Great Soul

Recently I have been reading a suggested book on leadership called "Developing the Leader Within You" by John Maxwell. It is definitely a great read and quite the page turner, especially to and from work on the L. Maxwell talks about leadership as being defined many different ways by many different people, but the most basic and true definition is "the ability to obtain followers". Very simply put, but this is very logical. In the past and present, there are positive leaders and negative ones, leaders that make contributions to society and those who are a detriment as well. One of the leaders named was Gandhi, and last night, the movie "Gandhi" just happened to be on T.V., so I took the time to watch it.

Now there are many things I can mention about the movie, but I want to talk about what impacted me and what I observed about the character of this great human being. The first thing is that Gandhi wasn't who he became to be overnight, and none of us really are. He had an original goal of getting his people out of jail, and he succeeded with this. From here, I believe he began to think about what he could achieve on a bigger level, and by devoting himself 100% to his ideals, he was able to achieve this over a lifetime. He believed in order to represent India, he had to live like the people lived, impoverished and humbled, and through this he was able to feel what he represented, and also the people could believe in him because he wasn't just another politician. He sacrificed so much for the sake of his people and his country, and he wasn't passive, but nonviolent in his approach. Through media and a worldwide following, he was able to reveal what was really happening through British tyranny, and eventually, the country became independent, although the Muslim and Hindu conflict caused two independent nations of Pakistan and India instead of the dream of one united nation. Regardless, Gandhi was a great leader because of his dedication to his ideals and the ideals of his people. He led and inspired his people instead of lobbying for any political agenda, and through his profound consistency of character and what he believed in, he was able to gain millions of followers and admirers, and they called him "Mahatma" which means "Great Soul". Gandhi is definitely a historic figure that led by example, and there is much to learn from his writings, actions, and beliefs, and I will aim to learn more. If you haven't seen the movie, I suggest you do this if you have the desire to lead in any area of your life (i.e. parenting, business, sales, coaching, etc.), and I guarantee you will learn something as well as learn more about real human history. Thanks for reading everyone!