Mike Lyles - The Drive-Thru is Not Always Faster

The Drive-Thru is the easy choice made by many. Few are brave enough to make the best choice, to go in, place the order, and leave more efficiently. Mike takes on this topic and motivates the reader to explore new and different ways of looking at life experiences.

Tom Ziglar, CEO of Zig Ziglar Corporation, Speaker, and Author

Mike translates his life and public-speaking experiences into common sense life lessons.

Jeffrey J. Fox, best-selling author of How to Become a Rainmaker and twelve other international best sellers

Success isnt a one size fits all, but with Mikes leadership, reaching new heights is possible for everyone. This book shares smart, short stories, each with a key takeaway to improve our everyday lives.

Shannon Kaiser, best-selling author of The Self-Love Experiment and Joy Seeker

Mike shares his experiences in such a way that we are able to relate to his lessons and walk away with the inspiration to focus on those opportunities that are most important to us.

Peggy Libbey, CEO of Redwood Collaborative Media and Software Test Professionals Conference

Mike shares his passion to help each of us learn new ways to accomplish our mission and goals in life by showing us creative approaches and alternatives to reaching success

John Miles, Partner, Virgo Investment Group and Founder of Ovesto Capital

Through incredible, true life experiences, Mike inspires his readers to grow both personally and professionally.

Amberly Lago, best-selling author of True Grit and Grace

Mike has creatively assembled over 20 years of experience, coaching, and leadership into a motivating and inspiring masterpiece. This book will help readers reclaim their Best Self on the journey of life!

Dr. Chasity K. Adams, Licensed Psychologist, Author of Reclaiming Your Best Self, Speaker & Life Coach

Love this book! In a world where the fast eat the slow, the convenience of the drive-thru doesnt always meet ones needs. This book helps us think differently, using great stories to drive the points home.

Jason Jennings, NY Times, WSJ and USA TODAY bestselling author of eight books including, The Reinventors.

Copyright 2019 by Mike W. Lyles

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review or scholarly journal.

First Printing: 2019

ISBN 978-0-57821-980-6 (Paperback)
ISBN 978-1-54398-702-7 (E-Book)

Mike Lyles Consulting, LLC
125 Foxglove Drive
Statesville, NC 28625

www.MikeWLyles.com

Ordering Information:

Special discounts are available on quantity purchases by corporations, associations, educators, and others. For details, contact the publisher at the above listed address.

US trade bookstores and wholesalers: Please contact:
Mike Lyles Consulting, LLC
Telephone: (336) 468-7336 or email info@mikewlyles.com

This book is dedicated to my mom, Jenny Lyles. Thanks, Mom, for being the first motivational speaker to ever impact my life.

Acknowledgments

My life has prepared me for the things I have shared in this book. I have been blessed to meet so many great people who have influenced the decisions I made and the stories I will tell you in the pages that follow.

I would like to thank so many people who contributed to making this book a reality.

My mom, Jenny Lyles, was my first teacher. She taught me humility. She taught me that you can care for others even when they treat you wrongly or dont respect you back. I watched her bravely stand in front of crowds, large and small, and inspire them with her words. The most amazing thing I want each of you to take away from this is that she didnt even realize the impact she was making. You never know who is watching your life. You never know when something you are doing could change someones life forever. For my first book, I want to give a special thanks to my mom, the first person who had faith in me throughout all of my life.

I would also like to thank each and every person that never failed to ask, When is your book coming out? You will never know how much it inspired, motivated, and helped me to keep pressing forward.

A special thanks to Greg Collins for creating my book cover and my book website. Thanks to my book coach and bestselling author, Shannon Kaiser, and to my editor, Brianne Bardusch, for supporting my final manuscript. Thanks to bestselling author and friend, Jeffrey Fox, for the valuable input and edits.

To those who gave support on the material, the content, and the wording in this book, I owe a great debt of gratitude. You know exactly who you are and how you impacted this book.

Foreword

A great book is a pleasure to read and offers a lesson that you can wrap your mind around. Experience is the best teacher if you learn from the lessons that come with your success and failures.

Mike has superior observation skills and is a good listener that examines challenges and opportunities from many angles, so his opinions are sound and well thought out. This book is no exception.

What you will find, in the chapters that follow, are many of lifes lessons that, frankly, we can all learn something from and apply at different points in our lives.

Pay it forward, read the book, and then pass on the lessons when appropriate to friends and colleagues that could benefit from your personal coaching and Mikes writings.

A book like this can serve as a ready reference again and again.

Ron Blahnik

CIO & SVP

Strategy & Innovation, Supply Chain Logistics and Retail Analytics

Hibbett Sports

Introduction

In July 2002, I set down and started a diary of notes, leadership quotes, things I was learning, and suggestions for an upcoming book. Little did I know that it would be over a decade before I would sit down and pull it all together.

My first leadership mentor and I began working together in January 2002. By February 2002, I was making a list of everything I needed to accomplish and marking them off weekly.

A few months later, I purchased a book that would completely change my life. This book was How to Become CEO by Jeffrey J. Fox.

I began officially leading others in 1998. The feeling of accomplishment in helping people to reach their goals and achieve team and company goals was more than I imagined. I knew, even back then, that being a leader, mentor, and coach for others would be one of my core values.

In 2003, I became a manager, and the accomplishment of responsibility, ownership, and authority over expanding teams was amazing. I began reading books by great speakers and writers: Stephen Covey, Jeffrey Fox, John C. Maxwell, and Brian Tracy to name a few. I began to expand my leadership skills by taking pieces of information from these great speakers and others.

For years, I have compiled notes, experiences (good and bad), which I knew I would someday put into my first book. From the very start, I planned to call the book Today is the first day of the success of your life. For years this was the title I planned to use. However, one day I was examining the old phrase Today is the best day of the rest of your life. And I realized this phrase was correct; every day is the beginning of the rest of your life. However, when I thought about the success of my life, I realized that many of the successful events in my life happened in the past. Throughout our life, if we give everything we have, we may have many opportunities to have those success moments. Keep your eyes open wide, look for those magical moments where you can gain even the smallest of successes along the way, and you will experience success over and over throughout your life.