Willow Creek Global Leadership Summit

Today I attended the Willow Creek Global Leadership Summit for the very first time. Events like this get me so pumped up for the future and leading in the workplace. Below are the notes from day one. I am going to separate them by speaker.

Jim Collins:
- "Life is people and time with the people you love."
- "The only mistakes you can learn from are the ones you survive."
- "The signature of mediocrity is chronic inconsistency."
- "Are we responsible for out performance? Or do we perform based on what happens to us?"
- "Creativity is natural, discipline is not. The real skill is to marry creativity with discipline."
- "Your organization is not truly great if it can't be great without you."
- "The greatest danger isn't to fail. The greatest danger is to be successful without understanding why you are successful."
- "Greatness is not primarily a matter of what happens to you, but a matter of what you do."
- "In the end, it is impossible to have a great life unless it is a meaningful life. Live and lead in a way that when the end of you life comes, you will know that it mattered."
- "It is impossible to have a great life unless it's a meaningful life done with people you love."
- "Greatness is not a matter of circumstance, but rather it is a matter of choice and discipline."
- "It is what you do before you are in trouble that makes you strong when people most need you."
- "If we lose our values, we lose everything."

Condolezza Rice:
- "The true calling of leaders is not to accept the world for what it is, but rather for what it should be."
- "Frienship can be the place that let's you have difficult conversations."
- "Perhaps the greatest opportunity of leadership is helping people see their own leadership possibilities."
- "It is a privlege to struggle, and out of struggle comes victory."
- "Think of all those times when what seemed impossible became inevitable."
- "We as leaders can make the world not as it is, but as it should be."
- "Today's headlines and history's jusdgement are rarely the same."
- "It is a privilege to struggle. Struggle produces hope and hope doesn't disappoint. After Friday, there was Sunday."
- "No one wants to follow a sour puss!"
- As a leader, I must increase the opportunity for my followers to achieve greatness. Every life is worthy of the opportunity for greatness."
- "God is good... ALL the time."
- "There is a lot the government can do, but it cannot deliever compassion."

Bill Hybels:
- "If you want to see more trees, you have to plant more seeds."
- "Wrestle with words until they communicate your ideas in a way that captures the imagination, catalyzes action and lifts spirits."
- "A fundamental for leaders is to stay curious. We must insist on a series of non- stop experiments to keep people learning."
- "6x6 6 initiatives in 6 weeks. Focus, pray, and energize!"
- "Your primary resource is not your time it's your energy, and your ability to energize others."
- "Respect those of us who are trying to lead from a Christ- centered perspective."
- "Everyone wins when a leader gets better."
- "Where you invest your love, you invest your life."
- "The penalty of bad leadership: You're always stuck with the same problems. The reward of good leadership: You get to solve new ones."
- God didn't make you a leader to respong to stuff all day, but to move things forward."
- "As a leader, your whole organization takes its seed sowing cues from you."
- "I actually believe everyone's life would be better if God was at the center of it."
- "Leaders love to build teams... Primarily because we have no clue what we're doing most of the time."
- "If you want to see more trees- plant more seeds. Don't complain about few trees, plant more seed."

Miscellaneous Quotes:
- "Every life is worthy. Every life is capable of greatness." (Hybels?)
- "With God, 'Thank You' should always come before 'Please.'"
- "Click- Clack is the new AMEN!"
- "Leadership is a privilege."
- "God made you a leader to move stuff ahead. Stop prioritizing the tyranny of the urgent."
- "I guess I ought to get better too."
- "Christianity was meant for lovers, not experts." (Len Sweet)
- "Good intentions are never an excuse for incompetence." (Pete Drucker)
- "You are the most difficult person you will ever lead." (Hybels?)
- "If you really care about the people you lead, you have to humble yourself and learn from anyone who can help you get better."
- "When you communicate empathy you are able to create compassion."
- "If you ask what's in it for me? People who give to something bigger than themselves are happier. And happier people live longer."
- "Be the change you want to see."
- "You can have all the talent in the world, but if you're not humble people won't listen." (Kevin Olusola)
- "We can do no great things. We can do small things with great love." (Mother Teresa)
- "Sometimes some of the most effective ways to help people aren't the sexiest."
- "We have won the lottery of life, what we could do together is remarkable."
- "There are few things in life that elevate your happiness. One is contributing to a cause greater than yourself." (Sheryl Wudunn)
- "We are the generation that we have been waiting for. We just have to believe it."
- "Greatness is not a matter of circumstance. Greatness is a choice of what you do with the opportunities.