An Experience Demonstrating the Leadership - Essay Example

ESSAYMan cannot exist without pain. Eastern philosophy teaches suffering as an essential part of existence. There can be no life without pain, hardships and struggles; just as there can be no life without happiness, prosperity and opportunities. We spend our lives trying to live by the notion that we must avoid pain; and that it is not natural. And yet, struggle is more natural than most things in our life. And what will man be without challenges? Will we not dwindle away into oblivion? I choose to define myself more by the challenges I have faced than the opportunities that have come my way.

It is through challenges that I have understood myself better; and one in particular. My friend died three years ago. He was not my closest friend. He was not a genius. He was not an extraordinary person whose very absence resonates through the universe. Nor was he a person who was important to me during his life. He was an ordinary boy who left no mark on this good earth. He died in an accident, and is missed by his family and friends just like any other person would be. And yet his death left its impact on me.

He was, in every sense of the word, ordinary. When I saw his sister at the funeral, however, I realized how unordinary he had been. She was a complete wreck. Her whole body was convulsing from the sheer weight of her pain. I realized that day that we spend our entire lives being “ordinary” and yet there is always that one soul which forgets how to survive without us. And we never realize it. It’s a remarkable thing, to touch people so and be touched by them thusly. I decided then that I would stop living ordinary, and embrace extraordinary.

By extraordinary I only mean that which is not routine, which taxes my efforts. The challenge has been the discovery of my path, and how I struggle each day to remain on it. It’s hard, not succumbing to ordinary. Only two weeks ago I had to force myself not to do what I would have done in my past. My family disapproves of my sister’s marriage. They hadn’t spoken in months. It was her second anniversary two weeks ago and I had two options; either to continue as I’ve been or to do something about it.

I decided on the latter. I spoke with my parents about throwing a surprise party for her. Speaking proved to be entirely useless. I then spend a good part of an entire two days persuading them, blackmailing them, trying to coerce them. Nothing worked. So I decided to do what a good manager would do in a troubling situation. I laid down the fact first, then the motivation, and then the consequences. I told them this is what she had done, and this is what they had done. I told them what it was doing to me.

I gave them their motivation then, my sanity as well as theirs. And I gave them the consequences; an old age spent without children or grandchildren. I was of course, quite dramatic about it. And I won.The reason I have put this in as an example for a leadership skill is because leadership requires one to comprehend the situation, not just understand it: and then to unite the parties with an ideology, especially if they hold an opinion in direct opposition to it. It’s what I have always been good at.

“I don't believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and if they can't find them, make them.” [Sha06]Works CitedSha06: , (Shaw),