There are always two kinds of everything.
Sometimes, more than two kinds, but always, a minimum of two kinds.
Take, for example, the topics included in the title of this piece. Leadership is something I love talking about. I'm a person who can come across as shy, reserved, and quiet, and as I've often been told, indifferent. It's a word that hurts. It really is. When people who you don't know and who don't know you think you're a passionless, ambition-less jellyfish and use 'indifferent' as a consolatory term, I seethe, but that's a topic for another day.
Coming back to what I was saying- I, the timid, silent person, have this tendency to shock people just because I tell them that I believe I am a leader.
You see, there's this opinion that's made of horse shit, that you can only be a 'born leader', or nothing else. That only outgoing, popular extroverts have the right to confidently put down 'Leadership Skills' on their CV. Anybody else who does so is met with raised eyebrows and a fake smile and an overly cordial 'Really, now?'
Listen up. You're a leader, okay? You are. You wake yourself up, you brush your own teeth, you take your own bath, you eat your ow breakfast. You lead your own life.
Do you still think you're not a leader? That only some people have control over situations-and only those people are leaders? The 'born leaders' kind?
If you're reading this, then you should know, this is not a rant. It is a plea. You are severely underestimating yourself. I'm not denying that some people are born leaders. But even if you're born a leader, it doesn't necessarily mean you'll become a good one. Either way, there are more people who acquire leadership than there are people who are 'born with it'. And don’t, for God’s sake, think that leadership is this exclusive bubble that only a few people have access to.
There are two kinds of leaders. Leaders who inspire people to become followers, and leaders who inspire people to become leaders. Over the past year, I’ve had the incredible opportunity of being around people like those. One, in particular. A leader I idolised- who managed to teach me that I shouldn’t want to become a leader like her, that I should want to become a leader like me.
I’ve had a leader who has made me a leader, not a follower.
The second topic at hand, though, has eluded me.
There are two kinds of inspirations. One that makes you want to inspire somebody else, and one that makes you ruminate about the said inspiration and write about it, like I’m doing right now. And you guessed correctly, it’s not the better one.
If I were to point out something in myself that I could improve, some regret I had, it would be this. Not that I don’t have any more room for improvement, or other regrets, but this would probably be the first on the list(s).
The fact that I’ve never, ever inspired anyone.
Maybe I have. But they haven’t told me. So let me rephrase- I’ve never, ever inspired anyone to an extent that they’ve felt compelled enough to tell me about it.
I’ve always made it a point to tell my sources of inspiration how much they changed my life, and how much they’ve meant to me. Have you ever told someone that? You should. You should see the way their eyes crinkle at the corners as they smile, a combination of disbelief and pride and pure happiness. I live for that smile, and so do they.
I want somebody to live for that smile on my lips, too.
When people ask you what you’re greatest achievement is, you always have a rehearsed, ready answer. Some competition you won, or the day you got your first paycheque. It’s always something in the past. As if nothing in the near and distant future can top anything you’ve achieved.
Not mine.
I’ll know what my greatest achievement will be. I may not have achieved it yet, but I'll always know what it is.
And that’s when I know that I’ll be the happiest I’ve ever been.