Hey welcome back to the Maximal Leadership Podcast. This is truly the podcast that adds value to you. You as a leader so that you will multiply value to your own.

I'm the CEO of Maximal Leadership and today we're talking about starting with yourself. You see, you really can't give what you do not have. That's true in leadership, it's true in relationships. That's why when it comes to change and to growth, you have to start with yourself.

Today, John Maxwell is going to share some simple and timeless truths. Truths that will help you understand we truly and should always start with ourselves.

Then my co-host Tracy Morrow and I will discuss how we challenge ourselves to embrace this leadership principle.

Two things before we get started. First, if you would like to watch this episode on YouTube, you can find that at maxwoolpodcast.com forward slash YouTube.

Second, if you would like to download the free PDF, it's a worksheet that accompanies John's lesson. We call this our bonus resource.

Just go to maxwoolpodcast.com forward slash yourself. Okay, that's it. Grab a pin, grab a piece of paper. Here is John Maxwell.

Henry Ford said, before anything else getting ready is the secret of success.

I remember doing a conference recently out west and we were doing a Q&A and somebody asked me about the value of initiating, the value of starting, to kind of be a self starter.

I defined starting or initiating. I said it's the great separator. I think it really is. It separates the doers from the do-nots.

It really separates the have from the have nots. It separates the winners from the winers. It separates successful people from unsuccessable people.

Starting is essential. Absolutely central for you and I to be successful. It's not the last step but it is the first step. How do you win? You've got to start.

Ben Franklin said this way to succeed. Jump as quickly at opportunities as you do a conclusion. The book ends of success. Our starting and finishing.

The ability to begin to be a self initiator and the ability to close to be able to finish off. And both of them are very important.

I want to talk to you about the value of starting. Let me talk to you about how to start successfully. Start with yourself.

I want to get started. Where do I start? I always say before we ask where do you start? It's who do you start? You start yourself first.

I was in Asia one of the places I stopped to speak at was in Bombay, India. And for many many years that's where Gandhi, the great leader, revolutionary leader, reformer of India lived.

When I arrived there that day I had a little time because I didn't speak until the next day. So I went over to his house. I wanted to go over so I found somebody to take me to his place. And with his house where I lived, I think I lived in this house for 17 years was a museum that was attached.

I probably spent I don't know two and a half three hours in that museum was a wonderful, wonderful visit.

One of the things that impressed me and I wrote a lot of writing. I just wrote a lot of stuff down of things that he had done and said.

But one of the things I wrote down I think really fits here when I talk about start with yourself. Here's a quote of Gandhi saying this in your notes, be the change you want to see in the world.

That's a great start with yourself statement. It's like when I did a conference and a young kid stood up and he had been listening to me all day and said I love this leadership stuff and he said I've decided I want to be a leader. And then he looked at me said, John, here's the question.

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