Leadership Guru John Maxwell's Dream Presidential Candidate Would Owe 'No One Anything,' Stay One Term (Interview 1/2)

By Leonardo Blair, Senior Reporter Thursday, October 08, 2015

Last year, the leadership guru who has written more than 75 books was identified as the #1 leader in business by the American Management Association® and the most influential leadership expert in the world by Business Insider and Inc. magazine. Earlier this year, he also reached the milestone of having trained leaders from every country of the world including presidents of nations and Fortune 500 companies.

"When I look at the candidates, I'm a little disappointed. It doesn't matter whether it's Republican or Democrat, it doesn't matter. I'm a little disappointed because I hear them taking what I would call political agendas or party agendas and that consumes their conversation and that consumes their action," continues Maxwell, dreaming out loud.

"I would love to see a candidate say 'I'm running [as] a Democrat but to be honest with you I'm kind of a Demopublican. I'm gonna look for the best idea and if it comes across the aisle from someone else we're really gonna get it because we need the best ideas for America, not political party ideas for America,'" he said.

And no matter how good a candidate's message might seem, he says, his ideal candidate should also be free from special interest money.

"I know this beyond the shadow of a doubt that America would just absolutely migrate to someone who is beholden to no one. I think that would just catch America, I mean I really do. I just think people would say 'Oh my gosh, here's a guy or here's a lady who just absolutely wants to put us first,'" he explains.

"The problem is [in] American politics you have to have a lot of money, you gotta have somebody. So whenever you accept money then you become beholden to who pays you and they're in the back room saying here I gave you a million dollars, here's three things I want you to check off," he says. "It would be wonderful to have somebody run who owed no one anything. And who just literally owed it to the American people to do the right thing for them. And held themselves accountable to that.

"Their accountability wasn't what the party thought of them, their accountability was at the end of the day, 'Did I do something today that helped you and added value to you?'"

His comments appeared restrained yet unfiltered.

"That's what I'm looking for. I regretfully don't see that so much. But I don't think that's a candidate problem I think that's a problem in America," he says.

"I think we have developed a way for a person to become president that isn't healthy and I have to admit that I am little bit attracted to people that aren't politicians just because they are not politicians. Doesn't mean that they'd be any better. It's just that I'd like to see somebody that didn't grow up politicizing and carefully weighing every statement and they just really led for the benefit of the people. I think that would be refreshing," he says before switching back to our conversation on Intentional Living.

To get people started on their stories of significance and intentional living, Maxwell wants them to try the "7-day experiment" at www.7DayExperiment.com or www.getintentionalnow.com.
It's a completely free tool designed to empower people to begin the journey toward intentional living.