Leadership is very important in life. It has been taught by a lot of people in many different ways. Only a few authors are the best at explaining it. John Calvin Maxwell is one of those few authors. John Maxwell is known across the globe as motivational author, speaker, and founder of multiple organizations, he also teaches people about leadership, teamwork, and how to be successful. John Maxwell was born on February 20, 1947 in Garden City, Michigan. He grew up in Michigan. He attended Ohio Christian University, and graduated with a Master of Divinity and a Doctor of Ministry.
After being around his father, Melvin Maxwell, who was also a Pastor, John decided to become one too. Fifty years ago John had “an unstoppable desire to make a difference in the lives of people” (Maxwell N/A). His journey began at a small church in Hillham, Indiana with his wife, Margaret. The year was 1969; newly married John had stepped into his first opportunity to preach. Hillham was a very small town, and in one of his blogs, John admitted “when Margaret and I first moved there, the town consisted of eleven houses, two garages, and one grocery store” (Maxwell, N/A).
Because the town was so small, John’s first Sunday sermon only had an audience of two, and his wife was one of them. During the life of being a Pastor, John, started writing books about leadership. His books were surprisingly being published and purchased. John’s publisher told him that 2/3 of his books he was writing were getting published, so after being a pastor for thirty years, John made the big decision to become a fulltime author and speaker. Before becoming so popular, John was mentored by the founder of Crystal Cathedral, Robert H. Schuller.
In his book How Successful People Think, John said to become successful he had to study successful people for forty years (Maxwell, ix). He learned a lot from studying successful people which is what he wrote about in his book. One of the most important keys he learned about becoming successful was to gain people’s respect so they can believe and understand what you want to tell them. In a lot of John’s books he mentions his wife, Margaret Maxwell. She gets thanked in a couple of his books’ acknowledgements. In the book, Put Your Dreams to the Test, John says, “This book is dedicated to Margaret Maxwell, the girl of my dreams.
On June 14, 1969, we were married. Since that day, we have been living the dream together. I cannot imagine my life without her” (Maxwell, N/A). Margaret always supports her husband, without Margaret, none of his dreams would have come true. When John first started, the church in Hillham only offered him eighty dollars a week and expected him to get other part-time jobs to make enough money. Margaret stepped in and said “No, even if the salary is part-time, John will give all his energy to the church full-time. He is going to become a great leader” (Maxwell, 116).
During that time Margaret worked three different jobs to earn enough money to pay for their living. John also likes to mention what his purpose in life is in some of his books. He has a lot of different purposes, but his main purpose is to help others. For fifty years he has been working on “improving his life to help improve the lives of others” (Maxwell, 1). One of the reasons he writes his books is to help people be successful. All of John Maxwell’s books eventually come back one thing, leadership. That is what he teaches.
John Maxwell said “A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way” (Maxwell, N/A). He teaches a little different than most leadership authors, in the book The Difference Maker he says that most speakers say attitude is everything, but to him “Attitude isn’t everything, but is one thing that can make a difference in your life” (Maxwell, 2). In one of his other books, Leadership 101, John Maxwell said “Leadership develops daily, not in a day” (Maxwell, 12). Those are just some examples of his leadership advice. Most of John’s advice can be found in his books.
His books are very popular; he has sold over 26 million books. Several of his books are New York’s Bestsellers. He has written more than 100 books and each book gets translated into fifty different languages. Three of his books have each sold more than 1 million copies. His book sales are over than 19 million dollars, and John says every book he writes is an act of teamwork (Maxwell, viii). He even coauthored a book called Becoming a Person of Influence with Jim Dornan. Not only does John Maxwell write books, but he also gives speeches to people all across the globe.
Every year he speaks to Fortune 500 companies, international government leaders, and organizations like the United States Military Academy at West Point, the national football league, and the United Nations. When he first started giving speeches he spent most of his time giving lectures, but now since he is more popular, people want ask him questions for most of his time. John Maxwell has received a lot of different awards. Some of them include him being identified as the #1 leader in business by the American Management Association, and the world’s most influential leadership expert by Business Insider and Inc.
Magazine in 2014. He has been named the World’s Top Leadership Guru by leadershipgurus. net, and has been rewarded Amazon’s 10th Anniversary Hall of Fame. One of his biggest accomplishments is to be the founder of his own organization, EQUIP. It was founded in 1996 by John Maxwell and his brother, Larry. It is a non-profit organization that trains Christian Leaders to impact families, communities, and nations. They have trained more than 6 million leaders in 196 different countries and have 18,000 different coaches. Its international headquarters are located at 12Stone Church. ohn’s vision for this organization is for it to be “continually committed to developing leaders whose potential is great, but opportunities for learning leadership have been limited” (Maxwell, N/A). On Youthmax Day, EQUIP’s leaders/ coaches train and help high school kids on self-image, bullying, and how to handle failure. EQUIP’s five rules are “Every day we think globally, evaluate our leadership strategy, create resources, develop associate trainers, partners, donors, and train leaders to train leaders” (Maxwell, N/A). Another organization John founded is Injoy Stewardship.
It was founded in 1992 because John Maxwell was leading a church and was working with a few other companies to help the church raise money. Unfortunately the other companies was working with didn’t care about the people, because all they cared about was the money, so the purpose of this organization is to help Pastors help their people grow through generosity. So far they have helped over 4,000 different Pastors when they needed to raise money to build a building, or to build an orphanage somewhere overseas, and other expensive things they can’t afford.
Most importantly they do it through generosity, so they care more about helping the church than the money. This is why John Maxwell is known worldwide as a leadership expert, speaker, and author who teaches people how to be a great leader through teamwork, hard work, and dedication. He has founded two of his own organizations, has written tons of books, given speeches to other leaders, and received multiple awards. Everyone can learn something from John’s books, speeches, and advice. John Calvin Maxwell will never be forgotten because of all his dedication, hard work, and perseverance when pursuing his dreams.
