WHAT MAKES SHEEP AN ARMY OF LIONS?
Pic.: Mini Milind
“I am not afraid
of an army of lions led by a sheep;
I am afraid of
an army of sheep led by a lion.”
There is a mighty truth packed in Alexander’s
statement… the most fundamental truth about how we, as individuals, behave when
led by a leader. Led by a strong leader - a lion, we, too, become strong -
lions like him. His vision becomes our vision… His courage and strength become
ours. On the other hand, led by a meek leader - a sheep, we, too, become meek -
sheep. His lack of vision becomes our conditions, too… His meekness becomes our
meekness. His fear and suspicion become ours.
We, as a society, community and nation, cannot survive amazingly without the charisma of our leaders. We need them, and need them very, very badly.
My belief has, always, been this: If as an individual, I lead my life well – inspired and vision-driven… take bold personal decisions, remain ready to accept consequences of my decisions… remain extremely focused and committed, passionate and persistent, and, above all, trust people around me, communicate well with them, respect and accept them… look at their strengths and overlook their weakness, appreciate and thank more and criticize and crib less… yes, if I show these personal traits and lead my own personal life well … with high integrity, it is enough to make me a leader of folks around me…
Such life simply inspires and attracts others...
Society, community and nation are looking for these leaders. Without them, we perish. Inspiration and enthusiasm in our hearts are, always, fired by our leaders… They have been to the mountain-top and they have seen the ‘Promised Land’… Yes, we need them to show us and lead us to that ‘Promised Land’.
The quality of the
leader is the quality of the group he leads – be it a family, housing society,
spiritual community, company or country. But, as I said, it starts with self-leadership… The more and more we demonstrate
self-leadership, the more and more we tend to demonstrate public-leadership. It
is all about inspiring others to dream more and rise more. John Quincy Adams
had aptly said:
“If your
actions inspire others to dream more, learn more,
do more and
become more… you are a leader.”
Every leader does the same to us, his followers… And, we, as leaders, do the same to others around us, our followers.
We need good leaders. Before that, we need to be good leaders.
GERALD D’CUNHA
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