Leaders Are Not Born, They Are Made

We’ve all heard this cliche before. But do we believe it? How many times have we not thought of an excuse to how a person is, “Oh, they are born into money.” or “Oh, they had a great education.”? We’ve all been there with the pricking thought in the back of your mind to soothe the jealously in our hearts.

But what is it that makes the greatest people beat to their rhythm? In my years of sitting in the comfortable back seat observing people, I’ve learned that it’s just a combination of two very small things — curiosity and a little bit of OCD. Because the truth of life is, you’ll only chase things you deeply care about. No amount of external motivation can help you achieve something you don’t want to achieve.

Because the truth of life is, you’ll only chase things you deeply care about.

Although, the hardest part in this journey is to figure out what do we deeply care about? To most part, a stone-set life gives us a lot of illusions of care. We grow up to be put in institutions where we are set with attainable goals. We are coerced to think that we care about getting good grades or getting that alluring raise. But this is where we fail to recognize that these are still largely externally motivated, and well deceptive masquerades of care. We do not care about the goal itself, rather than just what we are promised to receive at the end of the journey. The internally motivated will tell you that the journey is the most juicy part.

To paraphrase Steve Jobs, he never had a reason to learn calligraphy, but in the end it paid off. He didn’t care deeply about anything until it just happened to fall in his path — much similar to an “Apple” falling on Newtons head. It is the exciting, un-set, dangerous, unique and refreshingly your journey that will help you understand what you care about. And thankfully, for our adventure-lust hearts, the journey does not stop there. It is just the beginning.

However often times in our lives, waking down a path alone, no matter how motivated, will not always be enough to attain what we want to achieve. Along the way we need to pick up a couple of booster packs, and resonate our rhythm with theirs. You will need to make others on your journey leaders too.

This bit works out differently. We have confounded our brains to think all motivation is internal, but we are here at the junction where we have to externally motivate others to support our journey. That only comes with trust — putting a part of your prized possession in the hands of others, with only the belief that they will pull through. It comes with making your vision, others reason. It comes with them doing meaningful and satisfying work, because you all have a single destination to reach.

It comes with making your vision, others reason.

Once you’ve done that, the greatest release of your chained life comes through. And a leader is made.