Take A Stand

I cannot believe that this is the last blog post for GLAD! I have learned so much from all of our sessions and have gotten to meet a lot of amazing people who are involved on our campus and in our community. From reading part four in A Leader's Legacy, it hit me that courage isn't just doing something big and heroic; courage is taking initiative and staying true to yourself even though it may be easier not to. Courage is one of the most important values in life and it helps to make all of the other values we treasure possible.

It takes courage to get up in front of your organization and say what you are feeling, especially if you know not all others are going to agree with you. But if no one ever took the initiative to create change, then instead of learning from mistakes and improving, life would be at a stand still. One of the most important quotes from the section I thought was; "There is no success without failure, and no learning without mistakes."

I also had never really thought that courage is a state of mind. I know that at times people can be courageous, but courage is actually something inside each and every single one of us. It can manifest itself daily and while some of us may not call on it often, it is always there when we need it.

I think it is important for everyone, but especially leaders to realize that little acts of courage can have the biggest impact on an individual, a group, or a whole community. You don't have to be a superhero to help create change. It is also important for leaders to realize that it takes courage to be humble, and that you are not the only person in your organization. Everyone, at any given moment, can learn from someone else. It is the smallest things that someone says that can have the hugest impact on others. I have learned from this book that failure is okay and a leader isn't perfect, because if they were, then they would not be human.