What are you so afraid of? Is it fear of failure, fear of embarrassment, fear of leadership, fear of public speaking, fear of people, fear of hard work, or all of the above? Fear and worry is typical and human. You can’t let your life be overcome with fear and worry. So, exactly what can you do to rise above it? The following are a few quotes that may help you:
“You wouldn’t worry so much about what people thought of you if you knew how little they did.”- Dr. Phil.
“Whether you think you can or whether you think you can’t, you’re right.”- Henry Ford.
“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.”- Ralph Waldo Emerson
“There is no use trying,” said Alice. “One can’t believe impossible things. I dare say you haven’t had much practice,” said the Queen. “When I was your age, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”- Lewis Carroll
“I don’t know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody.”-
Bill Cosby.
“Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off the goal.”- Henry Ford.
“When you come to a fork in the road, take it.”- Yogi Berra
“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.”- M.K. Gandhi
A leader is one who exemplifies hope, not fear. A good leader should not instill fear into the hearts of the people being led. Fear generally will not do you any good. The following is an example of a man who had many reasons to fear yet did not lose sight of his dreams:
Steve Smith, a star wide receiver in the NFL for the Carolina Panthers, grew up in South Central LA. South Central was a rough area which gave birth to the Bloods, Crips, MS-13, and other dangerous street gangs. Racial violence was common. Growing up, Smith once saw a man shot at the bus stop. He sometimes carried knives for protection. Smith remembers living in a hotel in high school once because his mother’s boyfriend suddenly turned violent.
“We can’t go home,” Smith said, emotions welling up in his voice. “Can you imagine that? So when people say I have a chip on my shoulder, a lot of it is true, but most people who say it don’t know my circumstances. I know what I don’t want to go back to.”
Even as a youngster, Smith saw the NFL as a way out, a way to keep the electricity on every week, to put his mother in a nice home and into a situation where no bill collector would ever call again.
“I didn’t see any other way,” Smith said. “I didn’t have any other options. This was me swinging for the fence, my Powerball numbers.”
In this story we learn how fear can be switched around. We ought to use fear to motivate us to be better. We should ask ourselves why we are scared or why we are not going after something. Most people don’t like to be told that they can’t do something, so why do they tell that same thing to themselves? Remember, don’t be your own worst enemy.
Now that you have learned about what you need to overcome in order to apply the leadership principles in this book, we will conclude with some final thoughts on leadership.
I like to think about things in simple terms because I am a simple man. I have thought a lot about leadership and its definition, and there are so many ways that one can define leadership. This book alone has talked about numerous good traits about leadership. Leadership is everywhere around you. My simple definition of leadership is this:
Leadership is creating opportunities for others to have success.
There are many different philosophies of leadership. Most people have their own unique style of leadership, and if it works that is wonderful. My personal philosophy of leadership is similar to my definition. Leadership is about taking the initiative yourself so that you can improve the world, business, community, or group for other people. Leadership is about developing and utilizing your own skills to help others. As soon as it becomes about something else, you will see apathy and a decline in efficiency.
I have had many personal examples of leadership. Along with my duties as author of this chapter, I am currently serving as the student body president at Weber State University in Ogden, Utah. One particular instance of leadership taught me many great leadership lessons. My advisor, Jose Gomez, brought a beautiful pamphlet from Kingsbury Hall to work one day during the summer of 2007. He thought that it would be a great idea to create some kind of pamphlet with a calendar of all the things that the student association does throughout the year. He shared with me that vision, and I was able to catch the vision as well.
I quickly went to work in organizing how this would be accomplished. This would be a big project that hadn’t been done in a while. We would almost be starting from scratch. I sat down with the executive officers and shared with them this vision and we made goals together as well as set deadlines. We decided how we wanted it to look. I sat down with the graphic artists and told them about the ideas that I had, and gave them the opportunity to be creative and do what they do best. This was certainly a large project which had to be done by the beginning of the fall semester. It took a lot of collaboration. I learned a lot from this particular leadership experience because I had not experienced something quite like it before. I learned a lot about how to keep people happy and motivated. I learned about the importance of reporting, goals, and deadlines. I certainly did not do a perfect job. I could have been more organized about what I was doing, and I could have been more clear. Due to that experience, I strive to be more organized and clearer about my ideas and visions. I learned a lot about humility. In order for a group to maximize strengths, all members must do their best to be humble. All members need to be able to accept other points of view, and simply do their part. Everyone must do their best to encourage each other.
Another important aspect of good leadership is putting people around yourself that are better than you are. The ability to put good people around you is such a strength, because better things will get done. If you are prideful and want to be better than everyone, you will likely not be able to accomplish as much as the humble leader. As you are surrounded by great people who are appreciated, great things will happen.
Throughout this course I have completed many of the leadership risks. I think that it is interesting that the word “risks” is used. I would view myself as a risk-taker. I have introduced myself to and met many students, faculty, and staff at Weber State University. I have made many new friends and acquaintances. I have made contact with a few different clubs this year, although I have not been able to do too much due to my position as student body president. I am able to work on student issues on a daily basis with my position, which entails a few of the mentioned leadership risks. I have worked hard in order to improve the lives of the students here at Weber State University.
It is difficult to summarize this book because there are so many great principles. I thought that perhaps I would summarize what has affected me the most. I believe that honesty, trust, humility, encouragement, and praise are the most important leadership qualities to develop, strengthen, and continually use. The ability to be sincere in making others feel good is such a huge asset. Keeping a positive attitude will help others perform much better. If people are happy to do something, they are more likely to do a better job. I would like to restate what the conclusion of Chapter 13 says: Stay in love. Love what you do and who you work with and everything else will fall into place.
Works Cited
Wertz, Langston Jr. “Smith keeps the electricity on.” Standard-Examiner December 10, 2007: B1, B3.
