After posting bail, John Maxwell is a free man again. The leadership guru recently attempted to board a flight with a firearm in his carry-on luggage, a mistake he recounts vividly on his blog, Maxwell on Leadership in a post entitled “Stupid is as Stupid Does.”

Maxwell said he had been given the gun as a gift from an attendee at one of his speaking engagements, placed it in his carry-on and forgot about it until he arrived at airport security. Calling it “one of the stupidest things I've done,” the author recounted the experience in the blog.

“I was arrested, handcuffed, and taken to jail, where I was fingerprinted and photographed,” he said. “ Needless to say, it opened my eyes to a world I’d seen only in the movies. I was glad when I posted bail and was able to leave.”

Maxwell compared himself to the characters Mr. Magoo and Forrest Gump and relayed a leadership lesson for his blog readers:

“...Take responsibility for your own actions,” he said. “What I did was wrong, and it was my fault. I certainly didn’t intend to break the law, but I will face up to the consequences.The second lesson, to use the words of my friend Kevin Myers, is this: 'Stupid hurts.' If you’re not paying attention and you do something stupid, it’s going to hurt you.”

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