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“Reality—leaders recognize that everything worthwhile is uphill.”

A thought by John C. Maxwell from his book, Leadershift (p. 63). HarperCollins Leadership. Kindle Edition. (Click on the book title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.)

That is so important to learn in life.

John says, “Max De Pree, CEO of the furniture giant Herman Miller, said, ‘The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality.’ Let me define the reality of your leadership potential: it’s uphill all the way. No one ever coasted to success. No successful person has ever experienced accidental achievements. Nothing of genuine value is easy, quick, and downhill. All the precious things in life require that we pay a price. Contrary to the line in the old song, the best things in life are not free. Or as someone told me once during a break in one of my speeches, ‘If it doesn’t suck, it’s not worth doing.’”

John goes on, “There’s a lot of difference between what we can’t do and what we won’t do. What we won’t do will keep us from being successful a lot more than what we can’t do. Poor choices, not lack of talent and ability, are the greatest hindrances to most people’s success. If we want to succeed in leadership, we must do what we don’t want to do, so we can do what we need to do. We must be willing to pay the price. Early American missionary Adoniram Judson is rumored to have said, ‘There is no success without sacrifice. If you succeed without sacrifice it is because someone has suffered before you. If you sacrifice without success it is because someone will succeed after.’”

John later shares, “As I prepare to lead, I think of hope and hard. These words help me personally to handle the very different expectations needed for leadership. Hope empowers me to believe that I can make the climb. It fuels me with energy to continue when I get tired. And it enables me to speak hope into the lives of the people who are journeying with me. I cannot give hope to others if I do not possess it myself. It must come from a place of authenticity because you can’t fake hope. As you encourage yourself, your people feel that encouragement too. As you encourage them, you also become encouraged. It creates a positive cycle that keeps everyone moving forward.

“While I love the encouragement of hope, I also value the level-setting word hard. It balances my expectations and prevents me from being naively optimistic. I remind myself that the leadership journey is often difficult. Much of success lies in possessing right expectations.”

So let's lead with hope understanding that it will be hard.  Let's possess right expectations, Ok? 

Yes, yes
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