Leadership is an important skill, a necessity of life. It is about inspiring others and guiding them to achieve their goals. Leadership is about taking responsibility of others along with your own. Leadership is dedication, determination and most important of all, inspiration.
A good leader is the one who uses his power for betterment and encourages his followers to do the same. As Ralph Nader once said,” I start with the premise that the function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers”
Here in Edison, we have a special program for freshmen called “Leadership”. It is class for selected group of people who are introduced to different activities and sources of community service in school. But that is not all. The main goal of this program is to get more people involved in doing service. The journey only starts in the freshmen year.
Whether or not in the program, every individual irrespective of their grade, age, size or shape can get involved in helping the school and community. Getting involved in school activities is the way to make the best out of your high school career. And it's not all nerd material. There are trips, food and a lot of fun stuff that everybody will enjoy.
Community service does need to be done through school but it's an option. As most of us know, around forty hours of community service is a requirement for graduation, here at Edison. That is really nothing. There are people who have done more than four hundred hours of service and still continue to serve us.
Colleges don't look for brains, they look for people, people with character that have brains and will use them for the betterment of their institution and of the country. So doing service not only makes you look good on paper but really helps you build a strong character and every experience that you get takes you somewhere in life. So get involved. Do something useful. Add meaning to your life.
So next time you just sit in front of the TV with a bag of chips, in your free time, or spend like sixteen hours on myspace, think about it. There are millions of people in the world that need help and there might be hundreds whom you can help and at least a couple you should help. Start with your family and friends, then with your neighbors and community. Soon you will be their leader.
Don't underestimate the power of kindness. Your words can make or break somebody. The money you are about to spend on the eightieth pair of sneakers could fill the stomach of someone who hasn't eaten for eight days. It really is all about you and who you want to be. Just decide to help and we will help you help. Inspire and you are a leader. Follow the path of kindness and righteousness and you are a leader. Follow the path that great leaders followed and you are a leader.
Lastly, the one who believes in oneself can be believed. Self-confidence is therefore the foundation of leadership. Determination towards achieving the goal, towards being useful to one's community in any way one can is the definition of the leader's true character.
Everybody, but not anybody can be a leader. Every person is a leader and a follower at some point in life. And if we really want to change some thing, “we must become the change we want to see” as some great person once said. So the choice is yours. And remember the time that you have now will never come back. So make the best of it.
