Leadership Thought: How to Make Friends and Get a Great Education.
Dear Friends,

Someone once said if you go through life asking enough questions, after a while you can get a fairly good education.

Jesus went through life asking a lot of questions. Just google “Jesus asking questions” and you will see several lists containing nearly 100 questions that Jesus asked of others. Why do you worry about your clothes, or why are you anxious about your life, or who do men say that I am, are just a few of them? 

John Maxwell, a well-known writer and speaker on leadership, was mentored by John Wooden, widely considered the greatest basketball coach of all time. He tells of his first meeting with  Coach Wooden. He had asked to meet with  him for breakfast, and after they had finished eating coach Wooden asked him. “John, do you have any questions for me?” Maxwell came prepared for the meeting. He pulled out a legal pad and began asking one question after another from the questions he had written down. After a few hours later when it seemed to coach Wooden like the meeting was coming to an end, coach Wooden asked, “Do you have anything else you would like to ask me?“ And with that John turned to page 2 of his legal pad, and then 3 for he had prepared six legal pad pages of questions he had hoped to ask coach Wooden. And by lunch they were only on page 3, so John suggested they meet again and meet again they did. 

For several decades until coach Wooden’s death, they would regularly meet and Maxwell would plumb the depths of wisdom from this great basketball coach who was an even greater human being. 

John Maxwell will tell you today that this relationship profoundly impacted his life. Coach Wooden became the mentor to John who has now written over 100 books and spoken to millions of people. John’s friendship with coach Wooden all started with just a few questions.

Here are just a few of the questions that you might keep in mind when you are spending time with someone. They are probably some of the same questions that John Maxwell  asked coach Wooden for they are the questions that he often asks today.

1. What is the greatest lesson you have ever learned?

2. What are two or three lessons you are learning right now?

3. What is your greatest failure?

4. What books are you reading that have impacted you?

5. What have you done that I should do?

6. Who have you met that I should meet?

7. How can I add value to you?

Obviously, you probably won’t have enough time to ask all of them, but maybe one or two of them would be a good place to start.

And do you know one of the great things about asking questions besides the benefit of learning valuable information; it makes others, and not yourself, the focus of your attention.

You can make a lot of good friends if you ask a lot of good questions, and yes, after a while you will not only have a larger list of friends, but a darn good education as well.

Yours in faith and friendship,
Tom