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What are you afraid of? What or who is holding you back from fulfilling your purpose.
Why do you allow people opinions of you to become your reality and settle for a life far below your God-given potential? Great leaders are great for a reason they can take the direst situation and turn it into a positive to the astonishment of many people. But more than that, they can inspire a group of people to believe in something beyond their limited beliefs of themselves. Let's look at the following leaders:
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
On the 28th of August 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. inspired people around the world with a message of peaceful resistance and racial equality. His famous speech, “I HAVE A DREAM,” which he gave in front of the Lincoln Memorial, on August 28th, 1963, to a crowd of over 200,000 people, helped to inspire the world to think differently about race. He inspired people by his non-violence approach to his protest, and he inspired people to dream of a world where "little white boys and little white girls, will be able to hold hands with little black boys and black girls, as sisters and brothers."
Nelson Mandela
Nelson Mandela was a great pioneer who helped bring an end to apartheid in South Africa. Although he was imprisoned for 27 years due to his anti-apartheid actions, he was released and later became his country’s first black president in 1994. Mandela inspired the world with his advocacy for peace, racial unity, social justice, and forgiveness. He was a champion of the people and spent 95 years building his legacy until his death in 2013.
Rosa Parks
Tired from a full day’s work, Rosa Parks boarded a Montgomery bus on December 1, 1955, and forever became one of the people who changed the world. When she refused to obey the driver’s order to give up her seat and move to the back of the bus so a white person could sit there, she was arrested for civil disobedience. Furthermore, Parks’ act of defiance inspired the Montgomery Bus Boycott, which was considered a pivotal moment in the civil rights movement.
Muhammad Ali
Muhammad Ali became a champion of the civil rights and African American interests, his refusal to fight in the Vietnam War cost him his boxing license, but his principle stance inspired the world to believe in something more than their own self-preservation.
Mother Teresa
Mother Teresa sought to identify with and offer compassion to the unloved and destitute. She lived a life of voluntary poverty and service to the poor. Her inspiration helped people to become of service to people in need, all over the world.
Mahatma Gandhi
Who would have imagined that the shy, and introverted boy who refused to stay back after school to interact with his classmates for fear of being laughed at, would be able to speak with such eloquence and persuasion, winning over the whole nation in his pursuit for India’s independence? Who would have expected the young timid lawyer, who scrammed the courtrooms at the slightest tinge of fear, to be able to stand up against tyranny and injustice, to later become the principle figurehead of the Indian’s independence movement, inspiring people to believe that the impossible is possible?
Oprah Winfrey
In 1983, Oprah Winfrey relocated to Chicago to host WLS-TV's low-rated half-hour morning talk show, AM Chicago. The first episode aired on January 2, 1984. Within months after Winfrey took over, the show went from the last place in the ratings to overtaking all talk-shows as the highest rated talk show in Chicago. It was renamed The Oprah Winfrey Show, expanded to a full hour, and broadcast nationally beginning September 8, 1986. After 25 years, the show ended in 2011 and Winfrey is arguably the world's most powerful woman that inspired the world to believe that you can become anything you want if you only believe in yourself.
Jeff Bezos
Amazon is undeniably a retail behemoth with over 150 million unique monthly visitors. But while most view Bezos as an empire-builder, the roots of his success run deep. When Amazon first launched in 1995 as a website that only sold books according to Avery Hartmans, founder Jeff Bezos had a vision for the company's explosive growth and e-commerce domination. After leaving his job as a vice president at D.E. Shaw & Co, a Wall Street-based investment banking firm, many felt Bezos made the biggest mistake of his life. However, Bezos found the inspiration within to ignore the naysayers and follow his heart to start Amazon, which turned out to be the most valuable company in the world.
To become a great and inspirational leader you cannot allow your life to be ruled by people and events; you must own your leadership by empowering and pushing yourself to follow that dream and feeling in your heart. All the great leaders I listed above, all of them push through their fears to inspire the world. You can do the same as well.
As the leader, you have the responsibility to inspire your team to believe in something beyond their own self-preservation. That’s what leaders do, don’t be afraid to follow your calling; you know Bob Proctor once said faith and fear ask you to believe in something you cannot see, you choose.
What will be your choice, do you choose fear and continue to live a mediocre life trying please everyone and afraid to make changes in your life or do you choose faith and live a life of purpose that can inspire the world to believe in the impossible.
YOU CHOOSE!
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About Gifford Thomas
I am the founder of Leadership First and the author of The Inspirational Leader, Inspire Your Team To Believe In The Impossible. At Leadership First, we are committed to publishing the very best inspirational leadership quotes and articles to inspire our 145,000+ community of leaders to believe in the impossible, while creating an environment free from toxic, fearful and intimidating leadership. We believe everyone can and should enjoy their work, but it must start with the leadership leading by example. Follow our community of leaders HERE, and let's change the leadership status quo to help inspire and motivate our leaders to make a difference and create an organization their people will love.
You can download a copy of my book The Inspirational Leader, Inspire Your Team To Believe In The Impossible by clicking the link below
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