Maxwell is a world-renowned expert on leadership and interpersonal relationships, who has been teaching leadership for decades. He argues that individual success without leadership, like the McDonald brothers, can only achieve limited results. The higher a person wants to climb, the more leadership he or she needs. To make a bigger impact, you need more leadership.

Let’s take a look at MacDonald’s.

When McDonald’s became one of the most profitable restaurants in the country, they began to promote the McDonald’s business concept and developed into a restaurant chain. However, their restaurant chain ended up in trouble because their limited leadership skills and narrow vision hindered the further development of the enterprise. Their leadership was like a lid on their chances of success. Maxwell points out that the lid determines the amount of water in the pot, just as leadership determines a person’s potential. This is what he calls “the law of the lid.”

Unlike the McDonald brothers, a man named Ray Kroc had better leadership skills, and eventually built McDonald’s into a national and global enterprise. He bought the McDonald’s franchise and used it as a model to open other restaurants. Then, he started building the team and the organization, recruited new people with leadership skills, and constantly moved the company forward.