Start With Why by Simon Sinek
If you have not yet read "Start With Why," by Simon Sinek, I highly recommend it. Also, check out his famous TED Talk. It's hard not to be inspired by his insights and unique perspective. Sinek has dedicated his career studying leaders in all fields to find their patterns of success from MLK to the Wright Brothers. Here's a few of his quotes from over the years:
1) “People don’t buy what you do; they buy why you do it.”
2) “Great companies don’t hire skilled people and motivate them, they hire already motivated people and inspire them.”
3) “Let us all be the leaders we wish we had.”
4) “Henry Ford summed it up best. ‘If I had asked people what they wanted,’ he said, ‘they would have said a faster horse.’”
5) “When you compete against everyone else, no one wants to help you. But when you compete against yourself, everyone wants to help you.”
6) “The goal is not to do business with everybody who needs what you have. The goal is to do business with people who believe what you believe.”
7) “Customers will never love a company until the employees love it first.”
8) “If you can clearly articulate the dream or the goal, start.”
And then, my favorite perspective of his is that, "When you're an optimist, life just sort of has a way of looking out for you..." I've struggled at times during my career being labeled an optimist, but I much rather think of myself as a positive realist. I don't ignore that the fact that I know it will rain, I just always have tried to look at the brighter side of things.