Video Transcript: Dan Cathy with John Maxwell

Dan Cathy - John, a delight to have you with us, and I always enjoy being able  to talk to you and chat with you, and as you and I have been together, the thing  that impresses me most is you're such a prolific note taker. You love to grab  quotes, and then you wonderfully craft these almost like ingredients in a kitchen, and you put them all in the mixing bowl and it out pops a book. Out pops a book. That's exactly right, Dan, but what is your insatiable appetite to learn where you  know as you trace back upstream in your own life, I can, I can go right back  

John Maxwell - to the source. When I felt called into the ministry at 17, and I sat down with my father, who my father is, 90 years of age today, still active. We  share that, still in ministry. Yes, your father's. And I think 91 is it? 91 so and my  dad said, John, if you're going to be in the ministry and if you're going to teach,  you have to constantly fill yourself up with thoughts, ideas, reading. And he said, Don't ever let the Don't, don't ever let the well run dry. He said, I know a lot of  people, they they fill themselves up at a young age, but then they don't keep  refilling themselves and they get I remember he used to. I remember he used  the number so well or 70. He said 65 they get 65 and they have nothing to say.  Well, I turned 65 and I've always had a fear of having nothing to give, because  you cannot give what you do not have. So the compelling desire in the  beginning was to keep my well filled. What I didn't understand is that would be  the source of my creativity. That would be the source of almost everything,  almost everything, absolutely, almost every good thing that's happened to me is  because of that advice of my dad, to be a student, to be a learner, to ask  questions, I discovered that when I'm talking, I'm not learning anything, but  when I'm asking questions, I'm learning everything. And so every person is my  teacher. Every person has something that they know, that I need to know. That's my basic thought. Is when I have five minutes with somebody, I want to find out  as quickly as I can what they know, because they have something I need to  know. And the quicker I know them, the quicker I can ask the question so they  can help me.  

Dan Cathy - John, you talk a lot about mentors. You just mentioned your dad a  few moments ago. What are you You put John Maxwell, looking for in a mentor  and and are there a couple of other mentors that you would mind sharing with  us that in your life currently?  

John Maxwell - Well, first of all, I think there's a naiveness about mentoring, and that is that one person can be my mentor. I've really never felt that. I don't think  one person knows everything to be my mentor. So I look for mentors in five  different areas. I look for spiritual mentoring, somebody that can really speak  into my heart and my soul. I look for relational mentoring people that are good  with relationships, because that's so key to success. I look for attitudinal 

mentoring people that really can overcome problems, issues, adversity, that  sometimes I need to say, Boy, I'm stuck. I'm stuck. Can you kind of pull me  through? I look for leadership, mentoring people that really understand influence and leadership so that I can go to them and ask questions. I mean, you've been  a leadership mentor for me for many years. I've watched you walk slowly  through the crowds. I understand how you are a major leadership connector,  Dan a major one. And so I look for that. And then I look for kind of like coaching,  mentoring, people that have the ability to take teams or people and put them  together quit, because I think all compounding of success and influence and  dollars is in that in that arena. So what I do is I look for people in those five  categories that are strong there. I want a person to mentor me out of their  strength.  

Dan Cathy - Last question, what's your definition for success? John, well, I  

John Maxwell - think success is having people who know me the best and love  me the most also respect me. And you know what that does? That goes straight  to the family. They know me better than anyone else. They know my strengths.  They know my weaknesses. They know what I do. Well, there's there's no  there's no slipping by them. And when my family and Margaret specifically, oh  yeah, yeah, 43 years when they love me and they respect me, and they say he's the real deal that passes the test, because, you know, I'm going out on the  platform that the leader casts pretty soon, and these people may like what I'm  saying, but they don't really know me. And so I can say something wonderful  and then clap and say wonderful, wonderful, wonderful, but they're looking at a  gift. They're not looking at the person. And so I think that if I can pass the family  test, that's success, because when you think about it, when it's all over, what he  had, hopefully you got your family around the room, and you're saying goodbye  to the people that you love. And if that doesn't stand up, I'm not sure I want  anything else to stand  

Dan Cathy - up, John. I want to thank you for being such a great learner. Thank  you for for collecting all these incredible truths and wisdom, and thank you for  the giftedness God's given you and your obedience to the calling that God's had on your life, to bring that together, to package up in such a very palatable way  for me, and I'm the beneficiary of it, I want to thank you so very. I want  

John Maxwell - to thank you. You're a wonderful friend. Dan, I sure love you,  buddy. Thank you, John,