• 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.

We must be willing to let go of the life we have planned so as to have the life that is waiting for us.”

– Joseph Campbell

Think of yourself as on the threshold of unparalleled success. A whole, clear, glorious life lies before you. Achieve! Achieve!”

– Andrew Carnegie

Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.”

– T.S. Eliot

If it isn’t good, let it die. If it doesn’t die, make it good.”

– Ajahn Chah

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

– Leon Joseph Suenens

Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional.”

– Dalai Lama

Part of your destiny is to live in the zone of maximum satisfaction.”

– Martha Beck

The quality of your life is directly related to the amount of uncertainty you can comfortably live with.”

– Tony Robbins

Do not say, ‘why were the former days better than these,’ for it is not from wisdom that you ask this.”

– Ecclesiastes, 7:10

Let yourself be silently drawn by the strange pull of what you really love.”

– Jalaluddin Rumi

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

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

– Leo Jozef Suenens

No man will make a great leader who wants to do it all himself, or to get all the credit for doing it”

– Andrew Carnegie

At the center of your being you have the answer; you know who you are and you know what you want.”

– Lao Tzu

The less effort, the faster and more powerful you will be.”

– Bruce Lee

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

– J.G. Holland, novelist

Nurture your mind with great thoughts; to believe in the heroic makes heroes.”

– Benjamin Disraeli

No matter how difficult and painful it may be, nothing sounds as good to the soul as the truth.”

– Martha Beck, from "Leaving the Saints"

Things don’t change. You change your way of looking, that’s all.”

– Carlos Castaneda

I may not be able to change what takes place, but I can always choose to change my thinking.”

– Michelle Sedas

A warrior cannot complain or regret anything. His life is an endless challenge, and challenges cannot possibly be good or bad. Challenges are simply challenges.”

– Carlos Castaneda

There is a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in.”

– Leonard Cohen

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

– Madam C.J. Walker

The true entrepreneur is a doer, not a dreamer.”

– Nolan Bushnell, founder, Chuck E. Cheese's

Of course there is no formula for success except perhaps an unconditional acceptance of life and what it brings.”

– Arthur Rubinstein

Anything not worth doing well is not worth doing.”

– Warren Buffett

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

– Anita Roddick, founder, The Body Shop

“Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently.”

– Steve Jobs, Apple, Inc.

The best hobbies are the ones that take us furthest from our primary occupation.”

– Dr. Evelyn Vogel, Dexter

We make a living by what we get; we make a life by what we give.”

– Winston Churchill

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

– William Blake

The only dream worth having is to live while you’re alive and die only when you’re dead.”

– Arundhati Roy

Normal day, let me be aware of the treasure you are. 
Let me not pass you by in quest of some rare and perfect tomorrow.”

– Mary Jean Irion

Passion makes perfect.”

– Eugene Biro

Patience and perseverance have a magical effect before which obstacles vanish.”

– John Quincy Adams

I was taught at a very young age that you can do whatever you want to, but you have to make it happen — not just talk about it.”

– Kathleen Jo Ryan

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

– Debbi Fields, Mrs. Fields Cookies

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

– Robert Frost

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

– Marcel Proust

Acknowledging the good that you already have in your life is the foundation for all abundance.”

– Eckhart Tolle

If you limit your choices only to what seems possible or reasonable, you disconnect yourself from what you truly want, and all that is left is compromise.”

– Robert Fritz

The awakening to the mystery of life is a revolutionary event; in it an old world is destroyed so that a new and better one may take its place.”

– J.J. Van Der Leeuw, The Conquest of Illusion

Inspiration and genius — one and the same.”

– Victor Hugo

You have enemies? Good. That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life.”

– Winston Churchill

You only live once. But if you do it right, once is enough.”

– Mae West

You can only become truly accomplished at something you love. Don’t make money your goal. Instead, pursue the things you love doing.”

– Maya Angelou

Do you have the desire to create something new; the strength of conviction to believe your creation will be successful, and the reservoir of energy necessary to thrust it into the marketplace?”

– Steven Schussler

You’ve got to be willing to crash and burn. If you’re afraid of failing, you won’t get very far.”

– Steve Jobs

The aim of life is to live, and to live means to be aware, joyously, drunkenly, serenely, divinely aware.”

– Henry Miller

Speaking more than one language is no longer just an asset in today’s job market; it is a requirement.”

– Tom Adams, CEO, Rosetta Stone