How to Surround Yourself with Great People (Part 1)

Mark Cole:
Hey, welcome to the Maxwell Leadership Podcast. I am so excited to continue the journey of growth in 2026. Traci, I’m so excited that we get to be together today and talk a little bit about this lesson John’s going to share. But, hey, we’re 42 days in. Are you still living out those New Year’s resolutions?

Traci Morrow:
I absolutely am.

Mark Cole:
Are you?

Traci Morrow:
I feel like I made some good ones. And I’m also still in the process of creating. Like, I’m not one of those people who sets it up at the beginning of the year. And it’s like, I only make resolutions by January 1st. I’m constantly creating. Like, I make some new ones in February. I make some new ones in March. What about you, Mark?

Mark Cole:
You know what? It’s funny, because let me tell you something, gang. If you’re new to our podcast, welcome. We’re so glad. I don’t know why you waited till 2026, but we finally got good. Because you’re so welcome. We really are. And if you don’t know, my co host today, Traci Morrow, she is one of the most disciplined people in work ethic, in family, in health. She has some of the greatest disciplines.

Mark Cole:
And to hear you say that you continually tweak them and look at them gives me great hope, Traci, because when I grow up in the areas of health and family and work ethic and accomplishment, I want to be you when I grow up. So I’m glad to hear you’re tweaking them for me, gang, and hopefully for all of you in our podcast, especially those of you that have been around for some time. I do a process called year end review, and it’s really super important discipline that I have in my life. And boy, my plan is working to expectation and I’m loving it. It’s been so good. I do. I dig into it every 30 days. I spend a day with it every quarter.

Mark Cole:
This is my life plan, my 2026 life plan that I’m talking about for those of you that don’t know. And yeah, it’s. I just finished up reviewing some of it and I’m pleased. I really am. Hey, speaking of Traci Morrow and the people that I get to work with, including the guy that is getting ready to share this lesson. We’re going to talk today and actually next week about how to surround yourself with great people. And I feel like if I’ve been able to experience anything in life, it is to experience the greatness in people I’ve met with top Leaders. I’ve met with top business leaders.

Mark Cole:
I’ve met with incredible family people and accomplished leaders. Leaders like Tracy Morrow that knows how to do both. She knows how to live well. She knows how to be an incredible family leader. She knows how to be an incredible business leader. I’ve lived and eat and slept and observed some of the greatest. And John’s going to help those of you that are ready to up your people game. Okay? Now, hopefully you’re listening to this by yourself and not with your team or your family, but it’s time you up your family, your people game.

Mark Cole:
Okay? It’s just time you up level the people in your life. And today’s podcast, next week’s podcast is all about that. John’s going to share with us a series of points that he has made disciplines in his life to up level who he spends time with and how those people lift him to the next level. So I’m super excited about it today. I know you’re going to enjoy it. In fact, John has a quote that I’ll give you right now. He says, the better you are at surrounding yourself with people of high potential, the greater your chance for success. Now that’s a quote for John.

Mark Cole:
It’s also a guarantee from John and we’re going to live that out over the next two weeks. Now, if you would like to watch Traci and I on the podcast today or by the way, we have a bonus resource. We prepare all the time for you. Our team goes in and works to make this lesson stick. And if you would like that, you can go to MaxwellPodcast.com/GreatPeople. You’ll see the YouTube link there. You’ll see the download for the bonus resource. Grab a pen, get a piece of paper, make a commitment.

Mark Cole:
Over the next 30 minutes, you’re going to up your people game. Here is John Maxwell.

John Maxwell:
Surround yourself with great people. And this came to kind of a head to me a few weeks ago up in Atlanta. We had a dinner that night and at that dinner table were some pretty amazing people that have come into my life. And I just sat at the end of the table and I became very grateful as I would look at each one of their faces and I would think of the ways that they have helped me, the ways that they have made me better, the ways that they have made our organizations better. In fact, right to my left was a very good friend. And he said to me, I don’t know, maybe he could read my thoughts as I was looking around the table. But he said, this room was filled with a lot of good people. And I said, you’re right, it’s filled with some great people.

John Maxwell:
Now, the reason that I mentioned that is because that evening I was very aware. I was very grateful because I was very aware that the people sitting around that table had made me better than I actually am. And I was telling Mark Kroll, our CEO, the other day, we are literally at a harvest time of outstanding individuals that are saying they want to be part of our team. And that’s why I want to talk to you about how did this happen? How have we been able to surround ourselves with great people? I’m going to share with you now, I’m going to share with you just now. How do you surround yourself with great people? Statement number one, have a great desire to become great. If you want to surround yourself with great people, it begins with desire. I know again, as a kid in my twenties, I knew one thing. I wanted to make a difference.

John Maxwell:
I didn’t know how I was going to make a difference. I didn’t know when I was going to make a difference, but I knew I wanted to make a difference. I had this desire, this deep desire. Napoleon Hill, you know what he said? He said, the starting point of all achievement is desire. Back then, I was a pastor of a country church. Now, just stop here for a moment. Don’t see me as I am today. See me as a young kid in a country church with about 100 people.

John Maxwell:
It doesn’t look like there’s much future here. It doesn’t look like I’m going to be able to achieve what I’ve achieved. But I had a great desire. And I read a book on America’s largest churches, and there were 10 of them that were featured in this book, the Top 10 Growing Dynamic Congregations. And I called each one of those pastors, those 10 churches, and asked for an appointment with them, of which two said yes and eight said no. In fact, I was so desperate for an appointment, I told them I would give them $100. If you’ll just meet with me, I’ll give you $100 for 30 minutes. And that was a lot of money.

John Maxwell:
I only made $4,800 that year. But I just had a passion to meet them. It was that desire. And I did meet with them, by the way. And I can promise you right now, it was life changing for me. I asked them questions. I only had 30 minutes. I had a tape recorder going, and I just took notes as fast as I could.

John Maxwell:
So many times we don’t go forward because we don’t have the ideal situations, and we’ve got to quit doing that. In fact, just this week, I wrote this. In fact, I was talking to my assistant, Linda Eggers, and I made a statement, and I stopped. I said, oh, I got to write this down now, and I’m giving it to you by memory. And I’ve only said it a couple of times, so I hope I do it right here. But I was talking to Linda about vision, and I said, we need to act on the vision that we have so that we can obtain the vision we need. And the moment I said that, I thought, this is so true. I’ve got to act on the vision I have.

John Maxwell:
And the vision that I have, it’s not complete, it’s not full, it’s not even totally seen or understood, but you got to act on what you have so that you can get the vision that is yours, that is going to be bigger and better in the future. And that’s what I did. I had this desire, this desire to. Kept me in the gate. So when you want to surround yourself with great people, it begins with have a great desire. The second thing I would share with you is to go to where the great people are. You know, birds of a feather flock together. Great people flock together.

John Maxwell:
So you got to find out where they are. And when you find out where they are, you got to go hang. And you say, well, you know, they won’t know me. Of course they won’t know me. I can still remember. I can still remember when I was a young pastor and my church was growing. But I had an invitation not to be a participant, but to attend an event called Exchange in Orlando, Florida, where the big boys were going to be participating. And I went there.

John Maxwell:
And I went there because I wanted to get around great people. I wanted to see them. I wanted to maybe have a chance to even meet them, maybe, hey, maybe get a picture, I don’t know. But I just knew that if. If I could put myself in an environment where great people are, wow.

Mark Cole:
I.

John Maxwell:
Could perhaps become even greater again. In my 20s, I wrote about a great environment and how can I create a great environment for growth, for my life? Because I wasn’t in an organization that had a culture of growth, and I wasn’t part of a team that had done great things. So I wrote about what I thought a growth environment would look like and how I needed to create it for myself. I was looking at this the other day. I have it in my notes to share with you, but there are 10 things that you want to create for yourself to put yourself in a great growth environment. I want to give them to you quickly because I got a point. I want to illustrate. Number one, others are ahead of you.

John Maxwell:
Number two, you’re continually challenged. Three, your focus is forward. Four, the atmosphere is affirming. Five, you’re off and out of your comfort zone. Six, you wake up excited. Seven, failure is not your enemy. Eight, others are growing. Number nine, people desire change.

John Maxwell:
Ten, growth is modeled and expected. Now, those are the ten things that you want to create to have a growth environment. And I was looking at those the other day in light of surround yourself with great people. And it hit me. Five of the ten of these ideal situations to create a growth environment, Five of the ten, half of them are specifically about great people. Number one, others are ahead of you. Number four, the atmosphere is affirming. Number eight, others are growing.

John Maxwell:
Number nine, people desire change. Number ten, growth is modeled and expected. And all of a sudden it hit me that surrounding yourself with great people, if you really want to do that, you got to go to where the great people are. They’re not going to come to you in the beginning. You have to go to them. So if you really want to surround yourself with great people, have a desire to be great. That is the passion that you’ll need. Go to where great people are.

John Maxwell:
And number three, do what great people do. I like this. In other words, if you want to surround yourself with great people, get the habits of great people. Again, birds of a feather flock together. Now go Back to the $100 for a moment. I would ask them when I gave them that $100, what are you doing to build a great church? And after I would ask them that question and take those notes with my tape recorder, I. I would reflect and I’d say, now, how did they do that? And then I’d say, okay, now here’s how they did it. I’m going to do this.

John Maxwell:
I’m going to take action on it. We want to somehow have success without paying a price. We want to have success without it taking time or us having to be committed or be consistent for a period of years. We love that. I want to do what you’re doing, but we don’t like the I’d like to do what you do did. And if we don’t do the did, we don’t get the do. That’s a fact. If you don’t do the did, you’re in deep doo doo.

John Maxwell:
Okay, that’s just a fact. Now, what am I Talking about? I’m talking about if you really want to surround yourself with great people, you got to do what the great people do. And here’s what I discover in kind of wrapping this up. When people hit what I call the success plateau, which is very, very common, why do they all of a sudden, I mean, they’ve done really well. All of a sudden they just kind of go flatline. What happens? I can tell you, you and I, we hit the success plateau when we stopped doing what we did. It’s just that simple. When I stopped doing the things that made me successful, I will no longer be successful.

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Mark Cole:
Hey, welcome back, everybody. You know, John makes a statement here, and it’s truly what we call our standout statement for this podcast episode. And it’s this. If you want to surround yourself with great people, it begins with desire. And again, this is not desire to trade in yesterday’s friend or to disregard relationships that are significant and meaningful to you. It is just a commitment that says, I am going to bring some people around me that are going to sharpen me. It’s iron sharpening iron. It’s lifting the level of the people that are speaking into your life. And Traci, I really am honored, I mean, truly honored to do this with you. I can remember multiple exchanges, multiple things to where you and I would grab a moment where everybody else was kind of experiencing something, and you and I would grab a moment and we would sharpen one another.

Mark Cole:
And I’m truly a better leader because of you, because I surrounded myself with great people like you.

Traci Morrow:
Well, that is a very nice thing to say. I feel absolutely that way about you. I. Every moment that we could steal away and I could just pick your brain and have little moments where you poured into me, I felt that was a great honor. And so to have this time where you all think you’re listening to a podcast, but it’s really me just saying yes to this so that I could have a moment with Mark Cole to have him pour into me and you get to all listen. So I love this lesson, and I think that it is. I think it’s a privilege that we all get to hear you break down what. What it is to hear from the master of people, John Maxwell, and to hear from you who has spent more time, arguably, than anyone else, well, maybe Margaret Maxwell, on the planet with John and seeing up close and personal, how he leans into growth with personal relationships and with people and how he has pursued great people and relationships.

Traci Morrow:
And so I would just love to kick off this and talk about why is it that what causes people to really lean into growth, specifically in the area of relationships?

Mark Cole:
Yeah, and I love the question, Traci, because it really is about growth. We’re at the beginning of the year again. We bantered a little bit in the beginning of our show about it being 42 days into the year. I hope you guys have not lost your passion and your excitement about growing. It’s funny. I watch our podcast downloads, the number of downloads that we have. I watch it because every one of you matter to me. And it’s funny, just like the gym memberships about February, that starts dipping.

Mark Cole:
And so those of you that are here that just started this year with, I’m gonna listen to a podcast that’s gonna challenge me and make me better, and you’re still here. Way to go. You made it through January. This idea of growth and really seeing people as the opportunity to grow is very important to me. John talks today. We’re talking about three things that he challenges us to do with to surround ourself with great people. I want to start, though, for me and tell you a mindset, a preparation that has to happen when you surround yourself with great people. Again, not to name drop, and I won’t use any names, but the number of people of world renown that John Maxwell and I have been able to connect with over the last 10 years is mind blowing for me.

Mark Cole:
Little kid from south of Atlanta, just not a whole lot of notoriety. And then to be able to have the pedigree of introductions and relationships that I’ve been able to have is staggering. But here’s what I found to really apply these three principles this week. Next week, John’s going to give you some more. There’s three things I want to get you in the mindset of doing before you meet with the great people, and one is to be prepared. What do you hope to get out of this meeting? A picture? Please don’t say that. A moment to shake a hand? Please don’t say that either. Every time you have the opportunity to get connected with people of greatness, be prepared.

Mark Cole:
Secondly, always bring value. And thirdly, always take something away to apply every time you say, oh, Mark, it’s just a football player that I used to watch. Still be prepared, still try to bring value, and still walk away with something. And here’s why, Traci, it comes back to this. It really is all about growth. I believe that life is the sum of the decisions you’ve made to grow, the places you’ve gone to grow, and the people that you allow to speak into your growth. I believe that’s the sum of your life. And if I could challenge all of you today, if I’ve watched anything, if I’ve watched John Maxwell do anything with consistency, it is to take advantage of the people that he’s introduced to the greatness around him.

Mark Cole:
And my challenge to you, my challenge to us, my challenge to you and I, Traci, is the exposure that we have to great people comes with a price tag. What are we going to do to better ourselves? To your point, to your question, how are we going to make sure we grow because of the introductions and the relationships of the people around us?

Traci Morrow:
Well, you talk about all of the people who. The great greatness that you and John have access to, including world leaders, including top CEOs of, you know, Fortune 500 companies and companies around the world, actually. How do you. How are you continuing to have access to these global leaders? Last count, it was like 21 or 22 heads of countries that were asking for, you know, a meeting with you and John. Someone even just reached out to me from saying that they had a connection with a head of a country. I won’t mention the name of the country, saying, hey, Tracy, I don’t know if you’re the right person to connect me, but I would like to connect this head of this country with Mark and John. And I’m like, how is this coming to my phone? So that’s one way that you’re getting connected. But how is it that you and John are getting access to all of these heads of countries and having access to all these great people?

Mark Cole:
Traci, you really honestly did touch on it. It is because of people like you. It’s because of who you know that I should know. It’s because of a lifetime of adding value and doing things that increase the value of people. And when that becomes your reputation, that you have something to give that will make people better, people want to meet you. And the longer you do that, the more people that want to meet you and the better you do that, the greater the people are, the more accomplished the people are that wants to meet you. And so I’ve got to tell you, those of us that are just starting out our leadership journey, consistency compounds the way that we around here are meeting with these presidents, these prime ministers that Tracy was just talking about is because of 50 years of continually adding value through servant based leadership that John Maxwell has done. That’s 25 years I wasn’t even around.

Mark Cole:
I get to reap the benefit of somebody else’s consistency. It’s a leadership point. You want to help people that work alongside of you, that work for you, your kids get better. Be consistent today, add value today and you’ll take people on the journey with you. The second thing that I would tell you, Traci, as it relates to meeting with these people and John’s going to get. John gets into that both in the lesson today and in the lesson next week, you got to travel, you got to go to where those people are. You got to put yourself in the place of where those people are. And you’ve got to do what great people do.

Mark Cole:
Therefore, I will tell you, John and I just had this conversation. Oh, man. Over the holidays. So I guess about a month, month and a half ago, John and I just had this conversation that said, Mark, can you believe the number of people we were getting ready to go out and spend some time with? I think it’s like six billionaires. And everybody else was really close. And he said, can you believe that? And I went, yes. And no, I can’t believe it because I’m humbled by it. And I never want to take it for granted.

Mark Cole:
But yes, I can believe it because we have positioned ourself to have something of value for people that have experienced a lot of success, but they want to know what significance is. And John, we’ve positioned ourselves. So what am I saying? It’s not luck, guys. We are lucky. We are fortunate. We’re blessed. Blessed. All that.

Mark Cole:
Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. Only God. Only God. Yes, yes, yes. Let me tell you something. There has been a lot of preparation. There has been a lot of focus by John and then now our team to make sure that we’re ready when we have audiences with kings, audiences with presidents, audiences with great business leaders.

Traci Morrow:
Yeah. Being Willing to go and put yourself in positions. And he talked a little bit about that. I can say, I can remember the first time I put myself in an uncomfortable position. You know, John will say, if you’re the biggest person in the room, you’re in the wrong room. And I can remember the first exchange that I went to. It was in. It was being held in the Virgin Islands.

Traci Morrow:
And John talks about an exchange that he went to. And it impacted him so much that he created his own exchanges. And for years I have attended that. And the first one that I went to, I just remember almost I should have checked myself if I had broken out into actual hives. But I felt like I was breaking out into hives to walk into that room because I knew I was about the smallest person. And I don’t mean just short, because I am a short person, but the smallest person as a business person in that room. But I knew that if I wanted to grow to the next level, I needed to go into a room where there were what John called the big boys, but it was the big men and women in business and ministry and globally that I wanted to be in that room. And it’s having the courage to walk into that room and believe more in the bigger vision.

Traci Morrow:
And I think he even said. Said that if you. If you. You need to act on the vision that I have so that I. I can obtain the vision that I need, I go into that room in order to put myself into bigger rooms and to grow into the next, bigger version of myself. And so we talked a little bit about meeting with all of the world leaders that you’re, you know, meeting with. But the flip side of that question I would have for you is even in the position that you’re in today, John talked about the places where he went to exchange. Where do you put yourself as the little guy today? Where.

Traci Morrow:
Where you put. Mix yourself in among big leaders, even today.

Mark Cole:
Yeah. Thank you for that question. Let me, Let. Let me answer that question by highlighting something you said a while ago that was just brilliant. So you decided, I want to be close to people that I consider great, not because of their accomplishments or their stature, but because they’re accomplishing something that you can put into your life and into your success trajectory or your significant trajectory. And so what did you do? You positioned yourself where they are, where do they go? And here’s how. Ask yourself the question. The people that you look up to that are mentors of you, people that you want to emulate, how do they travel? Travel the same way where do they travel? Go to the same places.

Mark Cole:
Where are they hanging out? What are they doing? We’ll talk about do in just a minute. Make sure you become a student of the person, not their accomplishments. Their accomplishments is going to be their accomplishments. Your accomplishments are going to be your accomplishments. But become a student of where they go, how they travel, why they travel, and what they do when they travel to those places and to their best, to the place of their accomplishment. Now back to your question. So what am I doing in 2026? This year I’m trying to answer the question of how to lead as a director, as a directional leader, not a directive leader. I’ve been a directive leader for many times.

Mark Cole:
I tell people what to do, expect them to do it. I now am in a place to where I’m trying to develop my directional abilities as a leader, not my directive abilities as a leader. What that means is as I set the direction, I cast the vision of what where we’re going. But I don’t spend as much time telling people how to get there or even holding them accountable to how they are getting there. I just hold them accountable. Are they headed in that direct right direction, and will we get to the set course or the set destination that we’re going after? To do that, I’ve had to talk to some leaders that have came up through the ranks of an organization as a directive leader and then became the CEO, the directional leader. So this year, I’m surrounding myself with three greats. I could give you their names and every one of you would know every one of these leaders.

Mark Cole:
They’re in our ecosphere. They’re friends with John, and they tolerate me. And I’m just teasing. I’ve become friends with them, but I’ve asked them, I need you to spend time with me this year, if you will. And I’m going to ask you a series of 10 questions about directional leadership. You know who I had craft help Me craft those 10 questions? John Maxwell. He’s a mentor of mine. I have access to John, and if I didn’t ask him to better my questions, it would have been a stewardship issue of being in proximity with somebody like John, but not allowing him to make me better.

Mark Cole:
How many of us, we look for the moments to get around greatness. Traci, you came to exchange. I remember that first exchange. And somebody came up to John and I and said, john, Mark, you need to spend time with Traci Morrow. She’s building an incredible business. She has done some incredible, remarkable things. That’s Went global with some media, and she has a way to look at leadership that we don’t currently understand. I remember that conversation very, very vividly.

Mark Cole:
We spent time with you. It became an incredible relationship. Now you stand on stages with John all over the world. Now every month you’re on a call with John, working beside him, teaching leadership. Now you’re on the Maxwell Leadership Podcast. Why? You found out where your leader. You found out where the model was that you wanted to emulate, and you invested in yourself to get into that room. Leaders, I don’t just give you ideas throughout this year of events to come to.

Mark Cole:
I give you invitation to come into proximity with people that can shape your life, because they’re only going to shape your life the closer you get to them. Surround yourself. Immerse yourself in environments where great people are.

Traci Morrow:
I appreciate you saying those nice things. I didn’t know that someone came up to you and said that. That’s thank you to whoever is out there who said such a thing about me. But what I want to highlight is when I showed up to that event, I didn’t show up thinking, I hope they notice me. I hope they notice me. What I showed up with, I think the attitude and I think needs to be highlighted is. And I think John will touch on it in our next episode. So I don’t want to get too far ahead of myself, but I think what we need to show up with the attitude is not I hope they notice me is how can.

Traci Morrow:
What can I bring? How can I serve? And how can I. I. How can I just show up and not try to impress and fake my way through this? But how can I just find my space here? And we’ll maybe talk about that a little bit more. But in point number two, Mark John talks about ten things to create for yourself, to put yourself in a great growth environment. And he said five of the 10 things that he listed were about people. But I think there are two of them that actually creatively could be more about people that I think you and I discussed a little bit offline that I would love to bring online, if you don’t mind. But number two, he said, where you’re continually challenged. And I think we tend to think about like, oh, that sounds great as a person where I like to be challenged.

Traci Morrow:
I love a great challenge. But one of the things that you and I chatted about, and I’d love to, you know, flesh it out a little bit here is what happens when you’re challenged by somebody who is a direct report what happens when the challenge feels, you know, challenging sounds like, oh great, give me a good challenge. But what happens if the challenge feels like challenging? Sounds good in theory, but when it actually is playing out, challenges usually are uncomfortable. They usually feel, can feel stressful, they can make you keep you up at night. What happens when it’s relationship? It is about people and it’s someone who is a direct report. Can you talk about that a little bit?

Mark Cole:
I can. And most of the time when leaders don’t enjoy being challenged publicly or even privately, it goes back to some kind of an insecurity. It goes back to a time in your life to where you felt dishonored, you felt overlooked, you don’t feel adequate to be in the rooms that you’re in. It is the basis most of the time. I have found that when leaders don’t want to be challenged by direct reports or people in a meeting, it’s typically because of insecurity. So the first thing that I would tell you is know yourself, know thyself. Get to know where you are vulnerable in the area of challenge, in the area of feedback. Get clear on where your insecurities are.

Mark Cole:
And many of us leaders have insecurities. But not pretending that you don’t have them does not help you. Not properly identifying where you are attacked in the area of those insecurities does not help you either. Know yourself. I for one, I love, I love contrarians, love them. Here’s why I know where I am most vulnerable is how passionate I am in convincing people. I’ve convinced more people just by wearing them down by being right all the time. I have a friend of mine that says Mark is rarely wrong and never in doubt.

Mark Cole:
And so what he’s saying right there, it sounds like a compliment. I’m right a lot. That’s what I hear. That’s not what he’s saying. He’s saying on the times that I’m wrong. I act the exact same as when I’m right. I’m never in doubt. That is absolutely why my friend says that I know I have an insecurity of a highly persuasive, highly convincing personality.

Mark Cole:
That’s a weakness in an environment like John Maxwell’s to where we are team driven and we believe the best idea lives in conversation with team rather than direction from the leader. My persuasive personality becomes problematic. What do I do about that? About that weakness of highly persuasive convincing? I surround myself with contrarians, people that just love to disagree with me because that’s what they’re supposed to do. They wake up in life and say, I don’t care if it’s right or wrong. I just need to disagree with this. It’s contrarians. In fact, recently I put together a specialty team, a special Ops team for 2026 group of women and men that I need to help me accomplish our movement mandates things that has to have movement every time, every week, every month. And when I put the list in front of Kimberly, my executive partner, she said, mark, where’s your contrarian? You don’t have a contrarian on this team.

Mark Cole:
Those that know me, know. Know me the most. Know that I operate best when I have somebody around me that is a contrarian. Here’s the point in saying that. Know yourself because you need to be challenged. And I’ve watched too many people get too caught up in my way or the highway or I’m the leader here and you need to respect me. And. And they lose the contribution of people around them because they paralyze them with their insecurities.

Mark Cole:
You want to be challenged and in fact, if you get nervous about being challenged in public, go find the insecurity. Don’t stop the challenger because the challenge is an iron sharpened, iron moment that will make you better. So quit trying to eliminate the challenge or discredit the challenger and go find the insecurity so that the challenge will make you better.

Traci Morrow:
Basically running to it.

Mark Cole:
That’s right.

Traci Morrow:
I love, I love that. And it’s kind of. Maybe it’s the opposite of what you just described, but number seven on his list and for those of you who printed out the bonus resource, you’re looking right at it. Number seven is not one of the ones that John highlighted as a people, as one of the people 10 in the 10. But it, I think it is failure is not your enemy, but failure. I think that fear of failure is an internal job that is the personal part of you that is dealing with yourself, maybe not others, but it’s relational in dealing with yourself. You can so freak yourself out. It’s almost the opposite of, of you, Mark.

Traci Morrow:
Like even if it’s your mistake, you don’t see it as you because you’re bulldozing through. But this is maybe something you don’t personally deal with but because of what you just said. But people who are afraid of failure and so they’re frozen and stuck. How would you say that failure is perceived in the Maxwell world? And how do you process through that so that people can get unstuck and view failure in a healthy way relationally with Themselves.

Mark Cole:
Yeah. I wish that I had time to build out the story of how John Maxwell decided to start writing on failure. I don’t. We’ll have to do that another day. For those of you that haven’t heard, those of you have you remember it? He’s writing a book on failure. And Margaret, when he got off the boat, he was on a vacation with his wife Margaret. When they got off the boat, Margaret said, john, this is so good. You should write a series.

Mark Cole:
This should be failure 101, failure 201, failure 301. John has actually done that. He listened to his wife and he wrote Failing Forward. He wrote, sometimes you win, sometimes you learn. And then right now, I mean, just a month from now, we’re releasing the book how to Get a Return on Failure. Here’s my point in even telling you that John decided a long time ago on a ship that failure was not an enemy. It was a friend. Many of you, you need to stop looking at failure as an enemy, but as a guide on how to go forward, as a insight on how to do it differently, as a gift, because you will do it better next time.

Mark Cole:
And we need to change our perspective on failure. And yes, I’m talking about some of the most significant failures that many of us have had. The greatest of failures has the greatest of lessons. Therefore, the greatest opportunity has set us up for tomorrow’s success in our environment. We challenge ourselves to set ambitions so high that one of two things happen. We fail, or when we succeed, only God can get the credit for it, because we’re not that good. We’re training millions and millions of people a year. Every year, we’re impacting millions of people.

Mark Cole:
That aspiration came with a lot of failure that was not quite there. But if we tweak this, we’ll be able to get there with an exponential return the next year. And if I could do anything for every one of you, and In February of 2026, if you’re listening to this live, I would change your perspective. To embrace failure rather than reject failure. To welcome failure rather than to try to run from it. To use failure rather than to be paralyzed by failure. That has been a game changer for our organization because everything gives us the ability to build on it for tomorrow.

Traci Morrow:
Yeah, I agree. And so do we have time for one more?

Mark Cole:
We can do one quick one.

Traci Morrow:
Okay, so the last one, he just talked about doing, doing what great people do, which is all about habits. And so you have, I’m sure, based on everything we’ve talked about, if we were to open up your phone, you have a vast and wonderful contact list, which means that you have met with some wonderful people and have probably picked up on some wonderful habits from meeting with those people and able to observe what their habits were. And so what are some habits that you have today because of the great people that you’ve met with and as a result of that that you now expect of your team?

Mark Cole:
Yeah, I think one is the habit of showing up. Showing up is not an option. And we overrate the big moments and we underrate the consistent moments. But showing up, you look at big leaders, great people, they are consistent. There is something that they have established in their life and in their leadership trajectory that is so consistent that it becomes an irreducible minimum. It becomes a pillar, it becomes an anchor to their leadership. I watch John. He has a rule of five of writing, and I’ve traveled the globe with him.

Mark Cole:
He does not deviate from it. I think that discipline is a huge thing. I think the other thing that leaders do incredibly well. We talked about it just a few minutes ago. They try big things. They try things bigger than them. Talk to any great leader, and most of them will give you three to one more failures than they had successes. In other words, they just tried a lot.

Mark Cole:
And most of us try to. We pull out one arrow from our quiver, and we want that one ever to be our moonshot. We want it to be our everything. The great ones don’t think that way. They think the more you do, the greater the odds that you’re gonna find something great that you did. And so it is really putting yourself out there trying. And I think the final thing that I really believe the great people do is they realize the significance of the contribution of us others. You look at people, even in golf, which is most people see it as a solo sport.

Mark Cole:
Go talk to them. They’ll tell you about the coach that they had when they were 15. They’ll tell you about the person that made the club. They’ll tell you about the putting coach that gave them that tweak, that gave them three strokes back. They will tell you the people that have spoken into their life to accomplish the great things in their life. And so I think that great people find great people, great people surround themselves with great people. It’s the whole point of this episode and next episode and Traci, it’s been fun. I can’t wait till next week.

Mark Cole:
Hey, there’s a podcast listener, Sarah, that just gave us a great comment that I wanted to share. She listened to the podcast, the episode, you, motives matter. And by the way, we’ll put that in the show notes because it was incredible. And this is what Sarah said after that episode. She said, I love this episode. As I asked myself what my motives for leading others were or are, she said, I realized I could answer that I wanted to add value to others. However, upon reflection and thought, Sarah said, I realized that my everyday actions and choices may be communicating something different. Thank you for inspiring some deeper thinking into my leadership journey.

Mark Cole:
I’ll be working harder to align my everyday actions to my desire of adding value to others. Sarah, that is why we do what we do. I want to close today with something I want to challenge you. We’re at the beginning of the year and if you have not started disciplining yourself in growth, challenging yourself to be better, we have created a special today for just our podcast family to you and it’s the 15 laws of growth. It’s a digital product. We usually offer that for $500$499. We’re giving it today to our podcast family for $99. And so we’ll put that in the show note.

Mark Cole:
You’ll be able to click a link, be able to go get that, get on the growth journey today because everyone deserves to be led well.

Transcript created by Castmagic.