3-4

In Maxwell's laws 3&4, we discuss how leadership is a process and how you must have direction (navigation). Just like anything else in life, leaders aren't made in just one day, it's a process. Maxwell compared it to investing in the stock market: no good stock trader becomes/hopes to become rich over night. They understand that you're in it for the long run and have good faith that in the end, everything will be better. On a personal level, I can tie it to school. Nobody enjoys coming to school for 6 hours a day sitting in classes that you most likely will never use in life *cough Calc, world history, art etc. Cough* but you know by coming to these classes, you'll become a well rounded individual. Same rule applies when studying for these classes. You can't learn the entire semester the night before the final. You must be a good student the entire semester in order to receive a good grade.

In law 4, we learn the law of navigation. This law is so important, it may just save your life. Basically the law of navigation states you need a plan for what it is that your doing, other wise you can expect a rough road ahead of you. "If you fail to plan, plan to fail." -Dr. Joseph maxwell. In my life the law of navigation can relate to my college expierence. I will be in an accelerated program for PT (which is a fancy way of saying I will have a doctoral degree in physical therapy in 6 years instead of 8), in addition to being on the basketball team. If I have no direction with my daily schedule, college will surely be a rough time for me. But if I apply the law of navigation and plan my days ahead and manage my time accordingly, things will be just fine.

Laws 1-2

In Maxwell's 21 Laws of Leaadership, the first two laws discuss the Law of the Lid and the Law of Influence. In the Law of the Lid, we discuss leadership potential and how others either are just naturally limited or limit themselves mentally. The big word here is potential: everybody has potential, even the original founders of McDonald's. But potential means nothing if you don't choose to build yourself and harness your skills. For example, I was limiting my leadership by not reading the book until now. The opportunity was literally sitting in my backpack to learn and I ignored it. Obviously, now I'm making an effort to both rAise my lid and grade by learning the way of the Maxwell, an ancient art of leadership and Kung-fu.

The second chapter discusses the Law of Influence, and is in my opinion the most important law of all. Influence is like a mix of all the good components of leadership put together if you think about. You must have all those components to gain followers to then influence and lead. Also because throught my many years of playing basketball, there has been a countless number of "captains" and "leaders" of the team. Just because you have a title doesn't necessarily mean you are good leader of the slightest but influential. I was always been a believer that the TEAM should elect captains and that the leaders of the group would be rightfully chosen. Well, that's never happened, the coach has always appointed his favorite to be the captain and only listend to the captain. Maybe this is why I've never been on a winning team until my senior year. The captains had never influenced us, but merely felt superior due to there fancy title. Teamwork makes the dream work, and let me tell you- dreams were plenty full but teamwork was nowhere to be found.