A few thoughts penned down......

“Leader”, this is a word which has been goin around for a very long time. But what does it mean? Why is it such a fancy word these days? Why is it that companies spend millions and millions every day just to ensure that their empolyees are leaders .This is a question which has been going through my mind for a long time now. To learn of leadership I read a lot of books about leaders who have changed the perspective of this world. I wanted to find out what was it that made these people achieve so much. There I found two qualities which were common between all these people: Two very simple qualities that every human being has but which can fade away with time.

Taking responsibility of ones own life:

I would be able to give you personal experiences and normal middle class person’s opinion but not great theories or fancy lookin graphs to tell you who I think are leaders. To me a leader is one who takes responsibility of his own life. A leader is the one who realises that it his responsbility that he becomes big in life. For example let us take Mr. Mohan Das Karamchand Gandhi. He is considered a good leader. What did he do? He took up the responsibility of fighting for India’s independence. That was his dream and even though there were loads of obstacles he came across them only because he had taken responsibility. He took responsibilty of his life, took responsibility of achieving what he wanted to get. He thought “It is my life and if I have taken somethin upon myself it is my duty to achieve it.” This small initiative separates a leader from an ordinary person. Any person on this earth can take an initiative, but only people who finish up the initiative collects the fruit of it and will be called a leader by others. Is taking resposibility of one’s own life that difficult? If we dont take responsibility of our own lives, who would?

Being Productive = Not being lazy

If we are ready to take responsibility of our own lives, then what is stopping us from getting to the top of the world? Why are some people top CEOs whereas some people are struggling even to have 1 square meal a day? Don’t people want to be rich and have the best life in the world? Who wouldn’t want to live in a dream house, have loads of money, drive the best car, wear the nicest clothes, and eat the most delicious food? Gosh! Even the thought of having so many things makes me dizzy! I definitely would love to have all those things and I’m sure most would agree with me. But why is that only few of the people get what they want whereas the major dont get the life they want to have?

Very simple answer, people are not ready to go that extra mile. To cut the long story short, people tend to become lazy when they don’t see short term results. I know many who would not be ready to accept this, but it’s a fact. We are human beings. We sometimes love to take things easy and we get used to the kind of lifestyle we have. I accept I’m lazy sometimes. To give you an example; the other day I was sitting at work and I started missing home, friends, and the life style I’m used to in India. In fact I just wanted to rush back home. After about half an hour of depression I did a self analysis. I asked my self “Have I achieved what I had come here (Sri Lanka) for?” The obvious answer was no. Then I realised that when I didn’t see quick results, laziness had crept into me and made me lose focus. As a matter of fact I was ready to let go of my dream just because I was lazy. I’m sure this happens to every individual but a leader is a person who overcomes this part, turns the negative energy into positive and moves ahead.

At the end of the day life is very simple: You dream of having something, work whole-heartedly for reaching it and at the end of the day you will get whatever you desire. There will be a lot of obstacles but when you do it whole-heartedly you will find ways to overcome them. This is what nearly every world leader’s biography proves. People, the whole world is waiting for us, let us go ahead and chase our dreams!