Orrin Woodward on LIFE & Leadership

Over the past several years, Chris Brady and I have been tweeting our leadership thoughts on an almost daily basis.  We have one several awards from our twitter accounts and now are moving ahead on another project for twitter quotes.  Both of us are reviewing our tweets and pulling out the originals for further comment.  I reviewed some of my favorites today and I am requesting help in selecting a few for further study.  Having read books  and listened to so many CD’s over the last 15 years, it is difficult to determine the original content from comments that I have heard over the years, but to the best of my knowledge these are original tweets.  If you can help me select the best ones, I would greatly appreciate it.  If you know this is a quote from another author or speaker then please share so I do not include.  Select your top 10 or so and then I will add up the scores and proceed accordingly.  Also, the voting is now taking place for the Top 30 and Top 25 Leadership Guru list.  I will attach the links if you would like to vote. Thanks in advance and keep leading and learning on your journey to success. God Bless, Orrin Woodward

http://leadershipgurus.net/index.html – Vote for Top 30
http://www.topleadershipgurus.com/index.php – Vote for Top 25

Don’t be your own worst critic; there are plenty of other people willing to fill that position.

Average leaders raise the bar on themselves; good leaders raise the bar for others; great leaders inspire others to raise their own bar.

Everyone deals with problems in life, but remember the goal is to solve them and get new ones.

Leaders always choose the harder right rather than the easier wrong.

A bitter heart is never thankful & a thankful heart is never bitter.

It’s hard to set yourself on fire with your dream when you are busy wetting yourself with your dread.

Most people settle in life without any satisfaction, winners are satisfied with life without ever settling.

Excuses are used to justify leaving the scene of truth without changing.

Many times in life, those who do the most correcting, need the most correcting.

Just as a gardener pulls weeds from a garden, leaders pull weeds from their thinking before they spread.

People will forget what you kept for yourself, but they will never forget what you gave of yourself.

The higher you climb the mountain, the better your perspective.

It is not what happens to you that matters as much as what happens in you.

Most people are waiting to feel right & then will do good, but successful people do right & then will feel good.

Too often we view learning as a period of life, instead of a way of life.

Living your priorities is telling your time where it’s going, instead of asking where it went.

Competition ensures that winners won’t buy their own excuses.

You cannot have a new beginning, but you can change today and have a new ending.

People will forgive a leaders skill deficiency but rarely will they will forgive a character deficiency.

People harp on others issues because they are too scared to confront and change their own.

Many know what to do, but winners do what they know.

Blaming someone else for your failures only ensures that you won’t learn from them.

The more you tackle the things you fear, the more fearless you will become.

A group’s leadership limit is reached when voluntarism ends and compulsion begins.

The strength of our convictions is measured by how much we are willing to sacrifice for them.

A leader truly listening to his team speaks more than any talk that he can give to them.

It’s easy to be positive when all is positive, but you know you’re positive when everything is negative & you are still positive.

If you feel a teammate acted without character, but won’t confront the issue to ensure you have all the facts, then you lack character.

You don’t feel like a winner and then do, you do like a winner and then feel.

If you accept excuses from others, it’s usually because you have accepted your own excuses.

Leaders dig into their business to learn painful realities rather than believe peaceful illusions.

Success never goes on sale, but most spend their whole life dickering over the cost & never make the purchase.

All people experience failures in life, but the successful people learn from them while the unsuccessful people quit  because of them.

Just because those around you have surrendered their dreams does not mean that you should.

Licking your wounds will not stop the bleeding, but applying pressure will.

Teach character and if you must, use words.

True knowledge is understanding how little you truly know.

Success is not as easy as winners make it look, but not as hard as losers make it sound.

A life of success requires sacrifice for a period of time while a life of failure requires sacrifice for lifetime – period.

Telling a person to seek a nice secure job is like telling a lion to seek a nice secure zoo.

You cease to be excellent the moment you accept mediocrity in your life.

Being a critic is much easier than being a leader since it requires no sacrifice or results to qualify.

Today’s age worries too much about image and not enough about integrity.

Never surrender your convictions for your conveniences.

 Anyone can throw money at problems but successful leaders throw better thinking at them.

The only place where compensation comes before service is in the dictionary.

Followers need help, leaders need example.

A person who cannot handle setbacks will never handle victories either.

Ingratitude produces pride while gratitude produces humility.

If you want to make a difference, but are afraid to be different then you won’t make a difference.

In life, most people surrender what is possible for what is comfortable.

In life, you either hate losing enough to change or you hate changing enough to lose.  

You cannot seize your future until you let go of your past.

Your business is going to change, either led by you or your competitors.

The winds of change can be used like a kite to lift you higher or like a tumbleweed to toss you about.

Unaddressed problems on the inside of a person leads to unaddressed problems on the outside.

The worst decision is indecision.