Leadership

From: Light on the Path

English publication of the SOCIEDAD BODHA DE LAS ANTILLAS

Published in Santiago de Cuba – Oriente

Vol.1, June 2480 (1936) No.1

All leadership is confident understanding. We all like to follow the one who knows, who has a definite understanding with himself, and with the correlated ideas, which drive him on.

There are those who immediately gain our confidence.  In a larger manner than any of us realize, we are related to one another, and depend upon one another for a happy consummation of life’s plans.

Character is at the base of all friendship, all high endeavor, and all sound leadership. A man is no longer a leader after he has lost the confidence of his followers. We gain our leadership from this very confidence.

Leadership, to a very large degree, is unborn.  It can’t be taught, though it can be emulated.  Napoleon’s soldiers followed him through victory and defeat because they became convinced that he could not be defeated.  But the very moment that he was removed from all possibility for victories, his star set, and his followers deserted him.

Leadership is born of vision.  When that vision becomes clouded, or grows, or grows faint, confidence dies in a leader and his followers seek another.

All leadership is inspiring to us all.  To it, forever, should we pay tribute and appreciation. I am a better human being, a finer servant to society, because of the examples of Edison, Ford, Lincoln, Faber, Westinghouse, Cunard, Bell, the Wrights, and such leaders in the world.  A great leader is one who reminds us of what we might have been!

We are a part of a great citizenship.  In a greater or lesser degree, we may all be leaders.  But our genius lies in finding our place in performing to the best of our abilities, and in mastering our opportunities for service.  Whether this be as a leader, or as a worth follower, lies with us.  All workmanship should stand out, however, in such a manner as to distinguish us.

Emerson once wrote that “No man can write anything, who does not think that what he writes, is for the time of the history of the world; do anything well, who does not esteem his work to be of importance”  From this attitude of mind, leadership is born!

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“There never was such a lofty-minded leader of men as Gengish Khan.   He had the power to conduce them as he pleased and to change the destiny of people as his whims directed them.   But this above all: he wanted a super humanity to thrive on this world, and for this sake he lead masses in the creation of the mightiest and greatest empire there ever was! – Swami Jñanakanda

“Good soldiers are as necessary as good generals”.-  KH

“There would be no good soldiers if they had not the conviction that they had real generals to win their battles.-“Ronald Clifton