Leadership Principles Applied to Investing

Let’s start with a couple of my favorite and commonly shared leadership quotes to set the

stage.

• “Everything rises and falls on leadership.” — John Maxwell

• “Leadership is influence, nothing more, nothing less.” — John Maxwell

John Maxwell has written several books on leadership principles—92 and counting. I am a member of his MIM Club (Maximum Impact Mentoring). This is a monthly Zoom call facilitated by fellow coach Traci Morrow, where John does a 20–30 minute teaching followed by 20–30 minutes of Q&A.

In November 2025, John taught a lesson called The All-Star Line-up of the Laws. He gave us his top 10. As I listened, I realized something interesting. Many of these leadership laws apply just as well to another area where we need to lead ourselves—investing.

I will take five of them and apply them to my approach to investing.

1. The Law of the Lid — How well you lead (invest) determines how well you succeed.

Our leadership ability often puts a lid on what we can accomplish through others. I believe something similar happens with investing. Our knowledge, discipline, patience, and decision-making can put a lid on our financial results.

I have experienced this personally. I often knew enough about a company to know that I liked it and wanted to buy the stock. But buying was only half of the decision. I didn't always know when to sell.

Sometimes I watched a stock climb enough that selling would have produced a great gain, only to watch it fall all the way back to where I purchased it. Other times, I sold too early. I gave up on a company that was still positioning itself for its biggest success—and I missed out.

My investment lid wasn't necessarily my ability to find a company. Sometimes it was my ability to determine what I was going to do after I found it.

2. The Law of the Process — Leaders (Investors) develop daily, not in a day.

Earl Nightingale, another great teacher, focused on the question, “How fast?” But that question ultimately leads to an even more important one: “How far?”

We tend to want to be good immediately. Leadership doesn't work that way. Neither does investing.

You will never be good the first time.

Becoming a better investor requires learning companies, industries, markets and, perhaps most importantly, yourself. How do you respond when an investment drops? What happens when it rises quickly? Do you become fearful? Greedy? Impatient? Overconfident?

Experience is valuable, but only when we learn from it. The goal isn't to make every decision perfectly. The goal is to make tomorrow's decisions with more wisdom than yesterday's.

3. The Law of Intentionality — Growth doesn't just happen.

Growth requires intentionality. This applies to leadership, personal development, and investing.

Some investing can and probably should be automated. Regular contributions and long-term investing can benefit from consistency without requiring a new decision every day. But significant financial growth still requires intentionality.

What am I investing in? Why am I investing in it? What would cause me to buy more? What would cause me to sell?

Those questions would have helped me tremendously in some of my earlier investing decisions. It is much easier to decide what success looks like before emotion enters the picture.

Intentionality doesn't guarantee the outcome. It gives us a framework for responding to the outcome.

4. The Law of Environment — Growth thrives in conducive surroundings.

Put yourself in an environment where growth is normal, expected, and encouraged.

That is true for leadership and culture, and it is certainly true financially. Who influences your thinking about money? Are you surrounded by people chasing the latest hot stock, or people developing disciplined financial habits? Are you consuming information that helps you think long-term, or information designed to make you react?

Culture shapes behavior. Even our personal financial lives have a culture.

We can intentionally create an environment where learning, patience, wise risk, and long-term thinking become normal. Eventually, the environment we create around ourselves begins influencing the decisions we make within it.

5. The Law of Trade-offs — You have to give up to go up.

Every meaningful gain requires a trade-off.

Leaders give more of themselves to achieve more through a team. They trade some independence for responsibility. They give time, energy, and attention to help others succeed.

Investors make trade-offs too. We give up access to money today with the expectation that it can produce greater value tomorrow. We accept some degree of risk in pursuit of return. We may also give up one opportunity to pursue another.

The important thing is understanding the trade-off we are making.

Leadership, growth, culture, and investing may seem like separate subjects, but I increasingly see them as connected. Each requires us to lead ourselves before we can expect better results.

Maybe that is the bigger lesson behind Maxwell's famous statement that “everything rises and falls on leadership.” Even our financial future. Investing isn't simply about picking the right company. It is about developing the person making the decisions. Know why you're getting in. Think about what would cause you to get out. Keep learning. Create an environment that supports good decisions. Accept the necessary trade-offs. And recognize that you won't get every decision right. I certainly haven't.

That is the Law of the Process at work.

The goal isn't to become a perfect investor in a day. The goal is to become a better leader of yourself—and therefore a better investor—day by day.

Questions? Let's talk

Brian