The Rising Sun | A Leader is Born

Everything in life is contextual–especially leadership. Two leaders are born in different time periods–as one sun sets, another rises. Order does not bring permanence as eventually all structures collapse. The death of one empire foretells the birth of another. Different leaders and empires are born–but they, too, will one day experience decay and demise and have to make way for the new.

Leaders have to use their intelligence, intuition and instinct to arrive at decisions that will sway the lives of those under their care in one direction or another. Each decision made is always a subjective one, no matter how many facts are gathered or how good the research is. No decision can please everyone. Opposition, criticism, put downs, pull downs and the like are commonplace–especially when decisions do not yield to the varying desires of those under one’s care.

The greatest gift a leader can give a human being is the opportunity to enable him or her to survive, to grow and to thrive under his or her care. This could be education, a job or even a loan. Unlike in the natural world, this relationship must be reciprocal. In Nature, animals do not have to give. They take. They do this to survive. Animal A takes from Animal B that takes from Animal C and so on and so forth. It is the cycle of life.

Humans, however, through the vehicle of civilisation, created shelter. This enabled us to not only survive, but also to thrive. Generosity, while peculiar to humans, can quickly turn into greed–especially if we begin to hoard, demand and require resources that we do not need.

Life is ultimately about movement and not stagnation. Greed is a product of fear–a paralysing fear that we are destined to lose our grip on. Leadership, from a certain perspective, is a spiritual pursuit. A time comes in every leader’s life when he or she finds himself surrounded by leaders. This is a breakthrough. Everyone around him is competent enough to make independent decisions.

Why would someone surrender a comfortable life to start a business? Is it the absence of fear? I highly doubt it. Perhaps, from a spiritual perspective, we do not start a business to eradicate fear–but to overcome it.