• Columnists

Lisa Earle McLeod, Author, Sales, and Leadership Expert, McLeod & More, Inc.

COLUMN = SALES

Business strategist Lisa Earle McLeod is an expert in sales force and leadership development. An author, consultant, syndicated columnist, media commentator, and keynote speaker, she is recognized as a thought-leader whose latest book, “The Triangle of Truth,” was named a Washington Post Top 5 Business Book for Leaders.

A bottom-line oriented business advisor whose firm, McLeod & More, Inc. was featured in Fortune Magazine, she is also a problem-solving expert whose conflict resolution handbook was delivered to every member of the House and Senate. And she’s a leadership contributor for Forbes.com and the author of more than 500 articles.

This high-energy keynote speaker who has rocked the house everywhere from Apple to Pfizer to The United Way, is a repeat guest on “Good Morning America” who has appeared on hundreds of radio and TV shows.

Lisa’s clients range from pharmaceutical to financial services, including Ann Taylor, Capital G, West Pharmaceutical, Black & McDonald, Kimberly-Clark, CMIT, and numerous franchises and entrepreneur organizations. She is also a personal development expert whose first book “Forget Perfect,” was featured in The New York Times, and continues to sell a full decade after the original printing. And her essay collection, “Finding Grace When You Can’t Even Find Clean Underwear,” was featured on Oprah.com.

Lisa and her husband Bob live in Atlanta. They are the parents of two fabulous teenage daughters.

The journey is the reward.”

– Greg Norman

Successful people are always looking for opportunities to help others. Unsuccessful people are always asking, ‘What’s in it for me?’”

– Brian Tracy

Do you believe it is important to give back some portion of your wealth to support charitable causes?”

– Steven Schussler

Don’t sit down and wait for the opportunities to come. Get up and make them!”

– Madam C.J. Walker

What is the point of having free will if one cannot occasionally spit in the eye of destiny?”

– Jim Butcher, White Night

If you do not tell the truth about yourself
, you cannot tell it about other people.”

– Virginia Woolf

Entrepreneurs willingly assume responsibility for the success or failure of a venture and are answerable for all its facets.”

– Victor Kiam

Entrepreneurs need to search purposefully for the sources of innovation that indicate opportunities for success.”

– Peter F. Drucker

In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.”

– Albert Einstein

But all the while I was alone, the past was close behind, I seen a lot of women, but she never escaped my mind, and I just grew, tangled up in blue.”

– Bob Dylan

A lot of people have ideas, but few decide to do something about them now. Not next week. But today.”

– Nolan Bushnell, founder, Atari

Once you find something you love to do, be the best at doing it.”

– Debbi Fields, Mrs. Fields Cookies

Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.”

– Anais Nin

Instead of loving your enemies, treat your friends a little better.”

– Edgar W. Howe

The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new lands, but in seeing with new eyes.”

– Marcel Proust

We are not meant to resolve all contradictions, but to live with them and rise above them.”

– William Blake

I find out what the world needs, then I proceed to invent.”

– Thomas Edison

Treat the attainment of happiness in the same way an entrepreneur would approach building a business — with a vision, plan, goals, and a systematic approach.”

– Ted Leonsis

Happiness is an attitude. We either make ourselves miserable, or happy and strong. The amount of work is the same.”

– Francesca Reigle

Never never never never give up.”

– Winston Churchill

Promise me you’ll always remember: You’re braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.”

– Christopher Robin to Pooh

If you want to be busy, keep trying to be perfect. If you want to be happy, focus on making a difference.”

– Lisa Earle McLeod

Running that first shop taught me business is not financial science; it’s about trading.”

– Anita Roddick, founder, The Body Shop

Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self-confidence.”

– Robert Frost

‎That which grows fast withers as rapidly; that which grows slowly endures.”

– J.G. Holland, novelist

Always be on the lookout for the presence of wonder.”

– E.B. White

When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace.”

– Jimi Hendrix

Confidence is the most important thing you can teach someone… if you can teach them confidence, you don’t have to teach them anything else.”

– Vin Diesel

4oz tequila + 1oz TripleSec + 2oz lime juice + 1oz simple syrup (sugar=water), 1 cup crushed ice. Shake + dance around the kitchen.

– Avenida Margarita

Spend the afternoon. You can’t take it with you.”

– Annie Dillard

Ambition is the germ from which all growth of nobleness proceeds.”

– Thomas Dunn

Are you willing to help other people succeed even when it’s not a requirement of your job to be of assistance?”

– Steven Schussler

Try not to become a man of success but rather try to become a man of value.”

– Albert Einstein

Nobody talks about entrepreneurship as survival, but that’s exactly what nurtures creative thinking.”

– Anita Roddick, founder, The Body Shop

You may ask me for anything you like except time.”

– Napoleon

The world I believed in, back in my most innocent, uninformed, childish mind—is real.”

– Martha Beck

They who give have all things. They who withhold have nothing.”

– Hindu Proverb

Why am I whispering when I have something to say?”

– Eve Ensler

The best reason to start an organization is to create a product or service to make the world a better place.”

– Guy Kawasaki

My task is really not to change myself but to become familiar with who I am.”

– Maureen Cook

Whatever you do may seem insignificant, but it is most important that you do it.”

– Gandi

It is only with the heart that one can see rightly,
 what is essential is invisible to the eye.”

– Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

We need to learn to set our course by the stars, not by the lights of every passing ship.”

– General Omar Bradley

If you do work that you love, and the work fulfills you, the rest will come.”

– Oprah Winfrey

Happy are those who dream dreams and are ready to pay the price to make them come true.”

– Leon Joseph Suenens

A man without a smiling face
 should not open a shop.”

– Chinese Proverb

Hope sees the invisible, feels the intangible, and achieves the impossible.”

– Helen Keller

A man is a success if he gets up in the morning and goes to bed at night and in between does what he wants to do.”

– Bob Dylan

There are risks and costs to a program of action. But they are far less than the long-range risks and costs of comfortable inaction.”

– JFK

Your own words are the bricks and mortar
of the dreams you want to realize.
 The words you choose and their use establish the life you experience.”

– Sonia Croquette