, and by the way, people ask me what is the favorite book you’ve always written? My favorite book is the book that’s just been released, okay? So out of all the 74 books that I’ve ever written, this is my favorite, okay? Good Leaders Ask Great Questions, and what’s gonna – this book is gonna help you really understand how to lead by asking questions. In fact, the latter part of the book is a reference book literally because I do Q and A all the time. There are hundreds of questions on leadership that I answer in the back of the book and it’ll be a reference book in leadership. But the first chapter is what I want to talk to you about today because I want to talk to you about the value of questions. I have a Rule of Five, and my Rule of Five is something that I do every day, and I don’t have time to teach the Rule of Five, but basically the Rule of Five says you need to know what your strength is, and when you know


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what your strength is, you need to do five things every day that will take that strength and make it greater. And in my Rule of Five, one of my things I do every day is every day I ask questions. I was in Las Vegas recently and I was getting ready to do a conference with Jim Collins and we hadn’t seen each other for some time. And so we sat down for lunch and I’ll never forget this lunch. We sat down and he looked at me and I looked at him and we both started asking each other a question at the same time, and he stopped and he said, “John, I know what this is gonna be all about.” He says, “We’re gonna want to ask each other questions.” I said, “That’s all I want to do. I’ve got a whole list of questions to ask you.” But he said – I got in the conversation just a moment before he did so I get asked the first question. And so I said, “Okay, you ask the first question.” And he asked it and I gave him a three word answer so I could get on with my questions because we understood one thing about the conversation, the person who gets to ask the most questions, and the person that gets to ask the best questions is the person that always wins. Because can I tell you something? I’ve never learned anything when I was giving direction, but I’ve learned everything when I ask questions. So let’s talk about it. The first value of questions, I’m so excited about this, the first value of questions is this: You only get answers to questions you ask. You only get answers to questions you ask. If you don’t ask the questions, guess what? You don’t get the answer. And I learned a long time ago it’s better look uninformed than to be uninformed. I’ve watched people all the time, they want to look good, so they’re afraid, “Well, this question is kind of – I mean, this may be a stupid question. This may be a foolish question. If I ask that question, what are the rest of them gonna think about? Are they gonna know that I don’t know something?” How many of you have ever thought of a question you really wanted to ask but you thought maybe it was a stupid question and so you didn’t ask it? Would you raise your hands? Today. Yeah, I’ve done that. In fact, let me tell you a story. I’m in middle 20’s and I’m doing pretty good. I started off as a pastor and I’m doing pretty good. And my church is really growing and so I was invited to an event called Idea Exchange. An Idea Exchange was where pastors of large churches in America were coming together and they were just doing questions and they were talking about their experiences and their successes. And I’m the youngest kid by far. Most of them are in their 40’s, I’m 25, 26 at that time, and I’m invited and I’m way over my head and I’m in tall timber and I feel intimidated. And I went there and there were a lot of questions I wanted to ask, and after this event was over, I got in my car and I was very discouraged because guess what? I didn’t ask one question. And I didn’t ask one question because I looked at all of them and I saw they were so much better and faster and more experience or more successful, and I looked at myself and I said, “I’m not in their league.” And so I just kept quiet. And then all of a sudden I was going home I realized something. I had cheated myself. And here’s what I want you to understand: When you want to look good and are afraid to ask a question, the only person that lost was you. You cheated yourself. And that day I learned something. I said, “I’m never going to go back to any event at any time at any place with anyone and not ask the questions that I really want to ask.” And I could list for the next 15 minutes times when I boldly ask a question, got the courage and got the answer and it totally changed my life. What am I saying to you? I’m saying to every one of you listening here and all of you on the simulcast, here’s what I’m saying: You are perhaps one question away from an answer that you need that’s gonna literally make a difference in your life. So would you look at your neighbor and say to them, “You’re one question away. Go ahead and tell them that.


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Oh, that was fun, wasn’t it? Now, wait, wait, wait. Hold on, hold on, hold on. That was so much fun, you and I both know that the person you’re sitting beside, they may be three or four questions away. So look at them and just say, “You are one or several questions away.” There’s a bunch of them out there, I’m not sure how many, but you’re – there’s a bunch of them. But there are some questions and you’re not too far away if you keep asking questions, okay? The second value of questions is questions are the most effective way to connect with people. That’s a fact. The most effective way to connect with anyone is to ask them questions. You see, the highest compliment that you could ever give a person is to ask for advice. When I ask you for advice, I’m saying I respect how you think. I’m respecting your experience. There’s something that you know that I don’t know. There’s something you can teach me that I need to learn. There’s not a higher compliment than to ask questions and what questions do is questions get us on common ground. I wrote a book several years ago called Everyone Communicates, Few Connect. And one of the principles in that book was that if you really want to connect with people you got to find common ground. And the greatest way to find common ground is to ask questions, and I purposely ask questions to find common ground. I purposely ask people for directions. Have you ever – when you ask somebody for directions, have you ever thought – I mean, I don’t care what they’re doing, you ask somebody for directions, they’ll stop anything and everything, will they not? I mean, they’ll sit there and they will give you their full attention. And they’ll say now do you have it? You can’t miss it, but let me give it to you again. And, I mean, I’ve had people get in cars, I’ve had people before GPS and all of the wonderful things we have now, I’ve had people get in cars and drive me to the place. I mean, three or more of them drive me to the place just to make sure that I got to the right place because I asked the question. And I can promise you when you ask questions to people what happens more than anything else is you get on common ground. Oh, I wish you could have been with us last night. I had Linda and Tim and some of my key inner circle with me and we sat around the table, and I love times for dinner because there are two great meals at a dinner. There’s the food that you eat, and then there’s the conversation that you engage in. And the food is sometimes okay. But if the right question is asked, the conversation is always off the chart. And so we’re sitting there and we’ve ordered our food and I said, “Okay, let me ask you a question. We’ll go around the table. What’s the best advice you ever received in your life?” And they began talking about the best advice they ever received. And I’m over there with my iPhone and I’m taking notes and I’m putting thoughts and quotes away and I’m listening them. We went around, I mean, they told beautiful stories, warm stories, life-changing stories. Best advice you ever received. And then I turned around and as soon as they got clear around there and they kind of, whoa, wasn’t that beautiful? I looked at them and I said, “Let me ask you another question. If you could only give one word of advice, only one, what advice would you give to people?” And we went around the table again. You see, I love dinner. It’s obvious I love dinner, look at me. I love dinner. But what I really love is dinner conversation. And I’m intentional every time I sit down and I’m gonna have an hour, an hour and a half, maybe like last night it was two and a half, three hours because I’m telling you it got good. And I learned so much and this morning I got up and I got my iPhone out and I went over the thoughts that I picked up last night and I read them again and I kind of put them into my mind and kind of let it marinate me a little bit this morning. I just


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want you to understand you’re just a question away. You’re just a question away of getting on common ground with people until you are both on the common ground and you are connecting with each other. You see, people connect when they understand, but they commit when they feel understood. And only people feel understood when you ask questions of them. Because when you ask questions of them you’re saying I want to know more about you. I want you to tell me more about yourself. I want to learn more from you. And there is a, what I call, a connecting channel, and the connecting channel has a process and I’ve used this process for years. I want to share it with you and all of our simulcast sites. I want you to have it because this is going to help you. And the connecting channel is very simple. You listen, you learn and then you lead. And you listen and you learn and then you lead. And you listen and you learn and then you lead. And the catalyst for listening is asking questions. And when you ask good questions and listen and learn and lead, and then ask more questions and listen and learn and lead, I will promise you in an hour and a half, two hours last night, there were people in that room that have known each other for 20 years and they learned something new about each other that they had never learned before because of the questions that were asked. I can promise you questions allow you to connect with people more than anything else. Can I tell you something? Advice will never let you connect with people like questions will. When you sit at someone’s feet and you say, “I want to learn from you,” it’s the highest compliment you can give them. The third value of questions is questions unlock doors that otherwise would remain closed. You see, when we think of the door of opportunity, we have a real mistake about doors of opportunity. We have this idea that if we get in close proximity to the door, it’s like going to the supermarket. It just opens up for us. Or we got this idea that if it doesn’t open up for us, at least we can go over to that door of opportunity and we can turn the knob and we can walk in. Can I tell you something? The greatest doors of opportunity that you’re ever gonna have do not open automatically and they don’t open if you turn the knob. The greatest doors of opportunity that you’re ever gonna have are locked. They’re locked. I can promise you this: There’s nothing easy about success. You can tell you’re on the road to success, it’s uphill all the way. The doors are locked and the only way that you and I can unlock that door of opportunity, that door that’s gonna lead us to something that’s gonna be greater, the only way that we could ever get there, the only way that we could ever get in that door is to use the key and the key is questions. And when we begin to ask questions, I promise you it takes us to places that if we didn’t have the key of questions we would never get into. I know this for a fact. I have hundreds of examples of that. Let me just give you one. I love to play golf. And about 15 years ago, my brother and I and our family members decided to go to Scotland to play all the old golf courses. And, of course, the course that I wanted to play more than any other was The Old Course at St. Andrews. The oldest golf course in the world, okay? Of which all great golfers, because it’s the oldest golf course in the world, all great golfers have teed off at The Old Course. And I wanted to play The Old Course and so we went through our travel agent and we went through all of our connections and it was a total closed that day. We couldn’t get on The Old Course, we couldn’t get it in our agenda, and so we were gonna play all the other great courses. We were gonna go play Muirfield and all the other ones, but we weren’t going to get in The Old Course. And they said we couldn’t play The Old Course, but they said we could play The New Course. Now, The New Course is right beside The Old Course. The Old Course is 400 years old. The New Course is 300 years old. So


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we said, well, okay, we’ll play The New Course. At least we can say we played at St. Andrews, even though it’s The New Course. We pulled in the parking lot and it’s still bugging me that we can’t get on The Old Course. And so when we pulled in, I said, “Let me out right here,” it was right kind of where you go in to talk to the Chief Steward who was the one who let you on the course. I said, “Let me off right here.” I said, “You guys park the car, you bring the clubs.” I said, “I’m gonna try. I’m just gonna try one more time to get on The Old Course.” And so I walked in and there was this gentleman here that was behind this desk and he had his ledger out there and all the tee times and he was very proper, he had a tie on. And I approached him and I introduced myself and I said, “Sir,” I said, “I have a question I’d like to ask you.” He said, “What’s that?” I said, “Have you ever knowingly helped a person realize a lifetime dream?” He said, “What do you mean?” I said, “Well, what I mean is have you ever knowingly looked at a person and said to yourself because of me – see the title of the book is Good Leaders Ask Great Questions. Not average questions, not mediocre questions, it’s how you ask the questions, it’s what you say. The question I said, “Have you ever knowingly looked at a person and say here’s what I know. I know I helped them fulfill a lifetime dream?” And he looked at me and he said, “Well,” he said, “I’m not so sure that I could say that.” I said, “Today is your lucky day.” This is your lucky day because it has been my life dream – I’ve played golf since I was a kid, I’ve always said if I could ever play one course in the world it would be The Old Course here, and it’s been a lifetime dream and I’ve been to Scotland and I’ve never been to The Old Course, and I know, I know, I know, when you look at your ledger my name’s not on it. I know I’m not on it because you’re full, I know that. But could I ask you another question? So what’s that? I said, “Do you think that someone might not show up today? And if they didn’t show up you could fit me and my group in?” Well, he said, “That’s very unlikely.” I said, “I know that. But if – if they didn’t show up, would you let me play in their place?” Well, he said, “Yeah.” He said, “Yes, yes, I would. I would.” But he said, “That’s not likely to happen.” I said, “I know that. So could I ask you another question? Let’s say they all show up. Let’s say someone doesn’t show up exactly on time. Let’s say they’re five minute, just five minutes late.” I said, “You know, when they’re five minutes late, would that not be enough just to slip in my foursome and let us get – and he said, “Well,” he said, “That happens sometimes.” I said, “Well, could you give me that five minute opportunity?” And he said, well, he said, “First of all, you’d have to get some caddies.” I said, “I already do. I’ve got them. We’ve already got them and they’re already standing out there. They’ve got our clubs, they’re waiting for us. We’ve already tipped them in advance, sir.” Now, I said, “I don’t want to rush you on that. I know you’re very busy, people are coming in and I don’t want to press you. So I’m gonna leave you now. I’m just going to go stand over here.” And I walked over about ten feet from him and people were checking in and every once in a while he’d look up and as soon as he’d look up, I’d – about an hour in he looked over at me and he said, “Look,” he said, “You got the caddies?” Oh, they’re ready. And then he looked outside and Jack Nicklaus, if you ever go to The Old Course there’s a place where they have it literally roped off. They’re so traditional over there, they have a place wrapped, just totally roped off, where Jack Nicklaus, it’s his practice tee. It’s before he gets to the first tee, where he gets it and he swings the club. It’s Jack Nicklaus’ place to practice. And my brother had climbed the ropes and was getting pictures taken. And


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he said, “Who is that guy?” I said, “I have no clue who he is, sir. I have no clue. He’s not in my group, sir. No, sir. He’s not in our group.” He went back to let somebody in and I went out and told my brother, “Please, please, I’m doing my best to get us on this course. You’re killing me right now. You’re killing me. Get out of Jack’s place. Get out of Jack’s place. Just get us on the course.” Now, I’m done with this story, you know what happened, don’t you? We played The Old Course that day. In fact, the caddy, when we teed off, he looked at me and said, “Boy, you weren’t on the list. How did you get on?” Great questions. Great questions. Can I tell you, I could tell you story after story. I could just tell you that I was in Australia in January, I got into the semi-finals of the U.S. Open without a ticket. And they kept telling me you can’t do that. You can’t even buy tickets there and I just said, “Well, but I want to go. I would like to see the U.S. Open. I mean, hello, I’m here. Hello. What’s wrong? I mean, if I was home I couldn’t see it except on TV, but since I’m here I like to kind of see it live. Oh, I sat at center court, it was a great match. You’re only a question away. You’re only – if it’s the right question. You’re only a question away from – what is your dream? What is your dream right now? I mean, what is it that you would love to have in your life? What is it? I mean, it’s a goal, it’s something – it’s a lifetime dream. Can I tell you something? You’re just a few questions away. You really are. So look at your neighbor and say to them, “Don’t give up. You can get on The Old Course, too. You’re just a question or two away.” Number Four the value of questions is that questions cultivate humility. There’s something about us when we begin to make our life a life of asking questions that tell everybody that we ask questions that they are a teacher, that they know what we don’t know. There’s something beautiful about, I think, a person – there’s something beautiful in my life, I know this, about me having a learning attitude and a teachable spirit. There’s somethingwonderful about the fact that when I go ask questions I’m telling the person you know something I don’t know. You’ve done something I haven’t done. You’ve experienced something that I’ve never experienced. I want to sit at your feet. I want to ask you questions. This is the only time I’m going to do this all day, but I’m going to read just two paragraphs out of my book because I can’t say it like I wrote it. I’m just laughing at myself for a moment. I had a person one time say, “John, I can’t believe what you say.” I said, “You’d be amazed if you knew what I didn’t say.” Here’s what I wrote about my humility journey: “At times as a young leader, I felt obligated.” Listen carefully to these words. “To talk farther than I had walked. I didn’t feel wise enough, strong enough, mature enough, competent enough, confident enough or qualified enough. And it was at that time that my deficiencies humbled me. That’s when I discovered that God was more than enough. To succeed, I needed to be humble before God and authentic with people. I had to be willing to admit,” listen carefully to these words, “I had to be willing to admit wrong and weakness so I could grow and change. This is what I discovered about myself. My journey from here to there was lonely. The reason: I was willing to be wrong and admit wrong so that I could grow and so that I could change. You see, growth is a result of bad habits dropped, wrong priorities changed and new ways of thinking embraced. It happens only when we question ourselves enough to ask serious questions from others. The people who do not grow are unwilling to ask themselves or others hard questions. They are unwilling to leave what they have known and practiced. They are not willing to be wrong so they can discover what is right. Therefore, they cling


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to right and their lives turn out wrong. How sad. Surrender of being right enables us to ask questions that others can answer and add value to us. Surrender of being right is the prerequisite to finding right.” I believe that with all my heart. And here’s what I know: I never want to get to the place where I’ve got it all figured out. I still want to keep learning, I still want to keep growing and I still want to be a student and I still want to be on a learning curve and I still want to value people and I still want to walk into their life and say, “Look, you have something that if I could just ask the right question you could impart to me that would help me, that would allow me to become a better person myself.”

The fifth value of asking questions is questions allow us to direct the conversation. Nothing directs conversation like questions. In fact, can I tell you this? The person who asks the questions directs the conversation. I learned that a long time ago. If you’re a person that likes to “be in control,” the way to get in control is ask questions. And the moment that you ask questions, people begin to come towards you and toward what you need to know and what you want to learn and what you want to grab hold of.

I, for 30 years, have had learning lunches, and learning lunches are very simple. Every month I have a lunch with somebody bigger, faster, smarter than me. Very simple. Call them on the phone and say, “Hey, can we have lunch? I’m buying. Let’s spend an hour and a half.” The learning lunch, I don’t eat lunch. All I do is sit with my legal pad and my pen and all I do is ask questions. And I can promise you that monthly learning lunch where I ask questions has given me more ideas and thoughts to success than anything I’ve ever done. I want to encourage you to have a learning lunch. In fact, let me tell you this: You need to constantly be around people that are bigger than you, better than you, faster than you. Let me put it this way: If you’re at the head of the class, you’re in the wrong class. You need to get out.

I can tell you, nothing is worse than being the smartest guy in the room. Nothing is worse than being the most successful person in the room. Nothing is worse than being like Mr. Answer Man. You don’t want to be Mr. Answer Man. Mr. Answer Man doesn’t grow. Mr. Answer Man just talks. You want to be Mr. Question Man and you want to sit and just absolutely pull from people and in these learning lunches that’s what I do. I’ve got my questions and I’m going to give them to you. I’ve got to give them to you quick, so you got to write fast. So look at your neighbor and say, “Write fast.”

Let me just say something, you’re doing so good. I mean, I’m watching you, you are just grabbing this. I can tell you’re grabbing this and I’m so happy. And it’s so fun to teach people that are smart and good and you’re just really doing good. But I just want to be just honest with you for a moment and confess to you, I’m concerned about the person on your left. You know what? You’re concerned, too, aren’t you? Didn’t I just validate – I mean, while I’ve been teaching, you’ve been just saying, “Oh, this is so good, what John’s giving me. Oh, yes, this is life changing.” And you’re just saying, “Oh, I’m not sure about this one here.” We’ve got seven questions to write down quick, so it’s got to be quick and I’m not sure the one on the left can do as good as you. So just look at the person beside you and say, “It’s okay, I’ll help you. I’ll help you. I’ll help you. It’s all right. Don’t worry about it. I’ll pull you through this.” Here are the seven questions. When I have lunch, here are the seven questions. 1) What is the greatest lesson you’ve ever learned? And I ask what is the greatest lesson you ever learned because out of that question I get wisdom. Because of all the lessons a person has learned in their life, if they can boil it down to the greatest one or the most important one or the highest one, I know I’m going to get pure wisdom from them.


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Question Number 2: What are you learning now? Right now, what are you learning? You see, I get wisdom from Question 1, I get passion from Question 2. When you ask that question I promise you, you ask a person, “What are you learning now?” And if they’re learning something, they come alive. They’ll say, “Oh, let me tell you, I just read this book. Or I just heard this person. Or let me give you a thought that I,” and they become passionate.

Question Number 3: How has failure shaped your life? Let’s talk about your messes. How has failure shaped your life? That’s where I’m gonna find out about their attitude because the attitude shows up not in success, it never has, it never will. Attitude only shows up in failure.

Question Number 4, and by the way, this one, I’m telling you, just – just oh, just between us, just us and 30,000, 40,000, 50,000 people. This question here is pure gold. This question here is worth the whole simulcast. Trust me. When I give you this, I know, I know, because I’ve asked this question hundreds of times. This question leads me to pure gold. It’s almost illegal to ask this question. So because the person on your left isn’t quite as quick as you and they haven’t already got the previous three, look at them and just say, “If you can only get one of seven, get this one, would you, please? Get this one. I’ll help you. Get this one, would you, please?” It is a killer. This is so good.

When I ask this question, I just back the truck up. I say, “Dump gold on me. Just dump gold on me.” And then I pull the truck out. This is so good. Here it is. Who do you know that I should know? That’s the greatest networking question you’ll ever ask. Who do you know that I should know? And when they tell me about that person that I should know, if I think I should know them, I say, “Will you help me meet them? Will you set it up? Will you give them a phone call? Will you text them? Could you open the door for me?” And I promise you I have had doors opened to me to people that are just unbelievable because I asked the question who do you know that I should know? Good leaders ask great questions.

All right, before I go to the fifth question, look to your left and make sure they got that one. Did they get that one? Huh? We all right? We’ll go on. Question Number 5 is what have you read that I should read? That’s a personal growth question. Ninety percent of the books I buy are because somebody said, “This is a book you should read.” I don’t go to book stores, I just ask the question, “What have you read that I should read?”

Question Number 6, what have you done that I should do? Oh, this is so good. You’re getting so loaded up, I’m telling you. I mean, you’re gonna have a learning lunch and you’re just gonna go crazy. I mean, when I asked that question to Lon Woodrum 40 years ago, what have you done that I should do? He looked at me and he said, “John, you love leadership and you love history. I like to visit presidential libraries.” And I thought Eureka. And Margaret and I started visiting presidential libraries. We go in and we spend a day, I mean, I learn history, I learn leadership. It is amazing. I’ve been to every one except George W’s because it’s just been open for the last year and I just haven’t gotten to it yet. But I’ve been to every one, but I’m tell you it is amazing when you go to presidential libraries. I mean, it all began because what do you do that I should do? What do you do that I should do? Presidential libraries, got it. History, leadership.

When we went up to New York a couple of years ago, I went to FDR’s home. And, you know, Winston Churchill and FDR, they talked a lot about the war and they talked about the H bomb and they wrestled with that issue. And I took the tour and his office was roped off, you couldn’t get to where his office was. And I wanted to go sit in the office where FDR and Winston Churchill had those long discussions. Winston Churchill literally


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came and spent a month with him at his house, and I wanted to get in that room and it was roped off and I said, “Margaret, honey, you’re gonna have to distract the guide.” I mean, you think I’m gonna get that close to the room? It’s like the Australian Open, you’re there. Jump the rope. I can no longer go in that store. I just must move on. But I sat in the chair. I sat in the chair.

Question Number 7, when I’m done this is the last question I always ask a person: How can I add value to you? How can I add value to you? You see, that expresses gratitude. That lets that person know that you’re grateful for what they have done. Oh, my goodness, the value of questions.

Number 6, let me give you another one, is that questions allow us to build better ideas. All my good ideas are the result of asking questions. And let me tell you what, if I have a good idea, I don’t come and say, “Hey, let me tell you something, I’ve got a great idea.” I come and I say, “I have a good idea and let me share it with you.” And when I share it with you, then I look at you and I ask you, “Now how can you make that a great idea?’ I got you started, now finish it off. Can I tell you something, if you walk into the room with five people with a good idea and you walk out of the room with nothing more than the good idea you brought in, you’re not asking the right questions. And you’re not only not asking the right questions, you got the wrong people in the room. Hello. When I tell my people to come to the table, I tell them very simply, “You either come to the table prepared or you’re on the menu.” You don’t want to be on the menu. You want to be at the table. And when you walk into the room, you see, here’s how that works, because it really does work. Patty? If you have a good idea – she’s one of my coaches. In fact, you gave me one of the finest gifts I’ve ever received when you embroidered a pillow and you gave it to me of the 21 laws of leadership. And in my office in Florida I’ve got it on a chair opposite my desk, and every day when I’m writing, every day when I’m working I look at that pillow. I mean, thank you for that incredible gift. Could you make me some more pillows?

Do you see how questions work? I’m demonstrating questions right now here for you. Now watch this one. Here’s what I want to demonstrate for you: If Patty has a good idea and I have a good idea, but Patty doesn’t share her good idea with me and I don’t share my good idea with her, how many good ideas do I have? I have one good idea. And I only have one good idea because I’ve never brought it out, I’ve never put it on the table, I’ve never begun to ask questions. But if I have a good idea and I share with her my good idea and she shares with me her good idea, now guess what? We don’t have good ideas. I know one and one’s two, I understand that. But when you begin to have conversation and you begin to – guess what? Out of two good ideas pops up another good idea. You see what I mean? One and one is never two. It’s three or four or five when you ask good questions and when you have good dialogue. But let me tell you how this really works. Can I tell you something? Every great idea is birthed out of good ideas. No great idea is birthed out of a vacuum. Nobody ever woke up and said, “Ah, great idea.” No, maybe a good idea.

Have you ever done like I’ve done before? You wake up in the middle of the night you just think of something that’s just great? And I used to have a pad beside my bed – and I would write down that little thought and I’d go back to sleep and then I’d wake up the next morning and I look at it and thought, “This makes no sense at all.” But how do you get a great idea? By sharing good ideas. And how do you share good ideas? By asking questions. And I promise you, asking questions will give you greater ideas.

Value Number 7 of questions is questions give us a different perspective. Before you attempt to set things right, you’ve got to make sure you see things right. And the only way that you can see things right is by asking questions. And Number 8, I’m just hurrying now because I don’t have much time and I’m just wanting to get it


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in. And you say, “Are you gonna give us all of them?” No. No. Why would I give you all the values of great questions? What am I missing? You got to buy the book, you understand that, huh? Look at the person on the left and say, “You’re slow. You need the book. You need the book. You’re slow. You can take the book home with you.” Number 8 questions challenge mindsets. In other words, questions get us out of ruts. They really do. Because questions precede discovery and discovery precedes change. And so the way to get out of a rut is to start by asking good questions. Number 9 questions, this is so true, questions set us apart from other people. The greatest difference maker you’ll ever have in your success is that you ask better questions than the people around you. I know that for a fact.

I’m a 23-year-old kid one year out of college, I’ve got a little country church in Hillham, Indiana and a man brings me a list of the large churches in America. The ten largest. These churches were in the thousands. I’m at Hillham, I’ve got just a handful of people in a country church, but I’ve got a big dream. And I looked at the names of those pastors of those ten churches and I thought, “I wonder if I could ever get to them, and if I could ever ask them questions. I wonder how much I would learn from them.” And so I went down the list and I found out how to contact them, and I contacted all ten of them. Only two said yes, eight said no. So I went to the two.

And I only had 30 minutes and the way I got in is I said I’ll give you $100.00 if you give me 30 minutes of your time. I got to ask questions. Now, you got to understand $100.00 back in 1970 was a lot of money to me. I was only making $4,800.00 a year. You understand? It’s a lot of money. But I was desperate and I had to get their attention. So I got two yesses and so I went to those two yesses and I had five pages of legal pads. I mean, I had five pages of questions. I only got 30 minutes, do the math. I just didn’t want to run short. And I turned on my tape recorder and I’d ask those questions as fast as I could and I would try to be nice and I said, “Answer quickly, please.” You know, please, just answer quickly. And I never got even through the first page and 30 minutes was over, I’d throw my tape recorder in my briefcase and my legal pad and I’d close it and I’d reach into my pocket for the $100.00 and I’d hand it to them and I’d shake their hand and I said, “Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you very much.”

And both of those guys looked at me and said, “Hey, do you want to go to lunch?” Yeah. I’d love to go to lunch. Do you ever have lunch with your hero? The food doesn’t go down. And so I just kind of messed with my food on the plate and I just kept asking questions. And when I finished asking those questions, I again would thank them and I wanted to get out of the way because I knew they were busy men and they were bigger and better and faster than I was, that’s for sure. And I go out in the parking lot and I’d throw my briefcase in the backseat and I’d go in the front seat and I’d lay my head against the steering wheel and I would bawl like a baby. And I would say something like this, “God, if you could do that for him, you could do that for me.” And by the time I was 29, I had the tenth largest church in America. And it all began, it all began, because I asked questions. If I would have had time today I would talk to you about the most important questions that were ever asked to me in my life and how it changed my life. Every one of them changed me. Or I would tell you the five most important questions that I’ve ever asked someone else that literally changed my life. The John Maxwell Team, the coaches that are leading the simulcast around the country and around the world today, it literally began with a question.

I think it’s safe to say that everything I have that’s good in my life, everything that I have that’s beautiful in my life began with a question. And so I end my time with you like I started my time with you. My name is John and


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I’m your friend and you’re only one question away from unlocking that door to success. Start unlocking your doors. Thank you very much. [End of Audio]

Duration: 45 minutes


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