May 26, 2025

John Maxwell on Legacy, Leadership & Living with Purpose

In this episode, Pastor Jeff Little sits down with Dr. John Maxwell for a raw and inspiring conversation on legacy, growth, and what it really means to win. Recorded live at Leaders Gathering, they talk about defining true success, the eternal scoreboard that matters most, and why failure is often our greatest teacher. John shares personal stories—from mentoring to reaching millions people with the gospel—and challenges every leader to stay focused on their God-given assignment. Whether you're in ministry, business, or just hungry to grow, this is one you don't want to miss.

EQUIP Leadership: https://www.iequip.org/

The Way to Win book: https://leadtowin.com/products/the-way-to-win

Win with People Book: https://leadtowin.com/pages/win-with-people

More resources: https://leadtowin.com/

Information on Milestone Church: https://milestonechurch.com/

Social Media:
Instagram @jefflittle
Facebook @jefflittle

00:00 - Finding True Fulfillment

07:42 - Winning Through Sharing Faith

16:26 - What Is True Success?

24:07 - Getting a Return on Failure

32:46 - Growing vs. Taking Shortcuts

36:57 - The Two Percent Factor

WEBVTT

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I watch people climb the ladder of life their entire life only to find out when they get to the top that it's leaning against the wrong building.

00:00:10.026 --> 00:00:13.827
You really can't be fulfilled if your life is about you.

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Just to be honest with you, I don't care how much stuff you got, it's not enough.

00:00:17.507 --> 00:00:22.789
But I've never met an unhappy person that lived a life of significance.

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The moment that we cross over from it's about me to it's about you.

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I think that's where fulfillment is.

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For those that'll listen to this later.

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We're here at our leaders gathering Lead to Win, and so I thought it would be so much more multiplied the impact of this next 30 minutes if we could also share it with others in a way that people could actually be able to experience it, and so that's the reason for the format.

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We have a couple thousand leaders here, gathered from different churches I think 170 something churches and staffs leaders.

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We got some of our interns and college students and some of even our business leaders from here at Milestone that have joined in, and I have with me one of my heroes who's been a mentor when I was younger, reading the books.

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I've told him this for years the 21, I know some of you, like some of the other books, For me, the 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership dynamically changed the way I led.

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I read it as a 21-year-old pastor and I read that book and I had I'm not trying to over-exaggerate this what happened was I really felt like I don't want to be a superstar, I want to be a super coach, I want to be a super person who shepherds others.

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Like some different, maybe, metrics and scoreboards was happening early on, and so I have with me Dr John Maxwell, who really needs no introduction.

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He's the leadership business guru.

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34 million books sold, by the way, privately.

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About that too, you're like well, how does all that happen?

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You would be amazed.

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He took me into his entire process, folder system, process of a book.

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We're not talking about that, but it doesn't just happen, okay.

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And so 34 million books.

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But welcome, John, and we're just glad to have you here.

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I also want to thank you because the Lead to Win brand.

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I called him, I said I'm making the big ask and he actually helped me get that because it was kind of tied up and stuff, yeah it was tied up, but we untied it.

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And.

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I aren't you glad that he has that name, because wasn't he born and called to lead to win?

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We're really proud of you.

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Thank you so much, thank you.

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As I heard you speak today, I thought, yep, you can lead me anytime, friend, you.

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You understand what it is like to love the people you lead, but you also know what it's like to win so that you can help them, and that's what's beautiful about what you do with your podcast.

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That's so beautiful what you're doing with this conference, and I'm sitting on the front row and hearing Jim and hearing you was just a beautiful feeling for me.

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So thank you very much.

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Well, we want to keep you strengthened and empowered, because a lot of people know you as the leadership guru, but I also know that you have a very big kingdom mandate from God, and so years ago I started in our church family.

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We started investing in this burning passion.

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We're a legacy partner.

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I would challenge any church out there to get involved with Equip, not only for the benefit to their leadership, but also the other parts of what you do in reaching souls, and you just recently wrote the book High Road Leader.

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That's also I want to recommend.

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That helps all of us get better.

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But talk to us about this because I know you personally.

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It's not like a vision statement.

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It was a mandate from God, this souls initiative.

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Well, yes, yes, it is.

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Because the reason I do leadership is to do cover so that I can share my faith.

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And in the world, you don't go into the world to save them.

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You go into the world to love them.

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You go into the world to connect with them.

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You go into the world to help them.

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You see, in the Christian community, relationships are key.

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So we don't even know each other, some of us, but we're brothers and sisters in Christ, so we hug each other and we're connected immediately.

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That's not true in the business world.

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In the business world, if you want to have a relationship with someone, you have to have their respect first.

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So you go into a relationship with a person and you add value to them in such a way that they begin to respect who you are, how you help them, how you add value to them, and that helps us then begin to connect with them.

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I have the opportunity to meet a lot of people, and just last week I had a highly successful person if I told him your name, most of you would know him worth $16 billion, and he asked if he could have a half a day with me, and so he came to where I was and we had a wonderful conversation.

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But he opened the conversation, jeff by.

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He looked at me and he said what can you do?

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What can I do for you?

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And I smiled and I said well, just be my friend, I don't need anything.

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You're the agenda.

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You want to have a culture.

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He had been reading High Road Leadership and he wanted it for his company.

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That's around the world.

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And he said I want to develop that culture.

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How do I?

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Basically, that's what he wanted, so I helped him all day work on a high road leadership culture for his company and we ended up over at our house.

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We started a restaurant, we ended up over at our home and so we're in my study and we're talking and he said John, he said again one more time what can I do for you?

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And I said well, let's just be friends.

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Let's just be friends.

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He said okay, you see, most people, they're not used to that approach.

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The reason I just want to be a friend of his is because what I want someday is to have the opportunity to share my faith with him and I got to add value to them and I have to care for him.

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And so in the end of the conversation he said well, what are you excited about?

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And I showed him behind my desk is our salvation scoreboard of the people that have received Christ through our nonprofit work, which is kind of hidden under the leadership umbrella.

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And we just passed, last month, two million people that have received Christ.

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And yeah, two million.

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And he's not a Christ follower at all.

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And so I explained to them.

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He said well, what do you mean, two million?

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And so I sat down and I explained to him what that all meant and I even shared with him how we do it around these success small group tables.

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And I said and a lot of times we do this on what we call transformation trips, when we go into a country to help them.

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And the last thing he asked me right before I hugged him and he said goodbye.

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He said I want to go on one of those transformation trips with you and so we're planning it right now.

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He'll, within three months he'll go to Argentina with me and he'll see all kinds of exciting things happen.

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But what I know will happen is the Holy Spirit will get to him and it's just really wonderful to watch God do His work and it's just wonderful to kind of love people unconditionally and value them, no matter where they are, and be a safe person for them so that the good news can get to them.

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So when people ask me what I think winning is, for me it's just very simple Winning is seeing people come to Christ Period.

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End of story.

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There's nothing else.

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There's nothing else.

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I love it, nothing else.

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I you know.

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Jesus said without me you could do nothing.

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When I was a young pastor, I didn't understand that verse because I was talking to him all the time about all the things I was doing, and I wasn't even meaning it in a wrong way.

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But I'm just saying, you know, and one day he got through to me and said you are doing a lot of really good things, john, way to go.

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But he said without me you could not do anything that has eternal consequence, anything that has eternal consequence.

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I'm the Savior, I'm the one who changes lives.

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And that's the day I began to say everything else I do in life is wood, hay and stubble.

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The only thing that I do that really counts is pave the way for people to to know God.

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Just one thought, and we keep scaling this up Next year 2025, we're certain for sure that at least every month, we'll be seeing 100,000 people come to Christ.

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And that's where we're going and that's who we are, that's what we do, and I'm not going to do anything else.

00:10:03.388 --> 00:10:07.028
To be honest with you, it just seems to kind of be the thing to do.

00:10:07.028 --> 00:10:09.376
Anyway, I'm sorry I'm talking too much.

00:10:09.376 --> 00:10:10.200
No, I love it.

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I'll shut up and let you talk, jesus said I came to seek and save that which is lost.

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And so I love that.

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I love your heart.

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I know it's from God.

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I've seen you in so many settings talk about it and you can literally see God moving on your heart about it.

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It's more than just your gift to motivate us.

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I mean, I know it's a God mandate and that's why we're honored to be behind you, part of it.

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And I want to say, you know, thank you for pushing me and mentoring me, my men's.

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I want to talk about a subject for a second.

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We're here at a leaders gathering.

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I just shared about it but, for those that are going to listen to this, you really helped me when I was writing that to think about broadening it, backing it up, helping to be more inclusive.

00:10:57.432 --> 00:11:06.136
But one of the thesis of this winning theme is a scoreboard that we all have and the question what is winning?

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And I know you working with business leaders, leaders and pastors, when you think about all the leaders listing those here, you know what is winning as a specific mandate for reaching the loss, but how we can kind of lose sight of the wrong scoreboard or are playing for what doesn't matter.

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It's a great question.

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I would say two things quickly.

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Winning to me is having a personal definition of success.

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I think all of you need to have that.

00:11:38.409 --> 00:11:43.647
I think all of us need to have what is my definition of success?

00:11:43.647 --> 00:12:03.922
I mean, if we stop, jeff, and ask everybody here in the auditorium, or everybody that's listening, watching the podcast, what's your definition of success, you would have dozens of different good ideas and good suggestions about what success is, and so I've spent my life developing my own personal definition of success, and I think it's three things.

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I think, of all, it's knowing my purpose in life.

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To be honest with you, that's the foundation.

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Let me put it another way I watch people climb the ladder of life their entire life, only to find out when they get to the top that it's leaning against the wrong building.

00:12:26.090 --> 00:12:33.932
Yeah, it's because they never discovered really what their purpose was.

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So I think it starts there.

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I think it's knowing my purpose in life, and then I think, secondly, it's growing, growing to my maximum potential.

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In other words, god's gift to me are my gifts and talents.

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My gift to Him is how I develop and build those talents in my life, and so I'm passionate about personal growth and personal development and getting better and growing.

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Growing to the next level, not going to the next level.

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If you go to the next level, there's a high chance that you'll be over your head.

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If you grow to the next level, you'll never be over your head because you've already grown there and it will be natural and you'll just keep really being fruitful and multiplying.

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So and then the third thing I think success to me is sowing seeds that benefit others.

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It's got to be about others, it has to be about others.

00:13:26.667 --> 00:13:29.721
Yeah, success is about me and what I've accomplished.

00:13:29.721 --> 00:13:35.039
Significance is about what I do for other people yeah and I live a life of significance.

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I've been very blessed and I'm very grateful for that, but I know a lot of unhappy successful people yeah a lot of unhappy, successful people.

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You really can't be fulfilled if your life is about you.

00:13:45.642 --> 00:13:46.363
Just to be honest with you, I don't.

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A lot of unhappy, successful people.

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You really can't be fulfilled if your life is about you.

00:13:50.649 --> 00:13:53.455
Just to be honest with you, I don't care how much stuff you got.

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It's not enough.

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But I've never met an unhappy person that lived a life of significance.

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The moment that we cross over from it's about me to it's about you, I think that's where fulfillment is.

00:14:07.283 --> 00:14:09.510
So, to me, have a personal definition of success.

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That is winning.

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I think you all need to have your own, develop your own, and that's one I've developed over years.

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And then I think the second thing for me is just leave a great legacy.

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I really want to.

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What I say all the time is I want to create a lot of legs for my legacy.

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I want to have a lot of people just walking and that I've taught values to that.

00:14:34.371 --> 00:14:41.091
In fact, I started our coaching company, which now we have 55,000 coaches in what is it?

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170 countries, something like that.

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And those are legs to the legacy.

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They're walking legs.

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And if you develop a good—and, by the way, when you think of a legacy, we think of leaving something for someone, which that's part of a legacy.

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That's part of it.

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But the greater legacy is leaving something in someone.

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It's what you put in them.

00:15:02.789 --> 00:15:09.484
And that goes back to the things that you said earlier, jeff, about the values and the things that change.

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That change really change lives and the way I feel about it is that if you leave a solid legacy I mean I'm 77, so you know there's.

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You know, in 20 or 30 years I could die, but when I die, see, what's beautiful about when you leave a great legacy is when you're gone, you're not gone.

00:15:32.481 --> 00:15:46.712
Yeah yeah, oh no, you're still there, those principles, those values, those practices that you had in your life, jeff you know, they live in the lives of other people.

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So to me, if you can have a personal definition of success and really let that become your anchor and then have a legacy, which is what allows you to perhaps soar, that's winning to me.

00:15:58.179 --> 00:16:15.557
So I think you know, when you think about a football game, you know you can have a winning strategy, you can have a winning team and a winning set of plays, but the game, the reason we get enthralled, is it has an ebb and flow.

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Totally.

00:16:18.283 --> 00:16:32.575
And what would you say to us from what you've observed in your own life and others you've seen, like the adversity, the challenges, like how adversity can help you.

00:16:32.575 --> 00:16:38.732
I know I've seen a lot of people receive from you talk about the idea of failing forward.

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Talk to us a little bit about that, because I think there's people listening right now who say I want to be winning in my marriage or I want to win in this area of my life, but I'm not there right now.

00:16:51.942 --> 00:16:52.142
Sure.

00:16:52.142 --> 00:17:13.608
Well, first of all, jeff, that's one of the reasons why I'm glad you have your podcast Lead to Win, because everybody wants to win, but a lot of people, through the things you're talking about now failure, loss, ups and downs a lot of people get lost and they're not going to win unless somebody leads them.

00:17:13.608 --> 00:17:24.530
And, by the way, when you were speaking today and I heard you speak with such what I would call moral authority and gravitas, I thought to myself I understand exactly where you are.

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I understand exactly why you're doing what you're doing, and I do believe, Jeff, that you have come into the time such as this, not only to build an incredible church in America, but even something much greater than that to let your influence go beyond just this congregation and help people lead to win.

00:17:41.708 --> 00:17:50.951
And I think your podcast and what you're doing with Lead to Win is something that God has prepared you for for such a time as this, in the culture that we live in.

00:17:50.951 --> 00:17:51.773
Would you not agree?

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You're called to it and I think that's beautiful.

00:17:56.429 --> 00:17:57.491
I think that's beautiful.

00:17:57.491 --> 00:18:03.367
So how do you help people in this terrible, just up-and-down time?

00:18:04.609 --> 00:18:05.151
I've written a book.

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It's not come out yet.

00:18:06.333 --> 00:18:16.854
I'm just writing all the time, okay, so I'm just writing all the time and so it'll come out probably a year from now.

00:18:16.854 --> 00:18:19.910
I've got another book coming out before that that I've written too, but anyway.

00:18:19.910 --> 00:18:30.265
But I have a book coming out It'll be out in about a year called how to Receive a Return on Failure, and it's big in the business community.

00:18:30.265 --> 00:18:35.188
In fact, when I speak for companies they just say could you do the return on failure book?

00:18:35.188 --> 00:18:40.412
And so if I can talk for three minutes, can I talk for three minutes?

00:18:40.412 --> 00:18:41.732
About this Sure, you can please.

00:18:41.992 --> 00:18:49.597
And help them, because you know we're always looking for a return on our investment and we want an ROI.

00:18:49.597 --> 00:19:00.708
But I'm going to tell you you can get an ROF, you can get a return on failure, and I'll probably just have time now.

00:19:00.708 --> 00:19:01.892
Let me give you one, just one.

00:19:01.892 --> 00:19:06.788
But this is huge, and that is that we need to keep failure and success together.

00:19:08.440 --> 00:19:12.470
The challenge the problem we have is in our culture we're taught to separate them.

00:19:12.470 --> 00:19:16.208
So people say win, don't lose.

00:19:16.208 --> 00:19:19.586
Right, yeah, do it right, don't do it wrong.

00:19:19.586 --> 00:19:22.400
You know, don't mess it up, make sure you got it.

00:19:22.400 --> 00:19:28.093
And so we're constantly contrasting winning and failing.

00:19:28.093 --> 00:19:36.685
And yet that is as unnatural and unreal as anything you talk about fantasy land.

00:19:37.119 --> 00:19:43.294
My life has never been in such a way that I could separate success and failure.

00:19:43.294 --> 00:19:44.826
I've never had I don't know, maybe you have.

00:19:44.826 --> 00:19:49.808
I've never had like a week where I said, oh my gosh, all I had was success all week.

00:19:49.808 --> 00:19:55.125
I never had bad news, I never had a loss, never had a miss you follow me.

00:19:55.125 --> 00:19:59.825
Or I've never had a week where I've all said everything I've done has been a failure too.

00:19:59.825 --> 00:20:09.351
I mean, they belong together, and the reason that they belong together is it gives us the proper perspective about how life is.

00:20:09.351 --> 00:20:10.133
Let me explain.

00:20:10.133 --> 00:20:19.074
If I keep success and failure together, let's say that I am succeeding and everything's kind of going my way and it's really good.

00:20:19.074 --> 00:20:25.673
I need to keep failure right beside my success because it will teach me humility.

00:20:25.673 --> 00:20:30.530
And when we lose humility, we lose teachability.

00:20:30.530 --> 00:20:34.550
And when we lose teachability, we can't be coached.

00:20:34.550 --> 00:20:41.390
Forget mentoring, forget anybody coming and adding value to your life.

00:20:41.390 --> 00:20:43.359
You've lost it when you've lost humility.

00:20:43.359 --> 00:20:50.977
So if I'm succeeding, if I keep failure beside me while I'm succeeding, I still have failure beside me.

00:20:50.977 --> 00:20:58.707
While I'm succeeding, I still have a humbleness of my heart and a willingness to keep learning and being willing to change.

00:20:58.707 --> 00:21:02.942
But let's say that we're over in the ditch and we're having a failure streak that's going on and a lot of losses.

00:21:02.942 --> 00:21:25.471
I need to keep success beside my failure so that when I'm not doing as well as I want to do and I'm greatly discouraged, if I keep my success close to my failure, it gives me resiliency, it allows me to come back, it allows me to say, oh my gosh, I can get back up, I don't have to be down, and so therefore, you want to keep them together.

00:21:26.500 --> 00:21:28.467
I do learning lunches every month.

00:21:28.467 --> 00:21:30.882
I've done this for over 40 years.

00:21:30.882 --> 00:21:36.903
Every month I take somebody to the lunch that's bigger, better, faster, smarter than me, which that's not hard to find.

00:21:36.903 --> 00:21:48.051
I've got a whole bunch of people like that and I take them to lunch and I buy their lunch and I ask them seven questions and it's been one of the greatest mentoring experiences that I've ever had.

00:21:48.051 --> 00:21:53.692
Now, saying all of that, I ask them what is the greatest lesson that they've ever learned in their life?

00:21:53.692 --> 00:21:59.412
That's one of the seven questions, and when I ask them that question, they always talk about failure.

00:21:59.412 --> 00:22:19.928
Now, I've asked that question hundreds of times to hundreds of different people in hundreds of different restaurant locations time to hundreds of different people in hundreds of different restaurant locations, and I've never had a person talk about the greatest lesson I ever learned in life that did not have a hurt, a loss, a miss, an ouch in it.

00:22:19.928 --> 00:22:26.222
And the reason for that is is because, well, bill Gates said it best.

00:22:26.222 --> 00:22:28.068
He said success is a lousy teacher.

00:22:28.068 --> 00:22:29.721
It makes us think we can't lose.

00:22:29.721 --> 00:22:47.535
And so we go around with this arrogance about us like, oh, my gosh, oh, I got it down, I got it made, or whatever that process is, and what happens is it's in our failure that we take time to recognize who we are and what has happened to us.

00:22:48.864 --> 00:23:06.819
I was doing an interview with another person I won't use his name because all of you would know him, but major player and I was asking him about failure and mistakes and, what was interesting, he kept talking about the things he had not done well as a leader, decisions he wished he could have made differently.

00:23:06.819 --> 00:23:11.530
And finally I said wow, I'll bet you'd like to have some do-overs, wouldn't you?

00:23:11.530 --> 00:23:12.340
A do-over I wish you.

00:23:12.340 --> 00:23:16.361
I bet you wish you could go back and maybe make a different decision than the one you made.

00:23:16.361 --> 00:23:17.182
That's a do-over.

00:23:17.663 --> 00:23:20.310
And when I said that to him, he surprised me unbelievably.

00:23:20.310 --> 00:23:27.348
He said no, he said I've made a lot of mistakes and I've had a lot of failures, but I don't want to do any of them over".

00:23:27.348 --> 00:23:30.313
I said you're kidding me.

00:23:30.313 --> 00:23:33.416
And I said why?

00:23:33.416 --> 00:23:34.417
He said it's very simple.

00:23:34.417 --> 00:23:40.611
All the lessons I've ever learned were out of my mistakes and failures and losses.

00:23:40.611 --> 00:23:44.464
He said that's where I developed my character.

00:23:44.464 --> 00:23:52.182
If I did a do-over, I would lose the lesson and I wouldn't have character.

00:23:52.182 --> 00:23:57.874
He said I'll take the losses, I'll take the misses.

00:23:57.874 --> 00:24:04.894
And I just thought oh my gosh, this is the way to understand how life is and how to overcome it.

00:24:05.339 --> 00:24:07.386
That's so amazing I want to talk to you about.

00:24:07.386 --> 00:24:08.942
I want to talk about growing.

00:24:08.942 --> 00:24:11.989
You know the biblical metaphor.

00:24:11.989 --> 00:24:12.590
Yes.

00:24:13.092 --> 00:24:25.281
And really the cultural backdrop, the agricultural backdrop of the Bible has so much you know sowing and seeds and growth, and all started in a garden.

00:24:25.281 --> 00:24:34.547
And I think you know you and I were just talking because, again, you helped me get the Lead to Win brand and I called you and it was kind of tied up.

00:24:34.547 --> 00:24:39.470
You untied it and I said you know, I was like I don't know, you know the concept.

00:24:39.470 --> 00:24:40.471
I just want to help people win.

00:24:40.471 --> 00:24:41.986
I just needed something to hang the hat on.

00:24:41.986 --> 00:24:50.902
And you said to me well, if you're not good, it really doesn't matter what the brand is.

00:24:50.902 --> 00:24:54.003
See, it doesn't matter what the name of your church is or your brand.

00:24:54.003 --> 00:24:59.087
He goes, if you're good, it really doesn't matter what they call it.

00:24:59.728 --> 00:25:04.751
And I think and I don't want to be the I mean I'm a little behind you in the race.

00:25:04.751 --> 00:25:07.513
You've always talked about growing, getting better.

00:25:07.513 --> 00:25:11.896
I don't want to be the person to the younger generation and I don't want to clump.

00:25:11.896 --> 00:25:28.942
This is very important and as I talk to leaders and leaders that are listening to this, younger leaders I think it's dangerous to categorize all of them in one lump, because there are champions in this next generation that aren't entitled, that are growing, that are, and they actually stand out.

00:25:28.942 --> 00:25:41.922
But I think there is something at large, a bit due to, probably, affluence and success and wins, um, that that there's this thought of if you know, I should be able to do exactly what I love.

00:25:41.922 --> 00:25:50.473
I should be further by now, Um, more concerned with algorithms than we are getting better.

00:25:50.473 --> 00:25:51.476
Yeah, we really are.

00:25:51.476 --> 00:26:02.269
And so what would you say, from your perspective, is the best thing a young leader, any person here, instead of complaining about their current context?

00:26:02.269 --> 00:26:03.592
What can we do?

00:26:03.592 --> 00:26:05.748
What can I do to get better?

00:26:07.441 --> 00:26:08.724
Well, first of all, I'm 77.

00:26:08.724 --> 00:26:16.492
Is there anything worse than an old man thinking the next generation is going to hell?

00:26:16.492 --> 00:26:25.770
In fact, people ask me all the time they say I'm 77, but how do you stay so young?

00:26:25.770 --> 00:26:27.267
I said, well, I don't hang with old people.

00:26:27.267 --> 00:26:30.147
I mean, I learned my lesson.

00:26:30.147 --> 00:26:35.952
I went to my 50th high school reunion and I would never suggest that for any person.

00:26:35.952 --> 00:26:39.547
First of all, I kid you not.

00:26:39.586 --> 00:26:52.354
I walked in with my wife, margaret, and we've been married for 55 years now and I walked in with her to this high school reunion and I looked at and there was, honest to God, there was a bunch of old people and I told her.

00:26:52.354 --> 00:26:54.061
I said there's a bunch of old people here.

00:26:54.061 --> 00:26:56.211
She said you're one of them.

00:26:56.211 --> 00:26:56.652
Go in there.

00:26:56.652 --> 00:27:00.984
They're your classmates, you graduated with them and I, it was.

00:27:01.005 --> 00:27:04.632
I mean, it was a terrible evening.

00:27:04.632 --> 00:27:05.212
It was terrible.

00:27:05.212 --> 00:27:15.326
I mean I went around and I said hi to all of them and you know it was, in fact, when we were leaving, I said, honey, I don't know whether to go to the hotel or the hospital.

00:27:15.326 --> 00:27:19.048
And she said why?

00:27:19.048 --> 00:27:28.133
She said because I said, well, 70 percent of the people that graduated with me, they have to be doctors and pharmacists, because all they talked about was the medicine that they were taking.

00:27:28.133 --> 00:27:30.605
And you know, I don't know.

00:27:30.605 --> 00:27:31.428
Am I going to live?

00:27:31.428 --> 00:27:39.373
You know, I mean what's happening here in that whole process, and so I don't dump on the next generation.

00:27:39.373 --> 00:27:41.288
I want them to do better than me.

00:27:41.288 --> 00:27:42.865
I want you to stand on my shoulders.

00:27:42.905 --> 00:27:43.607
Listen, listen.

00:27:44.119 --> 00:27:47.695
The greatest churches in the world have not yet been built.

00:27:47.715 --> 00:27:49.461
They're waiting on you.

00:27:49.461 --> 00:27:51.047
They're waiting on you.

00:27:52.991 --> 00:27:58.251
The greatest transformation of a nation has not been done just because Maxwell's in a nation right now.

00:27:58.251 --> 00:28:03.886
There'll be better transformations of nations and bigger transformations and there'll be more souls won.

00:28:03.886 --> 00:28:05.951
So I bless the next.

00:28:05.951 --> 00:28:07.835
I want you all to stand on my shoulders.

00:28:07.835 --> 00:28:14.071
In fact, I'm a pioneer, and a pioneer understands a couple of things.

00:28:14.071 --> 00:28:17.767
They go first so they see things others haven't seen.

00:28:17.767 --> 00:28:19.210
They do things others haven't done.

00:28:19.210 --> 00:28:21.906
But here's what they know Because they're a pioneer.

00:28:21.906 --> 00:28:32.445
There'll be people come behind them that, because they were the pioneer, that will do much better than them, that they will learn from their mistakes and the route will be a lot clearer.

00:28:32.445 --> 00:28:39.584
So I only pioneer, so everybody else can come by and do much better and quicker and faster and smarter than me.

00:28:40.420 --> 00:28:43.885
So when I mentor young, I love young leaders, love spending time with them.

00:28:43.885 --> 00:29:01.388
But a lot of times they'll ask about the branding question and I tell them all the time I'll say honestly Just get good, because if you're good any brand will work and if you're not good, there's not a brand that can help you.

00:29:01.388 --> 00:29:05.480
And so quit looking for.

00:29:05.480 --> 00:29:24.357
Well, if I could just market myself, well, if I could just brand myself right, in fact, what I'll do if I have them in my office is I'll take them over and I'll show them a laminated kit of cassette tapes which they know nothing about of my first sharing of sending out to pastors.

00:29:24.478 --> 00:29:25.645
I had a tape club.

00:29:25.645 --> 00:29:26.868
I listened to all of them.

00:29:26.888 --> 00:29:29.596
Okay, well, everybody did.

00:29:29.596 --> 00:29:33.385
I mean they used to say I listened to them.

00:29:33.385 --> 00:29:38.054
Then they said well, my children listen to them, and now grandchildren are coming to me with those things.

00:29:38.608 --> 00:29:48.993
And I show them and it's terrible, it's got a sticker on it, it looks terrible, it's an ugly green and it's kind of faded and it's not even quite on straight.

00:29:48.993 --> 00:29:58.588
And I say this was my first product here, I put this out and they're like now they say, oh my God, that's the worst thing.

00:29:58.588 --> 00:30:00.224
And it is, it's the worst thing they've ever seen.

00:30:00.224 --> 00:30:08.015
And then I tell them that 100,000 people bought it and I became a mentor to pastors all over the country with it.

00:30:08.015 --> 00:30:14.732
And then I tell them it's not the color on the outside, it's the content on the inside.

00:30:15.944 --> 00:30:20.913
So listen, quit taking shortcuts, just get good.

00:30:20.913 --> 00:30:23.779
And the only way you can get good is by practice.

00:30:23.779 --> 00:30:27.619
It's by practice when people say, well, how do I develop myself as a leader?

00:30:27.619 --> 00:30:28.525
You have to practice.

00:30:28.525 --> 00:30:34.121
You just have to continually practice leadership and that's how you get better.

00:30:34.121 --> 00:30:37.631
And when you practice you make more mistakes than you have.

00:30:37.631 --> 00:30:40.086
You have more losses than gains in the beginning.

00:30:40.086 --> 00:30:40.771
But that's okay.

00:30:40.771 --> 00:30:48.607
You're practicing, you're learning from it, you're getting better, you're adjusting, you're leader shifting and that will improve you.

00:30:49.209 --> 00:31:10.536
So I know about your mentor lunches, I know I mean, you've shared with us so many of these things and I know one of the things that you prioritize to is is a time to think right to sit, evaluate, think in your recent times, like it's, it's, you're getting ready for the new year.

00:31:11.077 --> 00:31:24.394
You this is actually, as we're here today, your first event in a while, because you just had a hip replacement surgery and that and so you're, you're doing good, and so you've had a little bit more time to think I have what.

00:31:24.394 --> 00:31:30.076
What if we were to get, if we were, if all these people listening were to have coffee with you right now?

00:31:30.076 --> 00:31:32.426
What is something you've been thinking about?

00:31:32.426 --> 00:31:35.402
Yeah, it's something you you just been stirring about, something you've just been stirring about.

00:31:35.663 --> 00:31:37.330
Thank you, I love that question.

00:31:37.330 --> 00:31:47.255
In fact, I wrote a book called how Successful People Think and I just encourage you if you don't have it, you need to get that book.

00:31:47.255 --> 00:31:56.640
It's 11 practices of successful people and their thinking that are absent in people that are not successful.

00:31:56.640 --> 00:31:59.510
And it has nothing to do with smart IQ.

00:31:59.510 --> 00:32:07.151
It has to do with the way that we really think, and so I prioritize thinking time.

00:32:07.151 --> 00:32:19.027
Leaders have a bias for action, so we're ready to get in the game, but I also understand that action without thought is not probably what you really want.

00:32:19.027 --> 00:32:27.090
So I love I have a thinking chair in my home where I just sit down and don't watch TV, don't just read, I just.

00:32:27.090 --> 00:32:29.700
It's my thinking chair, and so I think.

00:32:29.700 --> 00:32:47.618
And so at the end of the year, I'm always I do a whole process of the last week of the year, of I go hour by hour of my previous year, reflecting of what I've done and then evaluating what I could have done better, what I need to stop doing, what I need to start doing, and it gives me the impetus for 2025.

00:32:47.618 --> 00:32:51.893
And so I'm always thinking about how can I add value to people.

00:32:51.893 --> 00:32:55.603
Okay, sustained thinking is tremendous.

00:32:55.603 --> 00:32:57.729
I would encourage all of us to.

00:32:57.729 --> 00:33:08.380
In a world that's easily distracted, there's great value in holding on to thoughts, and so I write my thoughts down and I keep going back to them.

00:33:08.380 --> 00:33:16.468
And so one of my thoughts, jeff, as I was wrapping up last year, was how can I really add value to people in a greater way than I ever have before?

00:33:17.230 --> 00:33:23.579
And one of the books I'm writing it won't come out for a few years yet, but one of the books I'm writing is called the Two Percent Factor.

00:33:23.579 --> 00:33:36.958
The Two Percent Factor just simply says that if you really are good in whatever your profession is, and you get to the top 10% in other words, you're really in that last high 10% You're doing well.

00:33:36.958 --> 00:33:42.676
You probably have enough at 10% to be very comfortable the rest of your life.

00:33:42.676 --> 00:33:44.531
You've got a lot of influence.

00:33:44.531 --> 00:33:45.878
You've probably got enough money.

00:33:45.878 --> 00:33:49.513
You're probably, if you're in the top 10%, you're probably set.

00:33:49.513 --> 00:33:59.808
But I'm writing about the 2% because what people don't understand is from 10% to 2%, 8 percentage points.

00:33:59.808 --> 00:34:10.418
There's going to be a greater return on those 8 percentage points from 10 to 2 than there were for the first 90 that got to the 10.

00:34:10.418 --> 00:34:14.291
Consistency compounds.

00:34:14.291 --> 00:34:19.067
I know that because I'm living this life, right now, at 77, and it's ridiculous.

00:34:19.929 --> 00:34:24.039
So I was asking myself how do I help people get to the 2%?

00:34:24.039 --> 00:34:25.483
How can I help them?

00:34:25.483 --> 00:34:34.630
It's very hard, because when you're comfortable, you really aren't hungry, and when you're not hungry, you no longer put out the price that you have to to get there, right?

00:34:34.630 --> 00:34:56.708
So when you're asking what I'm taking, so I sat down with my four-color Bic pen that costs 79 cents and my legal pad and I started writing down the one percenters in people that I know in life, that are friends of mine, that I have a relationship with, and I just did this Probably in three minutes.

00:34:56.708 --> 00:34:58.172
I wrote down 19 names.

00:34:58.172 --> 00:34:59.175
Okay, I'm done.

00:34:59.175 --> 00:35:00.927
I mean I could do more, but I don't need to do more.

00:35:00.927 --> 00:35:08.570
And I looked at those 19 names and I said to myself what do they all have in common with me and where I am today?

00:35:08.570 --> 00:35:18.570
And all of a sudden I realized that those people that were in that 1% or 2%, someone else took me to them to meet them.

00:35:19.193 --> 00:35:23.615
Wow, I didn't get there by myself, wow.

00:35:23.615 --> 00:35:40.130
So immediately I put sustained thinking on how do I help people get to those people, because once I got in the door, their relationships began to boom and blossom and now it's become incredible.

00:35:40.130 --> 00:35:44.117
So I spent most of the holidays working out.

00:35:44.117 --> 00:35:54.414
I'm going to do a thing called Maxwell Masterclass next year, but I spent most of that time saying how do I bring people to the people that you know?

00:35:54.414 --> 00:35:55.757
Who do you know that I should know?

00:35:55.757 --> 00:35:58.771
Yeah, okay, that's the question who do you know that I should know?

00:35:58.771 --> 00:36:15.715
And I spent my time thinking about how I'm going to do that in 2025, and I developed a plan to do it, because once you have thought a great thought or a great idea, it's worthless until you act upon it.

00:36:17.697 --> 00:36:31.460
There is no success without action, and so you use thinking to give you clarity, and then you use action to give you success.

00:36:31.460 --> 00:36:32.286
Does that make sense?

00:36:32.286 --> 00:36:37.440
Yeah, and so that's exactly what it's like I and you're gonna put more legs to your legacy.

00:36:37.661 --> 00:36:38.903
Oh, I know those people together.

00:36:39.565 --> 00:36:44.617
I'm 77 and this is going 2025 is going to be my greatest year, yet I mean, it's just huge.

00:36:46.086 --> 00:36:49.820
I just look, I saw my gosh you're gonna put more legs to your legacy.

00:36:49.880 --> 00:36:51.405
I've got 14 books yet to write.

00:36:51.405 --> 00:36:55.813
I mean, I've got it like a book birthing line 14 books yet to write.

00:36:55.813 --> 00:37:04.987
I mean, I've got like a book birthing line of books, of titles, in fact I was talking to God about that.

00:37:04.987 --> 00:37:09.398
I said I got 14 books and I know you're not supposed to do this because it's a little bit like negotiation and I negotiated.

00:37:09.398 --> 00:37:11.503
I said, god, you just got to.

00:37:11.503 --> 00:37:12.025
Let me live.

00:37:12.025 --> 00:37:14.353
Let me live long enough to put these books out there.

00:37:14.634 --> 00:37:15.315
That's so good.

00:37:15.585 --> 00:37:19.867
And I thought I was doing really good when God reminded me without me you can do nothing.

00:37:19.867 --> 00:37:21.050
Shut up, thank you.

00:37:25.170 --> 00:37:30.427
Thank you for the equipping, Thank you for your life, Thank you for the people.

00:37:30.427 --> 00:37:34.612
You've introduced many of us to and helped us and been an inspiration.

00:37:34.612 --> 00:37:40.701
I do believe more than just books, because the Holy Spirit lives inside of you.

00:37:40.701 --> 00:37:42.291
There's an impartation.

00:37:42.291 --> 00:37:48.934
So I'd like to close our time together because I truly believe in this whether someone is able to meet with you and touch you.

00:37:50.527 --> 00:37:50.626
Or.

00:37:50.686 --> 00:37:54.277
I do believe that anointing is transferable.

00:37:54.277 --> 00:37:57.215
I believe God transfers it in the supernatural.

00:37:57.215 --> 00:38:21.911
I don't know how to explain it, but we see it in Scripture so I would like the people here, just everyone, to stand, and then everyone listening, if they can pause, or wherever you're at and I want back to legs to your legacy would you pray over us, what God's put on your life that, if we're receptive for it, that we can receive it, we can walk in it?

00:38:22.353 --> 00:38:22.974
I'd be glad to.

00:38:22.974 --> 00:38:25.324
Before I pray, let me just say something.

00:38:25.324 --> 00:38:42.893
As I sat and listened to you teach this today, jeff, I was overwhelmed with joy because I'm watching you now, at a younger age than me, do greater things than I ever did at that age.

00:38:42.893 --> 00:38:46.489
It means so much and I thought to myself the greatest joy.

00:38:46.489 --> 00:38:49.737
And I'm going to talk tonight about how to maximize mentorship.

00:38:49.737 --> 00:39:01.900
I'm going to talk about how do you maximize this mentoring opportunity we have, and I've had an opportunity to do some mentoring with you, and then I watched you and I thought how true it is.

00:39:01.900 --> 00:39:03.971
He's going to do more.

00:39:03.971 --> 00:39:06.371