Maxwell's 1st Law: The Law of the Lid

John C. Maxwell, on p. 1 of The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership Follow Them and People Will Follow You,Nelson Books, 1998, says:

Leadership ability determines a person's level of effectiveness... Leadership ability is the lid that determines a person's level of effectiveness. The lower an individual's ability to lead, the lower the lid on his potential. The higher the leadership, the greater the effectiveness.

Example: the last presidential campaign. Obama, whatever you think of his politics or his policies, was followed by millions of people and raised nearly $1 billion. McCain was relegated to uttering random thoughts in the grocery store.
Basically, Obama found a crowd and went and got in front of it. But he saw that crowd was there and showed incredible skill in spreading his vision of a changed society to millions of people.

True, a lot went into Obama's incredible leadership success. Economics, societal trends, the legacy of George W. Bush. Nonetheless, he created an organization and took advantage of tools that put him out there. This was not casually done. Obama's been honing his leadership skills for years. A good measure of leadership is how many people are following somebody. He got Michelle to follow him, that's amazing enough.

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Entrepreneurship informs all of my professional activities. Entrepreneurial ideas are their life's blood. For my ideas on entrepreneurial real estate go to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog and for my ideas on writing and publishing, go to www.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com.