The Value of Going First
Maxwell Leadership Podcast
John Maxwell
4.8 • 2.3K Ratings
🗓️ 30 July 2025
⏱️ 40 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Leaders see more than others see and they see before others see — but often, that comes with taking action before being understood. Want to be a standout leader? John Maxwell shares how you can in this week’s episode featuring 3 key values of going first!
After his lesson, Mark Cole reflects on what John has taught and gives you practical ways to apply it to your life and leadership.
Key takeaways:
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You never know how far you can go until you go.
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How do we win? By getting started.
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The only way that you’ll ever get out of the people pile is to be unique.
Our BONUS resource for this episode is the The Value of Going First Worksheet, which includes fill-in-the-blank notes from John’s teaching. You can download the worksheet by visiting MaxwellPodcast.com/GoingFirst and clicking “Download the Bonus Resource.”
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References:
Watch this episode on YouTube!
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the Maxwell Leadership Podcast. |
| 0:11.0 | This is the podcast that adds value to leaders who multiply value to others. |
| 0:16.0 | I'm Mark Cole and today John Maxwell is sharing a lesson on the value of going first. In fact, in today's |
| 0:23.6 | lesson, John's going to make a quote. He's going to quote Dr. Seuss, who says you have to be |
| 0:29.3 | odd to be number one. Let me just say that again for all you odd people out there. Maybe you're |
| 0:35.4 | already number one because if you're going to be number one, you have to be |
| 0:40.2 | odd. |
| 0:40.8 | My goal and John's goal in today's episode is to make you odd, is to get you to think like a number |
| 0:47.9 | one player, like getting started first. |
| 0:51.4 | I'll be back when John's done teaching teaching and I'll help you apply what we learn |
| 0:55.9 | from John in both your life and your leadership. If you would like to download the free bonus |
| 1:02.5 | resource for this episode or watch the episode on YouTube, go to Maxwellpodcast.com |
| 1:09.2 | forward slash going first. |
| 1:11.9 | Now, I get to introduce to you today somebody that after 25 years of working alongside of John |
| 1:18.9 | Maxwell, he knows what going first looks like. |
| 1:22.3 | Grab your pen, grab your piece of paper. |
| 1:25.0 | John's going to help you go first. |
| 1:33.7 | There's a lot of comparisons between going first and people thinking you're crazy. |
| 1:39.0 | In fact, I want to talk about it a moment because honestly, I have been there. |
| 1:43.4 | I've had people look at me and misunderstand me. I've had people look at me and misunderstand |
| 1:45.5 | me. I've had people look at me and say, what are you trying to do? I can't figure it out. |
| 1:50.6 | And so I'm going to talk about it. And I'm going to talk about the value of going first because |
... |
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